5 Loves: English Education for Cambodia

Please join me in changing a nation by bringing the 5 loves: Love for Jesus, Love for Others, Love for Learning, Love for English, and Love for Hope to Cambodia through  training 3,000 teachers in English Language Learning and raising them up into true leadership, which will ripple effect to empower 127,000 students in integrity-based English learning across 488 school campuses in this nation.

We are starting our work in Banteay Meanchey, a northeastern province of Cambodia. Through the use of technology centers, we will broadcast weekly English lessons to all 3,000 teachers across 9 districts. These lessons will then be immediately replicated in the classroom to empower students with the building blocks needed to communicate in the global language of today. 

This fundraising page goes directly to funding my flights, living arrangements, daily expenses and general living to allow me to give the next two years of my time to this project, breaking down into a $10,000 a year salary, or $800 dollars a month.  My direct role is to work with the Cambodian team and: 

1. Train chosen teachers of each school campus in the province to be the leaders of this English education movement 

2. Design and teach online and in-person English classes to the 3,000 4th, 5th, and 6th grade teachers in this province

3. Do whatever it takes to build an incredibly empowered, English-educated team to be the standard-setting role models needed to inspire their students to be the future leaders of Cambodia 

The following gives more specific information about this project. Please read and consider coming alongside this vision to change a nation! 

Cambodia’s Story

In a nutshell, Cambodia has had it rough. While Angkor Wat is its crown jewel, more recent history has tremendously damaged this nation's educational, economic and social development.

 Anyone over 50 years of age  in Cambodia has first hand accounts of the Cambodian genocide- memories of work camps, starvation, torture, and the infamous killing fields. Education was completely wiped out during the genocide, to the point of wearing eyeglasses made you a target for being an intellectual and an enemy. The hurt is still fresh, while the new generation inherits a broken country. 

Current Cambodian leaders recognize that education is a priority and English is the gateway to help Cambodia take its place in our current globalized world. The Cambodian language, Khmer, is not even accessible through Rosetta Stone- a simple indication of how inaccessible general education is in their language. 85% of the current teachers in Cambodia have no college degree. The average teacher salary is $200 a month, and there is a 50% dropout rate of students between 4th grade and 8th grade in Banteay Meanchey province as they either go to work in the fields with their families or hop the border to Thailand looking for a better future- often leading to involvement in the sex trade before the age of 14.

South East Asia Prayer Center’s Story

 Mark Geppert, founder of SEAPC, was invited into Banteay Meanchey Province (one of 25 provinces in Cambodia) to build their first ever high school in one of nine districts in 2007. The High School did extremely well, winning national awards in math and science and capturing the attention of the Cambodian Government. SEAPC was invited to take what they did at a small district level to a Province-wide level. The Cambodian government has recently mandated that all 4th, 5th, and 6th grade teachers become fluent in English in the next three years to help improve Education in Cambodia. SEAPC has taken on the challenge in Banteay Meanchey province. You can learn more about SEAPC at their website, http://seapc.org/, but in general please know that this is an outstanding organization that is completely focused on prayer, relationships, people, and empowerment. They have won my heart and I am extremely proud and excited to be working with them.  

My Story 

SEAPC has given me the mind-blowing opportunity to spearhead the curriculum and teaching of this vision to bring high quality English education to this rural province of Cambodia. My head and heart are both set on fire for this exciting vision, and I am thrilled to be a part of it. I will be blogging and posting about my experiences at https://jennitaylor73.wordpress.com/  and updating here, as well. 

Your support means the world. Please consider being a part of this project. With your help, Cambodian Education will arise.