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“It is the first separate library building amongst 38 libraries established in 60 primary schools in Svay Chrum district,” said Ms. Pen Chantha, chief of Svay Chrum district office of Education, Youth and Sport, in her speech during the inauguration ceremony of a library funded by Taiwan Fund for Children and Families through ChildFund Cambodia. The event which was attended by approximately 296 education officers, commune chief, village leaders, teachers, community members, students and ChildFund’s staff, was presided over by Mr. Soth Kimchan, governor of Svay Chrum district. “Illiteracy and shortage of education is the root cause of poverty, and this library is a vital resource for education improvements as well as one tool to reduce poverty,” Mr. Kimchan mentioned during his opening speech.

Ms. Carol Mortensen, country director of ChildFund Cambodia was impressed with the rush of children who competed to run into the library when it was officially opened and immediately started to sit and read the books out loud. “With the generous support of Taiwan Fund for Children and Families, this library will serve many children and youth for their study research and help to improve reading activities and literacy of the community as well.”

12-year-old girl, Miss Yous Chanthu, 6th class student of the Svay Prahout primary school expressed her excitement to have the library at her school. “Advantages of the library include: providing equal opportunity to students in studying and doing researches, help children to have self responsibility in doing researches, help student to use their free time for self development and increase reading habit and to have initiative idea for daily life.” she stated.

Mr. Som Sam, director of Svay Prahout primary school also expressed his acknowledgement to funders for having such library in place. He said that “this library will provide equal opportunity for all students in reading. It would also help students to use their spare time properly and improve their reading skill as well.”

The high quality of the library building was constructed in response to the real need of community members and because class rooms are limited, according to Mr. Ouk Pov, Senior Program Officer of ChildFund Cambodia. The 7×9 meter-size library was funded by Taiwan Fund for Children and Families and ChildFund Cambodia. The library is equipped with materials, reading and research books, games and the librarian who was trained with support from ChildFund Cambodia has arranged the library in an attractive and inviting manner. Distinguished guests also took part in a tree planting ceremony in the school compound.

ChildFund Cambodia is constructing three more libraries in Svay Rieng province. ChildFund Cambodia has established 36 libraries in class-rooms in 36 primary schools in Svay Rieng province.

As I sit here at Bangkok Airport waiting for my flight home, I have some time (about 7 hours actually) to reflect on the last two weeks. We packed in a lot of cycling, lots of visits to various villages and monuments, and interacted with the locals in ways that would not have been possible as a regular visitor to these two incredible countries.

Along the way, I met a wonderful bunch of people, my fellow fundraisers and cyclists, who each had their own fascinating story of how they became a part of the team and what they did to raise the necessary funds for the clean water and sanitation project in Laos.

Our time with the communities was richly rewarding for us, and I hope too for our hosts. There were also some things that opened my eyes a bit more to the work that NGOs like ChildFund are doing in these communities. For example, despite the best intentions of visitors, we were asked not to hand any gifts of any kind to the children and families we visited in Laos and if we had something we wanted to give, then it should be given to the ChildFund coordinator for the area to be distributed appropriately. We were informed that giving handouts encourages a culture of begging that they are obviously trying to keep out. In fact, I don’t recall seeing a single beggar in Laos, even in the main tourist areas.

More to my surprise though, and it makes perfect sense when you think about it, the families who will be receiving the toilets that we were fundraising for do not simply have it handed to them. Each family needs to put in a certain percentage of the cost of the toilets based on their relative wealth within the community and also do the labour to actually build them. This gives the individual household a sense of ownership and pride and thus they will look after them. The philosophy is working as the demand for more household toilets is rising from the individual families in the villages. Great news.

ChildFund Australia would like to thank Al and the rest of the Laos Water Cycle team for being amazing participants – through the great times and the challenges! – and for raising over $80,000 for water and sanitation projects in Nonghet, Laos. If Al’s story has inspired you, we are now taking registrations for our next overseas challenge, the Sri Lanka Cycle Against Poverty. To support our work in Laos and have the opportunity to visit Nonghet yourself, join our new Global Community program.

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