2011 PEPY Annual Report

PEPY

Annual Report 2011

Table of contents

Who we are................................................................................................ 4 What we do................................................................................................ 6 2011 overview: Transitions..................................................................... 7 Where we work........................................................................................ 8 How we’ve been evolving..................................................................... 10 Partnerships with others........................................................................ 12 Programs: Supplemental Education............................................................. 14 Partnering with schools (SAS)................................................. 18 Community Development Program........................................ 22 Putting education efforts in context: Migration to Thailand... 26 How we talked about our work.......................................................... 28 How we managed our finances.......................................................... 30 Where we’re going................................................................................... 32

who we are PEPYstands for Promoting Education, emPowering Youth. We are an educational development organization working in rural Cambodia. PEPY believes that education is the key to sustainable change.

We are based in Siem Reap province in northwestern Cambodia and our educational programs are in Chanleas Dai commune in the district of Kralanh, a rural area about 65km outside the town of Siem Reap. PEPY is registered as an international non-governmental organization both in Cambodia and in the USA (501(c) 3 number 20-4739485).

PEPY’S VISION All young Cambodians empowered to achieve their dreams.

PEPY’s mission To expand the opportunities available for Cambodian youth, we work with young people, investing time and resources to connect them with the skills, systems, and inspiration necessary to achieve their goals, raise standards of living, and improve the quality of education in their communities.

Chanleas Dai COMMUNE

Chanleas Dai commune is a rural area in the district of Kralanh, about 65K outside of Siem Reap city

PEPY works in 9 schools and 17 villages in Chanleas Dai commune

There are 1700 families in these villages— approximately 9,000 people 38% of these individuals are under 18Â

Siem Reap PROVINCE Population: 896,309

Percentage of the population living in rural areas: 80.7%

Percentage of the population living below the poverty line (less than $0.45 per day): 31%

Cambodia Population: 14,952,665

Expenditure on education: 2.1% (%GDP). Comparable to 5.5% for both the UK and the US

Percentage of the population over 25 who has completed primary school: 46%

Percentage of Cambodian children who continue from secondary school to high school: 26% Youth literacy rate (age 15-25): 87% 5

what we do

PEPY Programs Our educational programs focus on three areas: Providing supplemental education Creative Learning Class (CLC), Engineering Club, English classes, Exam Support, Dream Manager Project, Traveling Teacher Support Project, Classroom Library training, and Scholarship Project.

Partnering with schools Sahakoom Apeewaht Sala (“Communities Developing Schools”) or SAS, which is pronounced “Saw Aw Saw” in Khmer. This program aims to increase community involvement in local schools, and provides supplementary training for teachers.

Fostering leadership and supporting youth Child-to-Child and Young Leader Clubs make up PEPY’s Community Development Program.

They say that if an organization makes it past the first five years, it’s a good sign.

We’re glad to be on the other side of that benchmark, and now we find ourselves in a transition phase.

It is hard for any organization to move beyond the vision of the founder and to develop from a “start-up” mentality to a more structured organization, while still keeping the culture and energy that originally brought the program to life.

Daniela Papi and Maryann Bylander, the leadership team that managed the organization for the better part of six years, have moved out of Cambodia and now serve as champions of our work on PEPY’s board. PEPY is currently under the leadership of an Executive Management Committee, made up of a group of senior managers, who are shaping the efforts of our team as we continue to work towards PEPY’s vision.

While transitioning to new leadership has been a challenge for PEPY, it has also represented our biggest lesson learned in 2011. As Daniela said in her blog post when she left Cambodia: “It’s the TEAM that matters. Leaders can only stand alone if they are Atlas, but even he got tired. Real humans need really great teams to achieve success.” 2011 was a year when the PEPY team demonstrated their tenacity, spirit, and talent. Despite the shifts in senior management, PEPY’s programs have continued to grow and develop, and they have provided partnerships and opportunities for the young people and communities in Chanleas Dai. This year we introduced a new youth leadership club to our Community Development Program, began developing a scholarship program for high school students in Kralanh,

started an Engineering Club, and piloted a book writing workshop.

We extended our literacy camp to an additional school and combined it with an additional subject (math).

Over the course of the year we provided training for 87 teachers and community members, and we worked with more than 3,140 students.

In August, we knuckled down and made some decisions about PEPY’s future and its programs. After unanimously agreeing that our focus should be on young people, we had the strength to follow through on that resolve and began phasing out our SAS program. While we still very much believe in this model, we identified that our strengths as a team lie in youth empowerment and educational support programs rather than in the income generation and community advocacy projects necessary for the ongoing development of SAS. To help guide us through future decisions like this, we refocused our vision and mission, and we formalized a list of our core values as key principles for our organization.

While it has been a year full of transition for us, we know these changes will strengthen PEPY and give our team the clarity of purpose to make our programs more effective and more collaborative with the youth of Chanleas Dai. We are hugely grateful for the ongoing kindness and generosity of our supporters. You have not only ensured the financial stability of our programs but have also been fantastic at offering advice, resources, connections, support, and love to our team. THANK YOU – and we look forward to working with you and sharing the lessons we learn in 2012.

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where we work communities 1

Chanleas Dai

2

Run

3

Tram Kong

4

Preah Lean

5

Tahmeak

6

Khnar Joh

7

Prasat Knar

8

Kok Tnaut

9

Chuk Rath

10

Damreay Slap

11

Koukpouch

12

Rolom Svay

13

Kambor

14

Don Kais

15

Sam Rowng

16

Smach

17

Sela Romdoul

Communities that held math/literacy camps: 1

2

7

Creative Learning Class/Creative Learning Space/Engineering Club (only junior high school): 1

Primary Schools working with PEPY’s SAS program: 1

2

7

Schools with Traveling Teacher Support (only primary schools): 1

2

3

4

7

13

Schools with classroom libraries (8 primary schools): 1

2

3

4

6

7

16 17

Primary school with community library: 1

Communities with Child Clubs: 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15

Communities with Youth Clubs: 1

2

3

4

15

Supplementary junior high school level English classes: 1 9

how we’ve been evolving Introduction of Young Leader Clubs The Young Leader program, initiated earlier this year, supports clubs in rural Cambodia for young people aged 1525 years old. The clubs are voluntary action-based groups, where young people seek to identify, learn about, and solve tangible problems in their own communities, thus building life skills, leadership, and self-confidence.

The purpose behind the project is to provide a youth development model appropriate for young adults, one based on the success of PEPY’s Childto-Child initiative.

Creation of The Cambodia Development and Education Fund (CDEF) PEPY supporter Rakesh Mehta took the initiative to set up a UK-based organization to support PEPY’s work.

CDEF is now a registered UK charity (charity number XT26778) that aims to raise awareness of Cambodian development issues in the UK, connect PEPY with a new network of supporters, and raise funds for PEPY programs. If you are based in the UK, you can donate to PEPY through CDEF (www.cdef.org.uk) and all UK taxpayers can use the Gift Aid scheme to increase the value of their donation.

Assembly of Effective Teaching and Learning & Technical Team PEPY’s SAS program is committed to providing teacher training to improve quality of education in schools in Chanleas Dai. In 2011, we came to realize the importance of classroom observations and direct feedback. To meet this need, we formed the Technical Team. This year, PEPY hired specialists in math methodology, literacy, leadership training, and effective teaching and learning methodology.

Creation of a Scholarship Project PEPY piloted a Scholarship Project in 2011 to offer access to further educational opportunities for students graduating from Kralanh district high schools. PEPY plans to provide comprehensive support to high school students who are interested in pursuing higher education.

PEPY is currently developing this project with the help of one of the Kralanh High School graduates. Our intern Thouet is supporting our staff in conducting a needs assessment of the young people at the high school.

Thouet will be working with PEPY staff to develop the Scholarship Project for the next academic year and ensure that it is designed to meet the needs of graduating students.

Completion of Strategic Planning In August, members of PEPY’s board, PEPY’s senior management team, and some external consultants spent a week reviewing PEPY’s lessons and achievements over the last 6 years and deciding upon a direction for PEPY for the next 5 years. Discussions were informed by a thorough SWOT analysis that was conducted with PEPY beneficiaries (children, teachers, and community members) as well as NGO partners, staff, and international supporters. The outcome of this planning was a new PEPY acronym, a revised vision and mission, the PEPY Core Values, 12 key strategic goals for 2012, and critical decisions regarding the transition of key programs.

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partnerships with others NEP and child rights PEPY received a grant in 2011 from the NGO Education Partnership (NEP) to conduct research on how the rights of children can be promoted at schools in Cambodia. The research partnership with the NEP aims to determine if child rights are being implemented in school, how they are implemented, and how these rights in school can be promoted more effectively in the future.

Twelve education-based NGOs from various provinces around Cambodia were chosen to participate in this project facilitated by the NEP. PEPY is pleased to be working with NEP, an organization that shares a similar vision and mission with us. Working with NEP is a chance for us to connect with other NGOs all over Cambodia who are working on education issues to share our experiences, successes, and lessons learned.

XO meet and greet PEPY facilitated a Meet and Greet for organizations interested in promoting learning through computers. The event gave NGOs using the One Laptop Per Child XO laptops a chance to meet, discuss successes and failures they have encountered, and learn from each other’s programs. Twelve visitors from seven different organizations came to visit PEPY’s Creative Learning Class in order to discuss ideas on how to improve Information and Communication Technology education in rural communities.

Sharing CtC methodology with Oxfam This year, Oxfam Australia reached out to PEPY’s Child-to-Child (CtC) team for training in the Child-to-Child methodology. We were very happy to work with Oxfam to prioritize the creation of Child Friendly Learning Spaces in Cambodia. Three trainings were held, each of which lasted for three days.

Training topics included the Child-to-Child concept and methodology, active learning, facilitation of activities that empower children, and assessment of needs in a community.

Training on the Child-to-Child program covered active learning, facilitation of activities which empower children, and assessment of needs in a community.

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Programs: supplemental education PEPY’s Supplemental Programs are designed to enhance the government curriculum that is administered in every Cambodian government school. Our Supplemental Programs are available to junior high school students in Chanleas Dai. We also provide training and curriculum development assistance to primary school teachers at Cambodian government schools.

GOALS & OBJECTIVES 1. Provide outstanding quality education to children in rural communities 2. Empower students and teachers with the tools to succeed in life 3. Expose students to different cultures around the world and foster a global perspective in young adults

Program components PEPY Creative Learning Classes are designed to develop problem solving and critical thinking skills, and to allow students to express their ideas creatively and collaboratively. Students use XO computers (generously donated to PEPY through the Cambodia P.R.I.D.E. organization) and open-source programming software to create educational games and conduct research on the internet.

The Engineering Club is split into two sections for 7th and 8th graders respectively. Over 30 students meet each week for an hour to work on a wide variety of projects in the field of engineering, including robotics via Lego WeDo kits, XO laptop repair, and the creation of structures out of paper and other materials.

Supplementary English classes, available to junior high school students in Chanleas Dai, give students a competitive advantage when pursuing their professional dreams for the future.Â

Exam preparation is provided during the spring semester in Math, Khmer, Chemistry, and Physics to 9th graders studying at Chanleas Dai Junior High School. At the end of July, 89% of the 36 students who took the examination passed.

The Dream Manager project offers support to 9th graders by helping them identify their dreams and goals for the future and encouraging them to discuss and address any challenges that may need to be overcome.

The Traveling Teacher Support (TTS) project provides supplementary training to 14 primary school English teachers for the 2011-2012 school year to help them excel in the classroom. PEPY provides TTS to all schools in Chanleas Dai commune that have a 5th or 6th Grade classroom, thereby helping these schools achieve the English curriculum component as required by the government.

Classroom Library training is being conducted with 31 teachers at 8 primary schools to promote interactive learning techniques for Khmer literacy (including games-based learning) and also to coach lesson planning and classroom management.

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supplemental successes

Over 470 students from 6 primary schools have elected to attend PEPY’s supplemental learning classes for the 2011-2012 school year.

The Creative Learning Class for 2011 had an attendance rate of 98%.

Around 60 students worked together for 3 months to create their own storybook plots, characters, and illustrations in a summer Creative Writing Workshop.

Library staff are nurturing a culture of reading for primary students by implementing a reward system for avid readers. Due to incentives like this, the volume of books checked-out in the last year has increased by 124%. Currently, the library has 17,770 books available for students in Grades 1-6.

PEPY team members conducted Classroom Library trainings, eliminating the need to hire external trainers for this project. This reduced our budget and improved project efficiency.

Noun Riem has a long-standing passion for education. Before joining PEPY, Noun volunteered as a 1st Grade teacher at Preah Lean and Chanleas Dai Primary Schools, where he taught students how to read and write, in addition to reading stories to children. After watching him in action in the classroom, PEPY asked Noun Riem to join their ranks in 2009 as a Supplemental Program Assistant.

Noun participated in Room to Read’s writers and illustrators workshops in 2009 and 2010. Through these workshops he has published two books with Room to Read – Baylok Baylor and Ball and Kite Drawing.

Since Noun joined PEPY, he has been busy contributing to programs such as Classroom Libraries and a yearly Creative Writing Workshop. His hope is that outlets like these will result in more young avid writers emerging from rural Cambodia.

supplemental challenges

Many books used in Supplemental classes were returned tattered and worn out so that they were unreadable. To address this issue, our staff worked with the principal of the school and teachers to make sure students know how to care for books.

CLC teachers were presented with a newly designed curriculum for Grade 7 students. Many of the activities and concepts are very different from their previous teaching and learning experiences. However, they have developed a good understanding of the new Grade 7 curriculum and are now diving into the new curriculum that has been designed for Grade 8.

We encourage teachers at the junior high school to learn more about the lessons we run and the programs we implement at the school. However some teachers are reluctant to participate. We have a challenge to more successfully engage educators and involve them in the development of PEPY projects and also their school as a whole.

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Programs: partnering with schools: SAS Sahakoom Apeewaht Sala (“Communities Developing Schools� or SAS) centers around community-led solutions to school problems. SAS supports primary school development by working with School Support Committees (SSCs) and offering educationbased training for teachers, principals, and community members.

SAS focuses on actions instead of giving things away. Examples include providing life-skills training for students, creating resource workshops for teachers, and making child friendly spaces for students to learn and play outside of class time.

Communities are encouraged to fundraise to meet the needs for the projects they take on, and PEPY matches some, but not all, of their funding requirements.

GOALS & OBJECTIVES

This year, SSCs are tackling problems such as a lack of water, poor literacy skills among students, and a lack of textbooks and resources.

In 2010, SAS began working with a new partner school, Run, which has demonstrated a strong community commitment to improving education.

SAS provided supplies to newlystarted kindergarten classes, trained teachers to make and use teaching aids, and worked with the Siem Reap Provincial Teacher Training College to conduct a teacher training needs assessment.

Program components Income generation projects aim to help schools bridge the gap between program costs and the government educational budget, in addition to introducing life skills, such as agricultural knowledge and entrepreneurial ideas, to students.

Ideas in 2010 originally included growing mushrooms and raising fish.

In late 2011, PEPY decided to stop focusing on income generation projects after several sessions of organizational strategy planning. Now some of the schools are continuing to pursue these initiatives on their own outside of the school development plan.

School improvement projects undertaken this year include filling in low areas on school property to reduce flooding, creating school gardens, building shade structures, and furthering well & water pump construction.

The Technical Training Team works across 7 primary schools, observing and supporting government teachers to develop their teaching capabilities. Training topics for 2011 included proposal writing, Literacy and Math teacher training, and Education Law. Teachers and school directors also participated in two three-day ETL workshops, supported by PEPY and facilitated by trainers from Siem Reap’s Provincial Teacher Training College. These workshops were coupled with classroom observations and one-on-one feedback sessions and have helped teachers with classroom management and lesson preparation.

Increased access to new ideas can inspire SSCs with new dreams for their own schools.

To this end, SAS arranges field trips for school directors, teachers, and SSC members to “model” schools in other parts of Cambodia. In addition, schools actively engage parents by inviting them to observe the classes. Seeing their children hard at work encourages parent engagement in students’ education.

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SAS transition After redefining PEPY’s mission and vision as part of our August strategy retreat, the team made the difficult decision to transition the SAS program out of PEPY’s programming.

SAS by its nature is a timebound project, with PEPY’s partnership with the primary schools planned to last for a projected three years (with a possible extension to five years if necessary). Our SAS partnerships with the Chanleas Dai and Prasat Knar schools are already in their third year (2011-2012) while our partnership with Run, in its first year, will continue until 2014.

As such, we do not intend to end the program earlier than planned and will continue our support of the schools in this way for the projected time period. However, we will not extend SAS for an additional two years and will not be looking for more schools to partner with in this way.

sas challenges Our Technical Team found it difficult to orchestrate an observation and feedback schedule with the schools they were working with due to demands on the teachers’ time. Their activities also involved sharing training materials with other PEPY training projects that had to be carefully orchestrated.

Two members of our upper management team, Ratana Sung and Samal Khath, were called back to their previous government education jobs, and as a consequence left PEPY this year. While we are thrilled that they have so much to offer in the field of education, we were very sad to say goodbye.

Some schools weren’t able to raise money to meet project deadlines outlined in the school development plan. Schools in this position borrowed money from PEPY to complete activities, and then fundraised to pay PEPY back.

sas successes All activities that PEPY supports with SAS are part of the overall school development plan approved by the Department of Education. This has encouraged a higher standard of transparency and accountability not just in terms of school finances, but also in operations and teaching in general.

The SSCs now manage their own school development and organize fundraising events to improve their schools. They have had particular success in fundraising within their community and generating community enthusiasm and participation.

The Summer Academic Camp brought together teachers, students, and parents who participated in active study sessions over the summer. This year, PEPY conducted activities in math in addition to the literacy activities that have been organized for the last three years. In 2011, 79 teachers and 759 students participated in PEPY’s Math and Literacy Camp.

We have hired top-performing teachers to lead monthly trainings to expand and promote best practices in literacy education. PEPY’s Literacy Technical Officer, Smin Soe, is currently helping with the transfer of ownership of literacy programs and materials to government teachers, which is expected to be complete in 2012.

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Programs: Community Development Program The Community Development Program (CDP) consists of both the Child-to-Child clubs and the Young Leader project .

Child-to-Child (CtC) clubs encourage children aged 5-14 to identify issues they encounter on a regular basis, such as dengue fever or pollution, and then plan a course of action to work for change within their own neighborhoods. Currently there are 16 Child Clubs with a total of 261 participants, and 8 educators to facilitate these clubs.

The Young Leader (YL) project, initiated in 2011, consists of voluntary action-based groups for young people aged 15-25. Participants seek to identify, learn about, and solve tangible problems in their own communities, thus building life skills and self-confidence. The purpose behind the project is to provide a development model appropriate for young adults based on the success of PEPY’s Child-to-Child initiative. The clubs follow a 40-week curriculum, covering topics such as financial management, reproductive health, presentation skills, domestic violence, time management, and emotional awareness.

Currently there are 6 Youth Clubs with a total of 57 participants, and 5 educators to facilitate these clubs.

GOALS & OBJECTIVES (CtC) 1. Empower young students with the tools to be successful leaders among their peers 2. Motivate and inspire children to make positive changes in their lives and communities 3. Educate children about problems regarding health and environmental issues so they, in turn, can educate their peers and community

GOALS & OBJECTIVES (yl) 1. Support young, strong-minded leaders in becoming positive role models in their community 2. Provide the tools and knowledge to empower young leaders to make positive changes in their community 3. Improve the life skills of young leaders – including problem solving, decision-making, and positive thinking 4. Teach young leaders to appreciate and love their community with open-mindedness and positive self-development 5. Help young leaders to create their own goals and have the confidence to succeed 6. Encourage older community members to support young leaders in their activities and programs 23

Program components child-to-child participants choose the projects they want to investigate within their community. In 2011, Child Club members in Chanleas Dai investigated subjects such as sanitation, trash disposal, clean water, oral and dental hygiene, clean hair and clothes, and road safety.

Young Leader Clubs have covered a wide range of topics this year, including issues relating to unwritten social rules and how to stay physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally healthy to increase good communication and relationships among their peers. Other topics discussed in Young Leader Clubs include presentation skills, leadership, setting long-term goals, and time management skills.

cdp successes One of our goals from 2010 was to provide an opportunity for children who have been in the CtC program for several years to focus on more advanced topics. This year, PEPY’s CDP team has created Young Leader clubs to address this need.

An additional goal from last year was to improve our documentation of CDP methodologies in order to better share them and the lessons we have learned with others. Having created this documentation, we were able to share this information with Oxfam Australia when they reached out to PEPY for training in the Child-to-Child methodology earlier this year.

The CDP initiated a Homework Club this year for primary school students. The focus is to help the students improve their Khmer reading and writing skills, in addition to providing homework support in subjects such as math. Once a week, students excelling in Khmer and math helped those who are still developing their skills. Based on successful feedback received so far, CDP is looking into expansion of Homework Club to one additional school.

This year, community centers were constructed to accommodate Childto-Child club activities in four villages (Tram Kong, Khnar Joh, Preah Lean, and Don Kais). Community members donated time, materials, and land to create a safe, dedicated space for children to learn and study.

New Child-to-Child club members are provided with life skills training at the beginning of each school year. In 2011, two courses of four days each served 90 children.

cdp challenges No manual exists for the Young Leader project. This information is currently being documented by the former CDP Manager. Once Young Leader methodologies have been documented, we hope to be able to share these processes with other organizations, as has been done with Child-toChild methodologies.

This year, Cambodia was hit hard with heavy rains causing dangerous flooding, evacuations, and even many deaths. Most of our students currently reside in areas that have been spared the worst of the flooding.

However, the floods make access difficult, and clubs that regularly meet outside have had no safe place to gather during the flooding.

Attendance in CDP has decreased in 2011 due in part to the increase in illegal migration to Thailand. To address attendance issues, PEPY staff members have conducted home visits, making the case for the importance of education and participation. In addition, CDP staff members are enlisting the support of village chiefs to better engage community members in education issues.

saly hem After years of experience working as a 3rd and 4th Grade teacher in Chanleas Dai, Saly Hem applied to work as part of PEPY’s Community Development team in 2008. Before long, Saly was not only teaching young leaders about math and reading, but he was also helping them remain focused on the importance of education.

Through his work with PEPY, Saly is keen to develop a core of youth leaders who promote tolerance and non-violent resolution. He dreams that his students will all reach a high level of education. We are excited to be working with Saly as he strives to realize these goals for himself and his community.

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Putting education efforts in context: Migration to Thailand The Chair of PEPY’s Board of Directors, Maryann Bylander, was our Managing Director in Cambodia for three years from 2008–2011.

As part of her PhD research on Cambodian migration to Thailand, she conducted nearly 100 interviews with families in and around our target area. Maryann shared her findings with the PEPY team to promote a better understanding of this issue, which is so critical in the places where we work.

“I think we are going to be soon a forgotten village. There is no one left but the very old and the children. How can we continue to develop like this? We have the World Food Program that supports school breakfasts, we have teachers who come, we love the students, we have enough classrooms. But still students go to Thailand instead.”

The principal of a primary school about 80 kilometers from the Thai border stated softly: “At the beginning of the school year, we had 67 6th Grade students.

Now, only 34 will graduate.” He described the increasing numbers of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders who had quit school to follow their friends to Thailand for work:

Most households in Chanleas Dai commune have someone from the family working in Thailand (illegally, in most cases). Making between 150 and 250 baht per day (US$58), migrants are able to make significantly more than in rural Cambodia, even as teachers or 12th Grade graduates.

While most people in Chanleas Dai see migration as a path to a better livelihood, it also poses a significant threat to PEPY’s education work in Chanleas Dai.

A lack of jobs, dwindling natural resources, environmental shocks such as floods and drought, and poor educational prospects all push families towards migration. With few easy livelihood options in local communities, migration continues to be an enticing option for anyone of working age. Though estimates vary, at least 250,000 Cambodians are currently working in Thailand, with some projections as high as 400,000.

While most people in Chanleas Dai see migration as a path to a better livelihood, it also poses a significant threat to PEPY’s education work in Chanleas Dai. Students at the junior high regularly drop out of school to migrate and support their families.

At the primary school level, students are routinely pulled out of school for periods of time while their parents take them to work in Thailand. Others are left with older relatives for months and sometimes years while their parents work abroad. Teachers often report that

older generations are less invested in the education of students, and that it is harder for students to do well and remain in school when their parents are abroad working.

Additionally, as their peers and family members migrate, young people look more and more toward Thailand themselves, considering migration as soon as they are old enough to make money working.

While we know that migration is necessary for many households, we also believe that young people should have broader options. We aim through our work to expand the opportunities for young people in rural Cambodia beyond the Thai border. While we have no explicit “counter-migration� program, in all our work we try to encourage students to think critically about migration choices. Hopefully, young people in Chanleas Dai will gain more of a critical perspective on the options available to them, tools to take advantage of those options, and an ability to build and sustain their lives in Cambodia, if they so choose.

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How we talked about our work Creating awareness about the work that PEPY is doing with schools in Cambodia also draws attention to the bigger picture – that quality education is critical in breaking a cycle of poverty. Only by investing in the next generation, by providing young Cambodians with valuable tools to be the change they wish to see, will the solution be long lasting.

We decided to build on the momentum of last year’s Power of 10 campaign by making it a yearly event. We added a theme to this year’s event: Dream BIG! PEPY is committed to expanding opportunities for Cambodian youth to achieve their dreams.

We believe that having the courage to dream big dreams is an important catalyst for change, and that sharing our dreams with others brings us one step closer to being able to achieve them.

In addition to The Power of 10, we continued to reach out to our supporters to educate and raise awareness about education issues in Cambodia through our monthly newsletters, our blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube videos, and electronic/print media.

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2010

2011

Facebook fans

2,597

2,989

Twitter followers

1,098

1,258

Video views on YouTube

86,903

99,111

# of videos on YouTube

47

72

Total # of newsletter subscribers

5,722

5,922

CNN, Emirates Newspaper, Beyond Profit, Emirates Woman Magazine, Tonic.com

National Geographic Traveler, CBC Radio, Humaneity Magazine, Wild Asia, Phnom Penh Post, Adventure Travel, educ@contic, a Spanish-language education blog

Media sources that covered PEPY

“I dream of a life full of experience and opportunity.”

Sopheak Sun PEPY Operations Officer

“My dreams are to reduce poverty in family and community, and create a model farming system.”

Heat Kdat PEPY Chanleas Dai Office Assistant

How we managed our finances 2009 (US$)

2010 (US$)

2011 (US$)

Individual donors

532

974

306

Median donation amount

40

25

25

Donations

602,276

316,015

366,601

Fundraising

103

1,497

1,381

Other*

7,899

959

2,096

Total income

610,278**

318,471

370,078

Community Development Program

31,586

38,535

44,549

Literacy

43,681

57,012

23,762

SAS

15,742

46,124

66,909

Supplemental programs

59,980

43,353

44,762

Capacity building

39,297

14,402

15,778

Partner support

-

10,834

502

Other programs***

295,758

872

-

Management and general

27,767

48,862

39,358

Communications

14,646

17,490

26,305

Scholarship programs

-

-

4,026

Total expenditures

528,457

277,484

265,949

Income

Expenditures

* Refers to interest income and sale of fixed assets ** High figure reflects fundraising contributions from Dubai Cares for school building projects *** Refers to school building and sustainable tourism

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Total expenditures 1: Programs 2: Capacity building 3: Partner support 4: Management and general 5: Communications

2009

2010

2011

konnitha sien has loved math and numbers for as long as she can remember. However she is also passionate about improving education in Cambodia, a priority that her parents instilled in her from a young age. In fact, her parents have demonstrated their commitment to education by deciding to send Konnitha and her three siblings to university despite limited financial resources. By working with PEPY’s Finance and Accounting Team, Konnitha hopes to use her skills and her passion to help students in rural communities do the same.

Konnitha knows first hand the difference in education that is available to students in big cities like Phnom Penh and rural communities.

As she says, “In the city, people can get opportunity to study a lot. But in the rural area, poor, so far to school, not enough schools. I think if I can change Cambodia, then I will make schools the same between rural area and city, so they have the same thing.�

Where we’re going We’ll be conducting an impact assessment of all PEPY projects to better understand the effectiveness of our work to date.

We plan to establish more rigorous monitoring and evaluation systems to improve how we measure the impact of our programs in the future.

We will transition ownership of SAS and Classroom Library programs from PEPY to teachers and community members, so that these programs are more sustainable, allowing us to better focus on programs that are in line with our new mission and vision.

We’ll take active steps to improve relationships with local authorities, involving them in the outcomes of program assessments and any new program development.

We’ll revise and standardize PEPY policies and pay scale.

We’re aiming to provide English-language capacity building resources for staff based in both Chanleas Dai and Siem Reap.

We’d like to improve cross-program and department collaboration to ensure resources and skills are used effectively and efficiently.

We have plans to establish a Newspaper/Journalism club to nurture writing skills in junior high school students.

We’ll be renewing our commitment to support and protect Child Rights through trainings and thoroughly documenting our own child-safe policies.

We intend to restructure and further develop the PEPY Board of Directors.

We’d like to improve documentation throughout the organization, focusing on developing written strategies and best practices to ensure consistency, build institutional knowledge and share lessons learned with other organizations.

We hope to rebrand PEPY and redesign our website.

We would like to develop a more effective IT system and develop our team’s capacity in computing and IT. We need to ensure the sustainability of our funding streams and will be seeking to diversify our funding sources.

We will continue to build on and address our organizations strengths and weaknesses as identified in the 2011 SWOT analysis.

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our core values 1. Commit to our unending potential for improvement.

2. Think unreasonably. Dream BIG! 3. Focus on impact, not inputs. Invest in people, not things.

4. Be strategic in our choices, and thoughtful in our plans.

5. Collaborate, both within and beyond.

6. Create and sustain a culture of open feedback.

7. Work with, not for.

8. Do more with less. Be responsible in our environmental and economic choices.

9. Be humble in success, transparent in failure, and share the lessons we learn.

10. Nurture the creative and quirky PEPY culture.

11. Stay connected with the PEPY family. Wave until you can’t see them anymore.

12. Live the principles we promote. Work with integrity.

PEPY

Annual Report 2011