Blue School Project

The aim of the project is to build facilities for quality education and development in 3 primary schools in the province of Oddar Meanchey. As a result of the project, a total of 31 primary school teachers will effectively educate at least 841 students. The Cambodian government's priorities in the field of early childhood education have been reflected by the ultimate goal of achieving national certification by the schools. With this certification, community preschools will be able to access funding for preschool teachers' salaries from the national budget. In addition to teacher support, the capacity of school principals and school committees, whose members include parents and local government representatives, has also been strengthened. The project would also renovate the sanitation facilities of the schools, i.e. toilets, hand washing stations would be constructed or renovated and a waste water treatment system introduced. Building of community gardens as well as the creation of decorations from recycled materials are an integral part of the project. Families of the children and the whole community are also the target group of the project due to the availability of drinking water and other positive side effects of regular schooling. Water and sanitation measures also lead to the prevention of water-born diseases, increased hygiene also leads to the prevention of the spread of the COVID-19.

Ensure education for all: bring to standards preschools in remote areas of Cambodia

The main objective of the project is to improve the quality of pre-school education for children from disadvantaged backgrounds by helping facilities to meet the criteria for standardised kindergarten status. These criteria include the construction and equipping of two kindergarten classrooms based on the requirements of the Cambodian Ministry of Education: one room with adequate size and natural ventilation, sufficient sanitary capacity, access to drinking water, playground and security fencing. This will allow communities to introduce these schools into the standardization assessment, and, once they have obtained the appropriate status, to receive support for teacher salaries from the Ministry, as well as a contribution to their continued operation and maintenance. This will provide children with a suitable and safe environment to learn, play and grow. There is a plenty of academic evidence for positive impacts of preschools education on children's development and further education achievements. However, the positive effects are felt throughout the community, as working parents are often unable to spend time with their children, the elderly tend to neglect their medical check-ups, and older siblings drop out of school due to caring for younger members of the family. The pre-schools are painted with the Czech Development Cooperation logo and the Czech Republic as a donor was also invited to the opening ceremony.

Enhancement of Rainwater Harvesting Practices through Female WASH Engineering Solutions in Kampong Chhnang Province

The main objective of the project is to build the technical facilities and improve the capacity of the target groups to collect and store water. The project was designed with the motto "by women for women", and with long-term sustainability in mind. The target areas have been selected from those most affected by water scarcity, with the aim of reducing household and community water costs in the long term and providing training on proper maintenance of the systems. Schools are one of the target beneficiaries, the benefits to them are significant and the schools are able to finance the operation of the filters from their own resources. However, the solution for the poorest households has proved too expensive due to the cost of maintaining the filters. For this reason, a solution has been put in place to collect rainwater for utility purposes only, which has to be boiled down sufficiently to make it drinkable. The project contributes to SDG 6 "Clean water and sanitation" and partially to Goal 1 "No poverty", both of which are priority objectives of the Czech bilateral development cooperation programme. It also reflects Cambodia's priorities to increase the number of people with access to safe drinking water, particularly in areas outside the capital. The project also builds on a bilateral water and sanitation project implemented by the Czech NGO Diakonia CCE in cooperation with the local NGO Life with Dignity. In the past, these organisations have jointly implemented other smaller interventions in the WASH sector (Small Scale Projects, UNDP Challenge Fund, Humanitarian Aid) with the support of the Czech Republic.

Results of 2023 SSP Call are available here