Author: kepgardens

A reminder to Kep Gardens’ students that the new school year begins on Monday, 9th January. Your teachers look forward to seeing your happy faces once again.

While you were on holiday, the staff were busy attending training sessions. The Playgroup teachers attended the last Kindergarten training week in Kampot while at Kep Gardens we held a Jolly Phonics training course. Five of our staff and five teachers from the Buddhist Library attended. Our lead teacher, Kimhean did an excellent job organizing and running the training course, a learning experience also for her. Thank you very much to Mr Huch and his wife for providing lunch for everyone.

So the teachers have been doing lots of study, Monday will be your turn again.

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I am posting a random selection of students receiving a certificate from Kep Gardens. Unfortunately, we did not have time at our concert to present all students with a certificate. But I know parents love to see photos of their children, so here are a few.

This year, many families have donated to Kep Gardens in a variety of ways. From masks and alcohol to help with Covid, drinks and food, stationery that teachers use every day, reams of paper which we use a lot of and money donations. All these donations help save money which we can use in other ways to benefit the students. Thank you very much, we greatly appreciate your support of Kep Gardens.

Wow!! What a night!! A lot of excitement in the air. Loving parents coming to watch their children become stars. Children dressed up in their finest for the big night of the year. Yes, the Kep Gardens school concert for 2022. Thank you Martin Fisher for taking the photos. The lights on the stage make it very hard to take clear, sharp photos but you did a great job under the circumstances. I have downloaded all of them, good or bad for you to see. Then the camera’s battery ran out of power, hence the lack of photos for the last few performances. All in all, the photos are a great representation of the concert. See you all on 9th January, ready for a new school year.

At Kep Gardens we are very proud of our older football team. They are part of a roundrobin football competition held at Dom Bosco. Why are we proud? They have no coach, no direction, they organize practices themselves, get to the competition themselves and although they are not winning, they are not doing too badly. It shows how much they love playing football. Thank you to Vuh who acts as middleman, passing messages between the team and Dom Bosco. Well done boys, keep up your enthusiasm and love of the game.

Forty-five of our morning students headed off to Seh Sor Market this morning to participate in Marine Conservation Cambodia’s Beach Clean, part of their Save the Ocean Programme. We cleaned up around the market and other volunteers cleaned up the banks of the river or estuary running alongside the market. Everyone worked hard and together with other volunteers collected 2 tons of rubbish. Well done, what a good job. If anyone is interested in helping, they have organized 4 more beach cleanups in December.

Earlier this week, students from the University of Puthisastra in Phnom Penh, visited Kep Gardens to talk about oral hygiene. Thank you for spending time with our students and for the gifts they received. Thank you to the businesses in Phnom Penh who donated the goods for the gift packs that were given to the students. We enjoy hosting visitors from Phnom Penh schools and Universities as it is an example of students with greater opportunities in the city sharing their knowledge with students with less opportunities in the rural areas. Both sets of students enjoyed the visit as heard by the happy laughter coming from the classrooms. Thank you very much and we hope to host your university again next year.

Our Playgroup and Kindergarten staff have been attending training courses throughout the year.

Last week a couple visited Kep Gardens to give us a donation from their sister and husband, Lakena and Kevin Fleck who live in the United States. Thank you very much for your kind donation and support of Kep Gardens. Thank you to Chariya and her husband who live in Kep for choosing Kep Gardens to receive the donation.

Just said goodbye to our first volunteers for 3 years. Suzanne and Florence from New Zealand have been travelling around Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia for the last 3 months, volunteering in various organizations. Thank you very much for your input with the students and your interaction with the staff was appreciated. It was great once again for our Reading and Conversation Programme to be up and running. Big thank yous to you both for giving up your holiday time to help Cambodian children and youth work towards breaking the cycle of poverty with a brighter future. Safe journey home.