OPEN YOUR EYES : to each his own camera !

OPEN YOUR EYES : to each his own camera !

by | 24 Aug 2022 | General education, Primary school

Penelope, who has been in charge of communication for the past year, has set up a photography project at the primary school, with the idea of sharing her passion with our students and getting them to practice in turn. She explains us what motivated her to set up this activity.

How was this project born?

If today’s children all have access to a phone and the camera that goes with it, our primary school students have few opportunities to be the ones taking the pictures.

After noticing that they were often photographed without their permission, I wanted to give them the opportunity to express themselves on the world around them and to testify by themselves of their own reality.

I have been practicing photography for many years, and particularly silver photography, and I have noticed, with time, that this medium is a real means of expression, and that an image often speaks more than words. I wanted to share with them this passion which animates me and teaches them to take the time to observe around them what visually allows to tell a story.

Photography often allows to testify about a particular subject, and the silver photography has something unique, because the pictures are visible only at the development. The surprise of the results is always a moment that I particularly like and I wanted to share it with our students!

What is the pedagogical approach proposed?

Elèves à la bibliothèque pour l'atelier photographie

The Art, Culture and Sport program at the Bayon School allow us to reinforce the creativity and confidence of our students. Several workshops are held each week and are essential to the learning process of each student. With the idea of developing this curiosity and their openness to the world, the “Open Your Eyes” project was born from this desire to offer them a new field of learning and artistic expression.

Having very little access to this medium in their everyday lives, we wanted to give them the opportunity to understand what it is, and to practice it.

The workshop took place in two stages:

A first day of presentation on what is photography and how it works. The basics to know before taking a picture (the light ? the framing ?) and the differences between digital and film cameras (what is a film and how it works ?).

It was also an opportunity to introduce them to some of the names of Cambodian photographers known for their pictures throughout the country. This allows our students to identify with these people and to have in mind that they too can tell a story through images.

The second part of the workshop consists of giving each student a disposable camera, with a few ideas for themes that allow them to express themselves freely about their vision of the world. This approach aims to highlight the context in which they live, letting them express themselves about their daily life and how they perceive it themselves.

Atelier photographie avec les élèves
Slide expliquant la position de la lumière
Davann présente l'atelier aux élèves

What do you expect from the results?

Once scanned and developed, the objective is to ask the students to explain their pictures and the story behind them.

Each student was able to take about 30 photographs and we hope to have some nice surprises!

In addition to the photographs taken at school, I hope to have images of their families and villages, so that we can have a representation of their daily lives. These children have grown up in the Angkor temples and know this area better than anyone else: they are, therefore, the most able to photograph it! I am curious about this reality, and I hope that they will feel comfortable enough to explain to us what their images represent. I also know that some of them wanted to go for a walk in the temples. I wonder how they perceive them. For them, these temples are simply a place to live rather than a world-famous tourist attraction. I especially hope that the images will be readable because I know that at the beginning, many are too dark or overexposed.

How was the project set up?

To realize this project, I looked for partners in Cambodia, because I know they are few to practice photography and I found it relevant to work with local companies.

Among them is the laboratory to which I send my personal films, We Film Lab, in Phnom Penh. The quality of their development has always been very good, and I like their approach and their communication on their networks.

Then there is also Rob Thort, who I discovered on Instagram. This account has a great visibility and defines itself as a community to promote photography in Cambodia. The idea is to make this practice accessible: they regularly have cameras for sale and also offer many films. I like this idea of offering to everyone the possibility to practice photography, whether as an amateur or a professional. Everything is always well explained and presented, and I thought that our project would surely find its place with them.

I exchanged with them, and they were immediately very enthusiastic and found the idea relevant. Rob Thort contributes to the project by providing us with the 35 disposable cameras, and We Film Lab takes care of the development of the images. It is thanks to them that I can now bring the project to the school, and I thank them greatly for their support.

Ronouch, Social and Health Program Coordinator: a key role with our beneficiaries

Ronouch, Social and Health Program Coordinator: a key role with our beneficiaries

by | 24 Aug 2022 | Health, hygiene and food, Primary school, Social and families support

Ronouch is the new coordinator of the social and health program at the Primary school. She tells us about her daily life and the actions she carries out throughout the year, including the annual family visit.

What are the main actions you implement in the Primary school?

Distribution Kits d'Hygiènes Ecole primaire

At the Primary school, I am involved in many different things. I take part in the class councils that take place every term to review the needs of each student and the results of the evaluations. I also take care of the health and hygiene follow-up of each student (management of the annual budget for the purchase of hygiene kits, management of the distribution of the kits, working with the partner clinics and hospitals, facilitating and organizing the stay of the children who are treated outside of Siem Reap province).

I support and stimulate the good attendance of the students by making a regular control of the absences and I encourage them in their learning by trying to find a more professional solution if the student does not want to come to school anymore.

My role is also to supervise and coordinate the recruitment of students for the Bayon Primary school (collecting applications, selecting students), to ensure the annual visit of families (creating a schedule of visits to families’ homes, filling in the database, reporting back to the Primary school team), to engage families in the process of their child’s schooling through meetings, workshops, and food or medication support when needed.

Can you explain the annual family visit that takes place each year?

We conduct the family visit once a year. During the academic year 2021-2022, we have 253 students and 184 families with an average of 2 children in our program. The purpose of this visit is to learn more about the family situation of our beneficiaries and its evolution in order to determine their social level for the new school year. At the end of all the visits, a meeting with the whole team is organized to present the social situation of each family and thus establish a social level.

What questions are asked to determine this social level?

We have 6 kinds of questions to ask each family in order to analyze their social level.

First, we ask them questions about the family, how many members are there in the family now, have there been any births or deaths? Do they have a job now and if so, what is it? Are the family members in good health?

Then come the questions about the housing and their different belongings, to know with what kind of materials are their houses built? How is their sanitary installation? How do they have access to water? Do they have access to electricity? Do they have their own field or land next to their home and what is the price? How big is their house and land? How many motorcycles do they have? Do they have animals? Do they have a car, tractor or other vehicle?

Finally, there are questions about income and expenses. We seek to establish an average of their material and financial assets that allow us, at the end of the visit, to match these answers to our criteria and thus evaluate their current standard of living.

How does each visit work?

Ronouch en visite chez une famille

First of all, we have to establish a schedule of annual visits with the date and time. We always try to combine the visits of families who live in the same village. Three to four visits are scheduled per half day and we visit each family’s home. After we finish visiting the families, we present the results during an evaluation meeting to discuss the social level of each family and to inform each team member of the situation of each family.

What is the most challenging part of these visits?

As the families are all scattered in villages around the temples of Angkor, it is sometimes difficult to remember where our 184 beneficiaries live knowing that they have no postal addresses. The area of the temples is a huge forest whose ground is not always easy to master. It takes time to get to know them better and always warn them of our visit beforehand.

What are some ways families can contact you to report a complicated situation?

When I took over as the Health and Social Program Coordinator at the Primary school, I introduced myself to each family and gave them a number to contact me at any time. If I am not reachable, the family can always contact the Primary school team and they will pass the information on to me.

The place of art in education: an indispensable element?

The place of art in education: an indispensable element?

by | 23 Aug 2022 | General education, Primary school

At the Bayon School, we are convinced that access to quality education also requires the practice of extra-curricular activities, which are an integral part of the child’s awakening and development.

This is why we offer primary school students an opening to arts and culture from grade 1, which they do not have access to through their families: art classes, dance and traditional puppet classes, cultural outings. Three hours per week are dedicated to physical activity as well as cultural and artistic awareness.

Educational games and books are also made available to them in the library to give them a taste for reading.

Why is it important to encourage art education at school?

Théâtre d'ombres à l'école primaire

The presence of artistic activities in the school stimulates students’ commitment to their academic success, increases their involvement and motivation in class and is also an important element in developing a sense of belonging to their community. In addition, art allows students with the most difficulties to gain more autonomy, to express themselves freely and to discover new skills.

Art, in all its forms, offers students the opportunity to express their creativity and learn to work as a team while having fun.

The arrival of the Art, Culture & Sport program at the Bayon School

Started in 2018, the Art, Culture & Sport program aims to strengthen the creativity, self-confidence and personal thinking skills of Bayon School students.

Class trips are also organized to allow students to visit places they would never have had the opportunity to discover in a family setting. This is an opportunity for them to enrich their knowledge and learn in a different way.

Finally, sports classes are offered each week to develop skills that are not taught in other classes.

Through this program, the school wishes to awaken the students’ curiosity and enrich their personal culture, to value and recognize Khmer culture and to encourage the values of respect for oneself and others.

Enfants de l'école primaire qui jouent au foot
Danse APSARA à l'école primaire
Enfants de l'école primaire à la ferme aux papillons

In order to enhance the symbols of Khmer culture, the Bayon School has set up classes in traditional Khmer music, dance and puppet show.

Cambodia is the cradle of one of the richest cultures in Southeast Asia. Cambodian arts such as music, dance and theater date back to ancient times, especially during the Khmer Empire (802-1431) under the influence of Hinduism and Buddhism.

However, during the Khmer Rouge period, all forms of art disappeared due to the brutality of this communist regime which prohibited the practice of activities.

Cambodian art must therefore flourish again, and the Bayon School participates in the transmission of these important symbols of culture through classes in Khmer instruments, APSARA dance and Khmer Shadow Theater.

Enfants de l'école primaire qui jouent de la musique

In Cambodia, music gives rhythm to ceremonies, celebrations or rites using traditional instruments. Our music teacher Phlong Poeun teaches our students to play various Khmer instruments such as the Tro Saun, a two-stringed vertical fiddle with a hardwood body, the Takhe or Krapeur, a three-stringed, crocodile-shaped, floor-standing zither and percussion instruments.

The essential art of Khmer culture is the traditional Apsara dances. Once reserved exclusively for kings and their courts, these bewitching dances have their origins in India. The apsaras would be nymphs from the churning of the ocean of milk that is the origin of the universe, according to the Hindu religion. This art is taught in Primary school to both boys and girls by our two teachers San Theany and Run Marin.

Danse APSARA à l'école primaire
Théâtre d'ombres à l'école primaire

The shadow theater in Cambodia, “Sbek Thom” in Khmer, is registered since 2008 by UNESCO as intangible heritage of humanity. It features puppets of varying sizes (up to two meters high), made of carved cowhide. Considered a sacred art during the Angkorian period, puppet shows were only performed during famous events (Khmer New Year, the king’s birthday and veneration of illustrious figures). Today, the Skeb Thom has gone beyond this purely ritual framework to become a symbol in its own right of Khmer artistic culture. At the Bayon School, our teacher Keo Kea is in charge of keeping this tradition alive among the children.

Our goal is ambitious: to give a performance of all these artistic teachings at the end of the school year.

Bees for the Bayon School’s moms

Bees for the Bayon School’s moms

by | 24 May 2022 | Social and families support, Sustainable agriculture and environment

Launched in 2021 by UNESCO and Guerlain, the Women for Bees program, whose godmother is Angelina Jolie, aims to promote beekeeping around the world while strengthening the role of women in their communities.

Before having a social dimension, the program is mainly focused on the protection and repopulation of bees, responsible for 90% of the pollination of wild flowers worldwide. Today threatened by climate change, UNESCO plans to install 2500 beehives in 25 biosphere reserves around the world: in France, Italy, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Russia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, China and Cambodia. Indeed, the Tonle Sap region is one of the largest biosphere reserves today and the majestic forest surrounding the temples of Angkor is an ideal place for their development.

The initiative aims to study the benefits of pollination while putting women at the heart of the action. A predominantly male profession, the Women for Bees program encourages women to be “change makers” by becoming beekeepers. The training takes place over several weeks and consists of teaching these women the techniques of sustainable beekeeping, encouraging them to learn and become true experts in the field, before being able to extend their knowledge to others.

In Cambodia, the challenge is to protect the wild bees of the country, regrouping 4 species in total, where in France only one species exists. Eric Guérin, a French biologist and specialist in the conservation of wild Asian bees and sustainable beekeeping, is in charge of the program in Siem Reap and is training six women to become beekeepers, working with one of the Asian bee species that exists here, “apis cerana”. Of these 6 women, 4 are mothers whose children are at the Bayon School.

“Beyond learning technical skills, this training is an opportunity for them to empower themselves by realizing that they are finally capable of doing it. All of them, the first time, and as is often the case in Cambodia among the most underprivileged populations, especially women, answer that they will not know how to do it, or that they don’t have the means to learn. And in the end, they themselves were surprised by their ability to learn about the subject.” explains Eric, who works with them every week in the field.

Located in the temples of Angkor, these future beekeepers are all from underprivileged backgrounds, a selection criterion to be part of the project: if objective number 1 is to preserve bees, a fragile symbol of a planet damaged by climate change, objective number 2, just as important, is to strengthen the skills of women around the world by involving them in the preservation of a sustainable environment.

Eric explains that over the course of the weeks, they have changed: “The women I have in front of me today are not the same as they were four months ago. They have gained confidence, they express themselves freely, they give their opinion. Their transformation is remarkable, as is their desire to learn.”

They have, more than others, an important role to play, especially when we know that they are the first to be impacted by global warming throughout the world (UNDP), and that the consequences of these disruptions lead to inequalities indirectly related to gender issues and social oppressions that women around the world are facing today (United Nations).

At the end of the training given by Eric Guérin, our beekeepers will work together with some of the guides of the Angkor temples to offer tourists a visit of their hives and an awareness session on the preservation of bees around the world. This activity will also allow them to generate a complementary income to their daily activities, thus improving their current living conditions.

“The tour of the apiaries by tourists will be very important, because it will allow these women to see that what they do is of interest to people all over the world, that they have things to contribute, and that what they have mastered now, few people know how to do as well.”

Angelina Jolie recently came to visit them on their grounds to encourage them and see their progress. This is an incredible chance for them to affirm themselves and gain confidence in their communities.

It is also an opportunity for these women to share their knowledge with the youth and adults of the Bayon School who surround them and to help others to rise up around them.

Written by Pénélope Hubert, communication manager at Bayon School.

Bayon primary school extra-curricular activities: Making learning fun

Bayon primary school extra-curricular activities: Making learning fun

by | 24 May 2022 | Primary school

What kind of activities are implemented in the Bayon School? What is the educational value/dimension of these activities?

The activities set up in our primary school are mainly cultural or sports activities. They allow the children to discover places, practices and activities that they have never done and will not necessarily have the chance to do later. Our students live mainly in and around the temples, and do not often have the opportunity to leave this area and visit Siem Reap town in depth. Through these activities we try to make their theoretical learning more concrete and fun by visiting museums about the history of Cambodia or the history of the temples. But also by visiting silk, butterfly or lotus farms, NGOs specialized in the training of rats or demining dogs, or even acrobatic and Khmer dance shows.

Each activity is designed to provide the children with new knowledge and general culture, but also to entertain them and take them out of the school environment.

 

From now, children had the opportunity to visit:

  • Apopo, a demining rats center
  • Senteur d’Angkor, a Cambodian handicraft workshop
  • Bayon pastry school, a class with our pastry students
  • Silk Farm Project
  • Khmer ceramic, a pottery class
  • Angkor zip line
  • Lotus farm
  • Mini khmer historical museum
  • Butterfly farm
  • Phare circus

How often do these activities take place?

Since the beginning of the activities in February 2022, they take place twice a month on average. We separate the classes into two groups (about 15 pupils) and alternate from one activity to another so that at the end of the year, the pupils have participated in at least two activities.

How do the children react to this type of activity?

The children are always very happy to leave the school grounds and get on a tuk tuk to discover the activity that awaits them. On the way, the children talk and look carefully at the new things along the road. In the last 2 years with Covid crisis, the activities have stopped. Most of them have not yet had the chance to leave school for an extra-curricular activity, so that make them more excited.

 

“Children discover and experience things that they never have or will have the opportunity to do in their everyday lives. They learn about the history of the places they visit, how and why that place was created. Outdoor activities allow students to discover what life is like outside of their villages, to experience things through their own eyes, touch, taste and smell. In addition, these places allow them to develop their imagination and to realize all the possibilities that are open to them. “Sokhea, activity manager.

Do you work with local partners to organize these?

We work exclusively with NGOs based in Siem Reap. We contact them to ask them to welcome us for free, by giving us a tour of their site, or a manual activity related to their program. Over the years we have established links with these NGOs, some of which welcome us every year.

However, since the Covid crisis, several NGOs have closed or can no longer welcome us for free, and it is becoming more and more complicated to find outings. Tourists are for the most part their source of income; without them, the NGOs find it difficult to continue their activities, and therefore to welcome free of charge organizations for access to education such as ours.

Written by Elisabeth Demaegdt, volunteer at the primary school.