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CF has a sister school Friday, Sept. 26, 2014
Volume 55 Edition 2
2009 alumni reconnects with CFHS school in Cambodia Opportunities exist for Cedar Falls to extend its relationship with Black Hawk School
After losing touch with the students she helped five years ago, the former president of a CFHS club has recently traveled all the way to a remote spot in Cambodia to reestablish ties to the school that she and many Cedar Falls students, staff and community members had made possible years ago. Back in 2009, Cedar Falls High School funded the Black Hawk School in Kampong Cham Province Memot District, Cambodia. In a drive coordinated by a high school club called Amnesty International, which had 2009 graduate Sheila Moussavi as president, the school district and community raised more than $15,000 in less than one semester, which was the set goal for the school. Some of the fundraising that helped raise money for the school included a Pablo’s Night at Pablo’s Mexican Grill, a 5k walk/run, a penny drive, a spring choir concert, an art show, a “garage” sale that took place in the high school lobby during parent/teacher conferences and many other activities and donations from schools, businesses and local people. Within one year of receiving the funds from Cedar Falls, the Cambodian school was up and running. The CFHS money was matched by a foundation that creates many schools in Cambodia in an effort to help reestablish education after the genocide that killed millions in the 1970s. Initially, some contact with the school was maintained, but it became increasingly difficult to sustain connections between the schools due to language barriers. Moussavi set out this summer to rebuild those ties as she visited Cambodian staff and students at the Black Hawk
Sheila Moussavi Photos
The Black Hawk School was created in a Cedar Falls community-wide effort to raise over $15,000 about five years ago.
School to find out how they have settled themselves in over the past few years. The school serves nearly 115 students between 7th and 9th grades. Most of the students are girls, which Moussavi said is apparently quite rare since many young women in rural Cambodia are expected to work or marry on their family farms. Moussavi added that “It’s the only lower secondary school in the area, and I spoke with a student who biked for over an hour to get there each day.” On Moussavi’s way back to Phnom Penh, the capitol of
Cambodia, her guide talked to her about how he had lost several family members under the Khmer Rouge, an organization that took over Cambodia and killed over 2 million Cambodians over the span of four years. Moussavi said he and his family had been relocated to another labor camp outside of Phnom Penh and forced to work under backbreaking conditions. The lack of food and water killed his father and siblings, and yet he insisted that his family had been one of the more fortunate ones. “This would have seemed unimaginable, except that I had spent the day prior at Tu-
ong Sleng, the former security prison (turned genocide museum) where nearly 20,000 Cambodians had been brutally tortured, often to death. Only a small handful lived to tell about it,” Moussavi said. She explained tat back in 1975, the Khmer Rouge formed and took over Cambodia. During this time public schools and other governmental buildings were turned into prisons or shut down. By 1976 they had complete control of the country. They created a genocide and wiped out a fourth of the population. The country’s school system has yet to recover.
Moussavi said it was pretty easy to understand why her guide was so committed to the Cambodia School project that has helped to establish new schools like the Black Hawk School. ”Perhaps the most extraordinary part of this experience was actually getting to meet those very students in person,” Moussavi said; however, she also discovered that while the school is fully functional, it could still use some help. “It was incredible seeing what Cedar Falls created, but it was also a nice reminder that it doesn’t have to be a onetime contribution. The possible long-term impact is already evident, not only in Cambodia, but for the students at CF too. I hope we can find a way to maintain the relationship with Black Hawk School for years to come,” Moussavi said. The adviser to the CFHS Amnesty International club back in 2009 was journalism teacher Brian Winkel, and he said he would also like to see some sort of push to help build a stronger tie to the school in Cambodia. “Just a couple years ago, the district was looking to link with a sister school in China, but we really already have a link like that we’ve set up, and it could use our help. I think it would be awesome if we could raise some funds to set up computers and the Internet so they can explore the world on a global scale as well as build a stronger connection to Cedar Falls. I would love to learn from them as much as they can learn from us,” Winkel said. Winkel said Moussavi has some connections for making this a possibility and any Cedar Falls staff, students or community members interested in extending the assistance of Cedar Falls for education in Cambodia should contact him.
By Staff Writer Dino
ODOBASIC