2012 PEPY Annual Report by PEPY Empowering Youth

Annual Report 2012

Table of Contents Letters from our Leadership Who we are and what we do Where we do it Why we do it How we do it Establishing a Youth Board

4–5 5 6–7 8 9 10–11

All about us

Our programs in detail – supplementary education Creative Learning Classes Creative Learning Clubs English Classes Exam Preparation

12 13 14 15

Our programs in detail – youth development Dream Classes 16 Scholarships 17 Child Clubs 18 Young Leader Clubs 19 The Future for Child and Young Leader Clubs 20–21 Our programs in detail – working with schools Sahakoom Apeewaht Sala Traveling Teacher Support

22 23

Supplementary education

Youth development

Working with schools

programs in traNSITION Transitions in 2012 A Lesson Learned Student Voices How we’ve spread our message How we’ve managed our money Thinking about our future

24 25 26–27 28 29 30

Our commitment to transparency

PEPY Annual Report 2012

all about us – www.pepycambodia.org

Letters from our Leadership

I encourage you to read more about the highlights of last year you have helped to make possible. On behalf of everyone at PEPY, we thank you for choosing to partner with us and to make a difference in the lives of so many deserving young people in Cambodia.

Dear Friends and Supporters, 2012 has been a monumental year for PEPY. We moved our office to Kralanh, created a new logo, transitioned to new leadership, and began a strategic planning process involving a redefinition of our programs and how we evaluate success. From my perspective as PEPY’s Board of Directors Chair, two things have been particularly exciting over the past year. The first is watching our Cambodian leadership take ownership over our Dear Friends and Supporters, PEPY is a youth leadership organization committed to empowering young Cambodian people to achieve their dreams. At PEPY, we believe that education allows people to dream of a better future and avoid the cycle of their family’s poverty. Over 1,500 young people in Cambodia have been helped by our projects every year. In 2012, to make sure our

programs, organizational strategy, core values, and mission. Though we have had strong Cambodian leadership and direction for many years now, it is over the past 12 months that PEPY has truly become Cambodian-led and owned. We are incredibly lucky to have such a committed, motivated, and creative team. The second is pushing forward with the strategic shifts you will read about in this report; transitions and handovers of many of our current programs to schools and communities, and the development of new programs that will have a greater future impact and lead us in the

direction of the goals of our new leadership team. For us, these transitions indicate the success of our past programs and our commitment to sustainability and local ownership. As always, we are humbled by the support and feedback from our PEPY family – yes, that means YOU! We hope you will stay connected to us as we continue to support the potential of young people in Cambodia.

actions reflect our words, we spent time evaluating our work with our stakeholders. One meaningful success this year is reflected in the story of a young girl in our Youth Club whose parents pressured her to drop out of school to migrate to Thailand. She used the forum of the club to ask her peers to support her in persuading her parents otherwise. She has been able to continue with her schooling and remain with our program and that story that continually inspires me. This shows the importance of young people sharing their voices and ideas

to take control of their lives. In a similar way, we wanted to hear the voices of young people more at PEPY. This year we formed a PEPY volunteer youth board. There are seven members who are engaged in taking part in PEPY’s future direction and ideas and being the voice of youth to develop new PEPY programs. In addition, to be better connected with our stakeholders, we moved our operations from Siem Reap to Kralanh, and our whole team has been living and working together in the district of our target area for the first time.

PEPY Annual Report 2012

Maryann Bylander Chair, Board of Directors

Kimline Nuch PEPY Executive Director

Who we are and what we do PEPY (Promoting Education, emPowering Youth) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) working in rural Cambodia. Our education and youth leadership programs are based in Chanleas Dai commune, a rural area around 65 kilometers from Siem Reap. We work directly with teachers and community members, as well as with young people, to support the development of

quality education and improve access to life opportunities. Dedicated local leaders, and private donations enable us to deliver a range of projects to support our vision and mission as an organization. PEPY is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit in the USA (number 20-4739485) and holds MOUs with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Cambodia.

Vision

Mission

Program

All young Cambodians empowered to achieve their

To invest time and resources in young people in Cambodia, working with them to connect them to the skills, systems, and inspiration necessary to achieve their goals, raise standards of living, and improve the quality of education in their communities.

Supplemental Education Creative Learning Classes and Clubs; English Classes, Exam Preparation.

dreams.

Leadership Development Dream Classes, Scholarships, Child Clubs, Young Leader Clubs. Partnerships with schools Sahakoom Apeewaht Sala (SAS) – trns: “Communities Developing Schools”, Travelling Teacher Support (teacher training), Libraries and Literacy.

PEPY Annual Report 2012

all about us – www.pepycambodia.org

Where we do it

Our working areas PEPY has worked with the community of Chanleas Dai for the past 7 years. Our decision to focus our work in this area is based on the findings of needs assessments conducted by ourselves and by partner organi-

Chanleas Dai

zations, as well as the commitment of the community, the local desire to improve education, and the leadership potential of the young people we work with. Our programs have partnered with schools in a variety of ways including teacher training,

school development projects, and supplementary classes. In addition, we work outside of the school environment through Young Leader Clubs and Child Clubs. In 2012, PEPY began working with Kralanh District High School, to provide support and scholarships to Chanleas Dai students continuing their studies there. We hope to develop this relationship further in 2013. PEPY works in all twelve villages in Chanleas Dai commune. Some of our projects have extended into other communes due to request from those communities. PEPY also works with Smach primary school in Sansok commune with our Classroom Libraries teacher training program, and with community members for Child Clubs and Youth Clubs in Sam Wrong Village, Snoul Commune.

# of Schools

# of Teachers

# of Classes

# of Students

Population

2163

8,959

Chanleas Dai Commune

Cambodia = 24 provinces • Siem Reap = 12 Districts • Kralanh = 10 Communes • Chanleas Dai = 12 villages

Villages 17

Chanleas Dai Siem Reap

Cambodia

14 13

4 11 1

15 10 8 2

9 3

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 17

Chanleas Dai Run Tram Kong Preah Lean Tahmeak Khnar Joh Prasat Knar Kok Tnaut Chuk Rath Damreay Slap Koukpouch Rolom Svay Kambor Don Kais Sam Rowng Smach Sela Romdoul

PEPY Programs

Communities

Literacy Camp

Chanleas Dai, Run

Creative Learning Class

Chanleas Dai

SAS Program

Chanleas Dai, Run, Prasat Knar

Traveling Teacher Support (TTS)

Chanleas Dai, Run, Tram Kong, Preah Lean, Prasat Knar, Kambor

Classroom Libraries

Chanleas Dai, Run, Tram Kong, Preah Lean, Khnar Joh, Prasat Knar, Smach, Sela Romdoul

Community Library

Chanleas Dai

Child Clubs

Chanleas Dai, Run, Tram Kong, Preah Lean, Tahmeak, Khnar Joh, Kok Tnaut, Chuk Rath, Damreay Slap, Koukpouch, Rolom Svay, Kambor, Don Kais, Sam Rowng

Young Leader Clubs

Chanleas Dai, Run, Tram Kong, Preah Lean, Sam Rowng

Junior High School English Classes

Chanleas Dai

Source: www.unicef.org/infobycountry/cambodia_statistics.html#90

PEPY Annual Report 2012

all about us – www.pepycambodia.org

Why we do it PEPY is inspired by the belief that education is the key to sustainable change. Young people in Cambodia face significant challenges in obtaining a quality education and gaining the skills and experience they need to

How we do it improve their standards of living, and the standards of living in their communities. We believe that with the right connections, resources, and inspiration they will be able to make the changes that they wish to see in their lives.

• Population of 14.3 million • 60% of the population is under the age of 25 • 30% of national population in poverty, (national poverty rate equal to $0.25 per daily consumption) • 53.7% below poverty line within the Siem Reap Province • 1.6% of GDP spent on education compared to 5.5–6.4% in developed nations • 12.4% of government spending in education • Ranked 170th in the world for education • 73.6% literacy rate • 50:1 student teacher ratio in secondary school and 28:1 ratio amongst secondary school • 93% of males and 90% of females enroll in primary school while only there is only 73% of males and 76% of females attendance rate • Only 65% of students below the poverty line move past primary school • 40% of students enroll in secondary school

Sources: The Library of Congress Country Studies (lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+kh0007) CIA World Fact Book (www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cb.html) The World Bank (data.worldbank.org/country/Cambodia)

“ Be humble in success, transparent in failure, and share the lessons we learn.”

Our focus on HOW We know that in the development sector there can be a lot of emphasis on why we do things i.e. the issues communities face that provide the reasons behind our work. We feel that while this “why?” question is important, it’s just as, if not more important, to ask HOW we do things. How are we spending money, working with beneficiaries, designing programs? Unless we stop to examine our “how”, we won’t ensure that our work is being done to the best possible ethical standards, with the best possible impact. Here are some of the ways we’ve been trying to improve how we work in 2012. We invest in our staff Capacity building and training sessions in 2012 included: project cycle management training, giving and receiving feedback workshops, monitoring and evaluation coaching (including logical framework training), general management training, financial literacy training, media training, and First Aid training.

We take our responsibilities seriously We have been grateful for the support of Child Protection consultants from Angkor Hospital for Children in devising a Child Protection policy and working with our staff to understand issues of child protection. We strive to be efficient and transparent with our resources We now have a financial policy in place to formally guide how we handle our finances.

We listen We conducted a range of interviews and focus groups with stakeholders to better understand their needs and circumstances. We try and learn from our failures and successes We hired an external consultant to evaluate the effectiveness of our current programs and asked representatives from two NGO partners to examine our organization and meet with our staff to give feedback about how to be more efficient at our work.

We work with, not for Read more on page 11 about the board of young people who now advise PEPY’s program development.

PEPY Core Value

PEPY Annual Report 2012

all about us – www.pepycambodia.org

Establishing a Youth Board A new initiative for 2012 Our vision is all young Cambodians empowered to achieve their dreams. As such, we felt that it was only right that the young people we work with should be well represented in our organizational decision making. In August 2012, we welcomed seven bright young students from Chanleas Dai to form the PEPY Youth Board. These students were selected on the basis of their commitment to their education and their community and also on their ability to speak openly and honestly on behalf of their peers. As the board is in its pilot stages, we remain open to the idea that the number of members could increase in the future and we are excited to see the development of the individuals and the role of the board as a whole. The role of the board The students have already been part of workshops to review PEPY’s organizational and program goals and have set their own activity plan and related agendas. The board members will have the opportunity to discuss their ideas with key PEPY staff members about PEPY projects: what goals they address, how they are designed, and whether or not they are relevant

“ Focus on impact, not imputs, invest in people, not things” PEPY Core Value

and engaging to young people. The students’ responses will be essential as we determine how we can best work to expand the opportunities available for youth moving forward. Board member Ponleur explains why he applied to join the team: “I want to be a good role model for the youth in my village. I want to work with youth to develop my community and to get more experience in volunteering, as well as improve my knowledge. I think this is also a good experience for my career.”

“ Work with, not for.” PEPY Core Value

PEPY Annual Report 2012

Our programs in detail – supplementary education

Creative Learning Classes

Creative Learning Clubs

public speaking, gave presentations and made timelines about the history of Cambodia. Grade 9: In 2012, the PEPY team introduced weekly topics. Through a topic on geography, students learnt how to read maps as well as understand about local soil conditions.

Statistics snapshot Target age: Grades 7– 9 (approximate age 11–15) When: Regular classes scheduled in free periods during the school day and additional workshops during the school holidays. Working with: Chanleas Dai Junior High School No. of students: 209 Average attendance: 181 students per week

Creative Learning Classes Creative Learning Classes continue to be a crucial part of our programing. Conventional teaching techniques in Cambodia involve rote learning and do not encourage students to question or think for themselves. Using a social studies curriculum and resources such as XO computers, iPads and laptops, these classes give students the opportunity to develop problem solving, analytical and critical

thinking skills. Additional clubs and workshops in robotics, creative writing, and arts and crafts also encourage students to express their ideas in a creative way. 2012 Highlights Grade 7: Students applied their learning in a practical way. Students were tasked to test acidity levels found in food around their community. Grade 8: Students practiced

PEPY Annual Report 2012

2012 Challenges • A poor quality of school leadership and teacher motivation at the Junior High School results in less incentive for students to choose school over migration to Thailand. This year saw the highest drop-out rates for the past three years. • To receive more time off many government school teachers moved all of their classes into a few days a week making it difficult for PEPY instructors to fit classes into the students schedules. “This writing workshop was very helpful for my kid because he didn’t used to take time to do things and now he can make a story and paint by himself. I am so happy for that.” Parent of a Junior High School student attending the Creative Writing Workshop.

Creative Learning Clubs Creative Learning Clubs developed naturally from the enthusiasm of students for particular topics covered in Creative Learning Classes. In 2012, we conti-nued to develop Creative Writing activities and Engineering Club and also introduced a pilot activity in Newspaper Club. Creative Writing Workshops Led by published author and PEPY staff member Noun Riem, this August-holiday workshop gave students a special opportunity to both work independently and in groups to prepare writings and illustrations that can be put together as stories to share. 47 young people joined the workshop and produced a collection of illustrated short stories.

Engineering Club With the fantastic support of National Instruments and LEGO, PEPY is able to offer students the opportunity to learn robotics, engineering and programming, which helps to develop their critical thinking and problemsolving abilities. This club, which is open all junior high school students, allows students to construct complex structures and then later work to re-create the structures using everyday items and things found in their local environment. In 2012, students were able to use their Lego supplies to build a robot truck and connect it to two working motors. The truck was able to go around a track and lift the back gate up and down using a remote control.

This was very inspiring to other students as the engineering club has not developed a robot device this advanced before. Newspaper Club 2012 was the first year PEPY offered a Newspaper Club within our Creative Learning activities. This project was open to 7th and 8th grade students three days a week and gave lessons in the areas of interviewing, structuring newspaper articles, and photography. This project fosters students writing skills and introduces them to the art of journalism. While the workshops were successful, a relatively low attendance led to the decision that we will not continue to offer this activity in 2013, but instead focus on Engineering Club activities. What do you think students get from Creative Learning activities? “If you look outside from the class it always looks the same, but what’s really important is what’s inside the class. I believe in learning by doing research and exploring so the student can react to what they learned by themselves not by what the teachers are telling them.” Lida Loem, Creative Learning Project Manager

Our programs in detail – supplementary education

English Classes

Exam Preparation learning, capitalizing on the opportunity to learn about different countries and cultures and introduce ideas relating to global citizenship. 2012 Challenges • Students enter the English classes at very different levels but are placed in the same class making it very difficult for the instructor to teach or develop a specific students skills. • Many students had trouble facing their fears of speaking out loud in English and where very shy demonstrating their newly achieved skills.

Statistics snapshot Target age: Grades 7–9 (approximate age 11–15 years old) When: Regular classes scheduled in free periods during the school day and additional workshops during the school holidays Working with: Chanleas Dai Junior High School No. of students: 161 Average attendance: 138 students per week

English Classes How do you usually research a topic? Maybe you would open a book, or search online. In Cambodia, there are very few written resources, and, even if you can access the internet, there are

very few resources available online in Khmer. As such, to be able to do any kind of self-directed learning, a working knowledge of English is essential. PEPY English classes take a broad approach to language

PEPY Annual Report 2012

Our programs in detail – supplementary education

2012 Highlights This year in English Class, we encouraged students to discuss a topic in groups and then express their ideas in English as a presentation in front of the class. At first the students were shy and struggled to have ideas, but with support and encouragement they became more confident.

Statistics snapshot Target age: When: Working with: No. of students attending: Average attendance:

Grade 9 (approximate age 15 years old) 12 hours/week Dec–July (except April) Chanleas Dai Junior High School 40 27 students per class

Exam Preparation For those students who are dedicated to their education, exam time is one of the most stressful times of year. In Grade 9 students can take a national examination which is required for many jobs and also essential in order to proceed to high school.

Year

PEPY supports those students who need additional attention in certain subjects by providing extra classes. We are delighted by the students’ achievement in this exam since the Junior High School was established in 2008.

# took exam

2012 Challenges • With the extra hours already added to the students weekly schedule many found it difficult to also find time to study on their own outside of the preparation courses. • Due to numerous family and community obligations the exam preparation project often saw low attendance rates on Sunday.

Passed

Passrate

Total Girls Total Girls 2008–2009

19 11

100%

2009–2010

37 11

34 10

92%

2010–2011

37 13

27 12

89%

2011–2012

28 13 27 12 96%

“ Live the principles we promote.

Work with integrity.” PEPY Core Value

PEPY Annual Report 2012

Our programs in detail – Youth development

our programs in detail – youth development

Dream Classes

Scholarships development, we have decided to further develop this project in 2013. Planned developments for next year include creating more topic-focused rather than broadbased lessons and including more games to motivate students to interact with each other.

Statistics snapshot Target age: Grade 9 (approximate age 15) and grade 12 (approximate age 18) When: Grade 9 – 2 hrs/week and grade 12–1.5 hrs/week Working with: Chanleas Dai Junior High School and Kralanh High School No. of students enrolled: 43 Average attendance: 40 students per week

Dream Classes Achievements and futures often start with dreams, and one of our core values is “Think Unreasonably. Dream Big!” PEPY’s Dream Classes provide a forum for students to identify and discuss their ambitions for the future, as well as any challenges they may need to overcome. The classes provide career resources, mentorship and one-on-one

and group workshops. Successful Cambodian professionals present to our students giving them exposure to different ideas and aspirations. Goals students shared included plans to raise a family, secure a good job and attend university. 2012 was the first full year for Dream Classes. Having received positive feedback from the students and witnessed their

PEPY Annual Report 2012

2012 Challenges • Lessons were sometimes too general which made it difficult for students to come up with a focus or direction to think about. • Students at first had trouble understanding that there was no wrong answer and that creativity and self-expression was the goal of the class. 2012 Highlights • The dream classes were often found to help students understand themselves and each other more fully. • A student who was passionate about music was inspired to write 20 new songs as a result of attending the Dream Class and understanding more about goal setting.

We’re excited to introduce Vy and Vouet, PEPY’s Scholarship Program students for 2012. Vy and Vouet began studying in October at Build Bright University in Siem Reap. Scholarship Program To work towards our mission of empowering youth, in 2012 PEPY established a University Scholarship Program. Two highly motivated students from Chanleas Dai received scholarships to study at university in Siem Reap. PEPY’s 2012 scholarship recipients were both actively involved with their community and passed all of their necessary exams. The scholarship requires students to “pay back” in some way on finishing their degree. Dependent on their choice of career, this can range from financial repayment, to developing a community project, or even volunteering for a community-based organization. PEPY scholarships provide each recipient with a living allowance, health insurance, a laptop and a bicycle. Their tuition fees at university are also covered.

Vy: “I come from Chanleas Dai Commune. In the future I want to be a famous business man and be a project manager in the United Nation Organization. Because I want to use my ability and capacity to help develop community and my country economic. The scholarship that I received is very importance because it provides me a fabulous opportunity to achieve my dream such as to continue to university, build capacity with new knowledge which is apply with jobs department.”

Vouet: “I live in Chanleas Dai Commune. I have two sisters and one brother. Apart from me, they never attended any PEPY programs because they busy with farming and working to earn money to support family. In the future I want to be an IT programming. I can continue to university, help develop my capacity to be a strong person with passion to turn back to help develop my community as well as next young generations.”

PEPY Annual Report 2012

Our programs in detail – Youth development

Our programs in detail – youth development

Child Clubs

Young Leader Clubs 2012 Challenges Changing the age-range of the clubs resulted in more targeted subject matter, but also in a drop in attendance. This was due to two major issues: • Children in this age group are older and therefore more likely to migrate to Thailand for work. • Older students felt that as they had already participated in the clubs when they were younger that they had already benefited from what the clubs had to offer.

Statistics snapshot Target age: 11–15 When: Every Thursday and Sunday for 2 hours Working with: 12 villages, 16 clubs No. of children at start of year: 303 No. of children at end of year: 255

We have found that fostering programs that allow students to demonstrate and build their leadership skills is a good way to support the development of their educational careers. This is one of the driving forces behind PEPY’s Child Clubs and Young Leader Club. Child Clubs PEPY’s Child Clubs work to help students make a difference in their own community. The goal of this program is for children to

identify, share, and communicate solutions to their own problems. Subjects focused on this year include prevention and treatment of Dengue Fever and Malaria, personal hygiene and road safety. In 2012, PEPY changed the target age of the Child Clubs from 5–15 to 11–15 years. This was because the previous age range was proving too large to be able to deal with topics that were relevant and interesting to all the participants.

PEPY Annual Report 2012

2012 Highlights • Many children have said they are now able to find solutions to problems and like to help their fellow classmates when they do not understand lessons in school. • In the communities of Kombor, Kokthnout, Domrey slab and Preas Lean many older students have been able to help and assist the facilitator in leading the sessions.

“ I feel I am more confident than before and able to freely talk and discuss with other club members.” Sopheak, Chanleas Dai High School student and PEPY Youth Club member. In Young Leader Clubs, students are given the opportunity to learn and talk about subjects they may not learn, or hear about, in any other environments. Some of the topics include financial management, time management, interpersonal relationships, and reproductive health. 2012 Challenges Low attendance has been a persistent challenge with PEPY Youth Clubs. Young people over the age of 15 are very likely to either migrate to Thailand, or have little time outside of school to participate in the clubs due to family responsibilities. 2012 Highlights • Club participants in Run now lead their own activities with only a small amount of support from the PEPY team. • A member of the Young Leader Clubs who was being put under pressure by her parents to migrate to Thailand used the forum of the clubs to discuss the issue. She did not want to drop out of school, and, with the help of her peers, managed to persuade her parents to let her continue with her studies.

Statistics snapshot Target age: 16–25 When: Every Sunday for 2 hours Working with: 5 villages No. of clubs: 5 clubs No. of young people at the start of year: 72 No. of young people at the end of year: 52

• After engaging in projects students have said they now have more confidence in leadership, time management, and goal setting.

PEPY Annual Report 2012

Our programs in detail – Youth development

The Future for Child and Young Leader Clubs ledge of road rules and road safety, and the recognition of the value of voluntary action.

Making way for young leaders PEPY has been running Child Clubs in Chanleas Dai commune for over 5 years. As this project encourages children to identify issues within their own community, it has always served as a way for us to better understand the young people we work with and the challenges that affect their daily lives. Successes connected to the activities of our Child Clubs have included the adoption of ceramic water filters in family homes, an increased understanding of oral, hair, and general hygiene in the community an improved know-

Volunteer for Community Development One of the greatest indicators of success for our Child Clubs was the creation of Volunteers for Community Development (VCD). Formed by a group of young people who had attended PEPY clubs and received mentorship from our staff, VCD is a group committed to supporting the development of their community. They offer free English lessons to younger students and run village clean-up schemes. Since the creation of VCD, it has become apparent to PEPY staff that the need for PEPY to run Child Clubs in Chanleas Dai has reduced. The existence of VCD already provides an example to younger children of the benefits of social action. In addition, the Child Clubs were in need of a shift in energy as many of the young people were returning to the clubs year after year and so were already familiar with the issues being addressed. Furthermore, the team found the goals of the clubs were becoming less relevant to the overall evolving aims of PEPY as an organization.

Independent Young Leader Clubs In addition, having established Youth Clubs a couple of years ago to cater for the needs of older students, we are already finding that, again, there is a diminishing need for these clubs. This is for both positive and negative reasons. In many areas, young people of this age (over 15) are migrating to Thailand and cannot attend the clubs. In the areas where students are not migrating to Thailand and are involved in club activities, the young people are so actively engaged that the clubs are almost now running themselves. We feel that a more responsive approach would be to support the development of these independent initiatives, and try and ensure they become role models for other communities, rather than to continue having a direct involvement. As a result, we have decided that 2013 will be the last year for our Child Clubs and our Youth Clubs. We will be carefully planning how to transition the clubs to the young people that we work with and look forward to seeing the results of their own, independent activities in the years to come.

“ Commit to our unending potential for improvement.” PEPY Annual Report 2012

PEPY Core Value

OUR PROGRAMs IN DETAIL – WORKING WITH SCHOOLS

Sahakoom Apeewaht Sala (SAS)

Traveling Teacher Support (TTS)

training – teachers • Literacy and Effective Teaching and Learning (four times/year) • Math and Effective Teaching and Learning (two times/year) • First Aid Training (once a year) In development: Technical material training (two times/year)

training – school support committees • Proposal writing (once per year) • Education Law (once per year) • PRA training (once per year) • Mushroom growing training (once per year) • Fish raising training (once per year) In development: tour visit to look at schools outside of target area.

SAS – “Communities Developing Schools” The SAS project works with School Support Committees (similar to Parent/Teacher Associations) to support them in fulfilling their responsibilities as per the Government’s Education Policy, and also developing their school in the way they feel is right for the needs of their community. A three year, time-bound program, 2012 was the last year

of this program with Chanleas Dai and Prasat Knar primary schools. As a result, this year the PEPY team conducted trainings for both teachers and school support committees. These two schools also took part in a final transition workshop to discuss the process and progress of the program and to hand over any remaining information and responsibilities from the PEPY team to the committee members. 2012 Highlights At the end of August PEPY staff member Heat Kdat, held a two week literacy and math camp.

It was opened to students from all over the community, and over 472 students attended. This activity, based on previous successful workshops, focused on effective teaching and learning. 2012 Challenges 2012 saw some new challenges within the SAS program in comparison to previous years. One of the larger chllenges was adapting to a changing staff with limited materials. Another ongoing challenge was the inconsistent attendance from School Support Committees.

Chanleas Dai Run

Prasat Knar

No. of students

523

356

567

No. of teachers

$769.50

$775.15

$452.83

No. of School Support committee members Amount fundraised by school

PEPY Annual Report 2012

Traveling Teacher Support PEPY’s Traveling Teacher Support project offers training and support for Cambodian Government school teachers in English language learning and teaching of English. The project runs in a ten month cycle, (October–July) and PEPY teacher trainer Seng visits each fifth and six grade government teacher for two hours per week. At these support sessions Seng encourages teachers to share the challenges and successes they’ve encountered in their lessons. Seng also gives advice on participatory teaching techniques and lesson planning and gives English language lessons to the teachers. 2012 Challenges 2012 saw a major challenge for the TTS program within the government school system. This struggle was with regards to high teacher turnover and transfer rates which prevents the teachers from being able to go through the full 3 years of the TTS project. This does mean that more teachers in total will have had access to part of the project, but fewer teachers will

Statistics snapshot No. of schools: 6 No. of teachers: 14 No. of English Classes they take: 15 No. of students: 459 No. of trainings delivered: 15

have reached a stage where they are confident to conduct English lessons by themselves. 2012 Highlights Over 100 students from 5 schools within the TTS program entered junior high school with at least basic English skills.

After this past year, 7 teachers were able to reach a level of English to be able to teach a class in English on their own. Congratulations to: Mr. Pairath, Mr. Sam Arth, Mr. Vanna, Mr. Vanthan, Mr. Poeuy, Ms. Lmom, and Mr. Samal.

“ Focus on impact, not imputs, invest in people, not things.” PEPY Core Value

PEPY Annual Report 2012

our commitment to transparency

Transitions in 2012

A Lesson Learned

Chanleas Dai Primary School After 7 years of working closely with Chanleas Dai primary, in 2012 PEPY handed over all relevant resources to the school and transitioned out of all but one remaining active projects there (our Traveling Teacher Support project is in its final year in 2013). In addition, after having maintained an office within the school for the last 7 years, this year PEPY changed location to nearby Kralanh in order give the school back the use of their classroom and encourage ownership over previous PEPY projects. Visible changes Changes are slow in education development and sometimes it is difficult to see the impact of activities year on year. However, reflecting on the near-empty school that PEPY began working with in 2005, seven years on it is clear that change has really happened. A thriving library, a committed teaching staff, engagement and investment in the quality of education provided from parents and community members, and a generation of students who are known in the district for their well-developed critical thinking and foreign language skills – these are just

some of the things that our NGO and education partners have observed at Chanleas Dai Primary School. We are grateful to have been able to work together with the Chanleas Dai Principal, teachers, students, and community members who created this change. Chanleas Dai Library After establishing a library in Chanleas Dai Primary School nearly 6 years ago, we felt it was time that PEPY gave ownership of the library and all its resources to the school. The library had an uncertain start back in 2006, with few students using the resources. After much hard work by the PEPY library team, within the next few years the library became a Ministry of Education model of excellence. Now, over 2,000 books are borrowed per month and the change in attitude towards literacy and reading in the students and teachers at Chanleas Dai primary has been striking. This year, PEPY transferred all the resources in the library to the school and supported the school in establishing a student council to help with the running of the library. We hope the library will continue to be a loved and used

resource for students, teachers and community members and we will be monitoring its progress on a yearly basis. Classroom Libraries Out of a wish to see donated books put to good use (rather than stand in locked boxes in classrooms), for the last four years PEPY has been working with a range of primary schools in the Chanleas Dai commune to train teachers how to use books and literacy resources. After the PEPY team refocused the vision and mission of the organization in 2011 it was agreed that this teacher training program did not fully align with our new direction and so the decision was made to transition out of the project. Transition workshops Workshops were held throughout 2012 to train the teachers on maintaining the project themselves and a final transition workshop was held for all schools to ensure effective understanding of the scope, benefits, and impacts of the ongoing project. We will continue to monitor the activities of the schools who participated in this project for the next two years.

Measuring our impact We’ve felt for some time that we could be better at measuring our impact and evaluating our programs. To respond to this, we hired an external consultant to conduct an impact assessment of our programs and have also begun to set up monitoring structures to enable us to collect and interrogate data. While the impact assessment did provide some insight into our programs, and collecting numbers is not only satisfying, but does help us track trends in the communities where we work, our biggest learning from this experience was not from what we did, but how we did it. What we learned External evaluators don’t necessarily know projects, or their stakeholders, as well as the staff who work on those projects. PEPY is a small organization and our team work with young people, teachers and community members in Chanleas Dai every day. We can see, on a daily basis, what works and what doesn’t. In retrospect, rather than hiring someone to tell us what we can see clearly ourselves, it would have been a better investment to work with

our team, building their capacity to improve the way we document daily findings, analyze data and turn that information into actionable steps to keep improving our offerings. This will be our new strategy moving forwards – and while we plan to conduct these evaluations internally, we also intend to invite an NGO partner to review our organization on a yearly basis to maintain that external perspective. What we’ve not forgotten In addition, while are committed to developing more robust monitoring systems and providing comprehensive results on the success of our activities, our experiences in 2012 have also encouraged us not to lose sight of the types of evaluation that we are already good at. We observe classes to see how engaged (or not!) students are in the ideas being discussed. We listen carefully to parents who are concerned that their children are becoming “too empowered”. We talk to the students who tell us that they want to earn money in Thailand rather than go to school. We also speak to school principals who note aboveaverage levels of English proficiency in Chanleas Dai students.

We make note of community requests for additional scholarships for students and schools requests for particular teacher trainings. And we talk every day to students who are invested in their education and who need and want more opportunities to learn and grow. We are investing in a holistic approach to evaluation to ensure that we tell the full story both of our work, and the young people we work with.

“ Be strategic in our choices, and thoughtful in our plans.” PEPY Core Value

PEPY Annual Report 2012

our commitment to transparency

Student Voices At PEPY we have always believed in listening to those we work with. We talk regularly with the students in Chanleas

“I also want to be good person that has best knowledge in my commune. I want to be good teacher, good people in commune and leader in my country. I want to study at university and to be a professor at university. I want to study such as English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, computer and working skill.” Pharith

Dai about what they want to learn and what their goals are for the future. We would like to share some of these insights.

“I Learn English without pay money and I got good knowledge from English teacher. When I grow up I want to be a good child, listens to parents and many people like that. My goal, I want to build a house by myself, get good job, to be a company manager and want a car. I want to study law because I want to be police to protect people in my village.” Chhuny

“ Stay connected with the PEPY family. Wave until you can’t see them anymore.” PEPY Core Value

PEPY Annual Report 2012

The young people quoted below were practicing their English in their responses:

“I want to have good future, get a good knowledge that new to pull me good core values. When I have good education to promote me to be a good person and I don’t to believe someone easily to use drugs or drink too much wine as who doesn’t have education. My goal I want to study English and computer. In the future, I want to be an English teacher and teach children in my commune I want to study English, Khmer and computer because all these subjects are my favorite and all these subjects make me happy.” Ky

PEPY Annual Report 2012

our commitment to transparency

How we spread our message

How we managed our money

A new look for Communications In September 2012, PEPY launched a new logo and website. We’d felt for a while that our old logo no longer reflected our new vision of ‘All young Cambodians empowered to achieve their dreams’. Our website was also out of date and difficult to maintain. Supported by many fantastically talented and creative designers we unveiled our new look on September 10th and received some great feedback from our supporters. Our new look transformed our communications platforms, but no matter how we look, we’re still committed to keeping supporters updated about our programs and our goals as an organization. We enjoy sharing activities from our programs, updates on staff trainings and youth field trips, our ideas on development and the people and organizations that inspire us to be better, and of course our failures and lessons learned. You can also check any of our online platforms for information relating to volunteers opportunities with PEPY in Cambodia and news from our sister organization, PEPY Tours

Social Media

2010

2011

2012

Facebook Fans

2,597 2,989 3,451

Twitter Followers

1,098 1,258 1,726

Video Views on YouTube # of Videos on YouTube Total # of newsletter subscribers

86,903

99,111

118,440

5,722

5,922

6,143

Donations Individual Donors Median Donation Amount Income (US$) Donations Fundraising Other*

visit our webs ite:

www.pepycambodia.org

Total Income

Find us on Facebook:

@pepycambodia.org

join our network on linkedin:

974

306

605

2010 2011 2012 316,015 366,601 241,730 1,497 1,381 (461) 959 2,096 7,370 318,471

370,078

248,639

Expenditures (US$)

www.facebook.com/pepycambodia.org

2010 2011 2012

2010

2011

2012

Capacity Building

14,402

15,778

2,220

Community Development Program

38,535

44,549

38,807

Literacy

57,012 23,762 7,921

Supplemental Programs

43,353

SAS

46,124 66,909 31,871

Scholarships

44,762

59,015

/ 4,026 8,058

Management & General

48,862

Communications

17,490 26,305 20,218

Total Expenditures

277,484

39,358 265,949

26,881 194,991

www.linkedin.com/groups/PEPY-96841 * Other refers to interest income and sale of fixed assets. say hello, or sign up to our news lette r:

Email: contact@pepycambodia.org

PEPY Annual Report 2012

“ Do more with less. Be responsible in our environmental and economic choices.” PEPY Core Value

PEPY Annual Report 2012

our commitment to transparency

Thinking about our future 2012 has been a year of reflection and transition, with a number of projects coming to an end and others preparing to do so. It has also been a year of new leadership and new ideas, and so we are looking forward to the next stage of PEPY with great excitement. We’d like to share with you some of our plans for the future, many of which are already underway as we go to print. • We will redraft PEPY’s organizational and programmatic goals in order to be better understood as an organization and to ensure we are working towards specific, measurable targets. • We will be conducting more research with young people

•

in Kralanh District to understand how our programs can better meet their needs. We will be working with our Youth Board to design potential new programs based on this research. We want to develop a stronger relationship with Kralanh High School and expand our projects with students at that level. We intend to further develop our Dream Class project and connect young people with more ideas, connections and resources as they plan their future. We hope to offer more scholarships to high school graduates, and continue to work with those students at university level.

• We will be restructuring the PEPY board. • We intend to strengthen our relationships with our local authorities and NGO partners. • We want to better document our program activities and curriculums so that we can share our resources with other organizations. • We want to improve how we allocate our team’s time to ensure greater efficiently and job satisfaction. • We plan to change the way we use our office and living space – and for the first time ever make the two totally separate.

A special thank you! PEPY would like to give a special thanks to all our team and volunteers, our sponsors and donors, our supporters and advisors and our champions and cheerleaders who make PEPY possible!

PEPY Annual Report 2012

PEPY Cambodia Tel: +855 (0) 63 690 5465 E-mail: contact@pepycambodia.org Website: www.pepycambodia.org

Postal address PO Box 93220 GPO Siem Reap Angkor Cambodia

Visit us No. 152, National Road No. 6 Kralanh Commune Kralanh District Siem Reap Province Cambodia