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The lack of access to education in the area means that many of the children are often labouring in the rice fields to help their families instead of attending lessons. In addition, the schools in the area, like many schools across the country, are ill equipped and lack the resources to provide a solid, sustainable education.   While in Cambodia my job will be to assist with the business administration and train the principal of the schools to cover this on the ground after I have left, assist in the development and continued development of the volunteer teacher training programme and research (and hopefully implement) ethical trade options which would allow the project to become self-sustainable.   The project has four aims, which are;   Develop 8 supplementary schools for children from the slums who do not attend regular school because of the high value of their labour.   Develop a teacher training programme for local Khmer students who wish to become teachers, so that childen do not have to rely on tourists to teach them.   Develop a responsible and culturally sensitive volunteer scheme to support manpower and make the project financially sustainable.   Develop an ethical trade scheme to encourage local skills sets to maximise the potential in their traditional crafts and to further financially sustain the project.   Unfortunately, the project has been reliant on local tourist handouts to keep the schools open to date. This is obvioulsy not a long term solution and they are now faced with the very real truth that 2 of the schools may have to be closed to keep the project alive therefore meaning that approx. 200 children will loose an education as there are no schools in the region that can take them. This will be a decision myself and the principal will need to make when I arrive.   We are looking for assistance to support the project for the next year. To allow it to grow and become self sustainable we need to cover the following in order to be able to do this;   Budget - first year (rounded figures) 16 Teacher’s salaries for a year ($50 each per month)                      £9,600 Teacher training printing                                                                           £150 School curriculum printing                                                                         £600 Teaching materials, inc. text books, boards, chalks                            £250 Exercise books                                                                                               £2,500 Generators for evening classes                                                                 £400 Volunteer training booklet printing                                                          £620 Volunteer registration fees                                                                         £60 First year basket resources, including bindings, dye, sealant and cutting tools (estimate)                                                        £500 Packaging (first year, estimate)                                                                £250 Postage (first year, estimate)                                                                    £400 Contingency                                                                                                    £200 TOTAL                                                                                                               £15,530   If anyone is able to assist in any way, please do. All money donated will be distributed as above and each pound will be accounted for by yours truly with regular updates provided.   Thanks Leah

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