The first Table Top of 2025 at Aylsham brought in an amazing total of £477.80 to support the children of Kompong Kleang. Sincere thanks to everyone who contributed and especially to our great Supporters for their hard work in organising, setting up and selling.
Kompong Kleang is a new centre for Support Cambodia. It’s located south east of Siem Reap on the edge of the Tonle Sap Lake with access about 40 minutes by road in the dry season and an hour by boat for the months of the year when it’s raining.
It’s an extraordinary place. The water level varies seasonally from zero to over 20 feet so houses are built on stilts, access in the raining season is only by boat and families exist on the proceeds of fishing and dependent services such as fish smoking and making prahoc (fish sauce).
The Catholic Church runs St Mary’s School – a small centre with a 30-strong kindergarten on five days a week and over 80 primary age children who come on Saturdays for Khmer class, singing, dancing and rice soup. All of them are Buddhist – their parents send them because the teaching is good, the standard above average and the children are happy. Trustees Katie Maidment and Maria Brown visited the school in January 2025.
Kompong Kleang is a big village with a mixed Khmer/Vietnamese community and this in itself presents many challenges. There are few resources and Father Yacob Chilka, who has responsibility for this centre, receives little or no regular funding for the basic food and education programmes he is trying to establish here.
Rice Soup for 6 months for the Kindergarten [5 days a week] costs around £1150 and for the Saturday class about £500. There are two teachers at the school. Their salaries total about £1100 for six months [generously funded up to September 2025 by a private donor]
In addition, there is an urgent need to improve access to the school which is constantly being eroded by flooding in the rainy season. This is going to cost quite a lot of money.
For these reasons, Support Cambodia have decided to make Kompong Kleang the focus of our summer fundraising for 2025.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HELP THE CHILDREN OF KOMPONG KLEANG:
please get in touch via this website ……call 01263 57784 // 07759 982011……. find us on Facebook
