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The Ambassador meets and talks with 13 English Access Microscholarship students and observes the sewing center at ILDO.
Ambassador Visits Young Scholars And Artists in Battambang
Battambang
July 08 - 10, 2009
From July 8 to July 10 Ambassador Carol A. Rodley met with a number of students and non-profit organizations during her first visit to Battambang and Pailin as U.S. Ambassador. In the course of her first day in Battambang she met with young scholars, artists, and community leaders.
Ambassador Rodley spoke with 13 English Access Microscholarship students and met with community leaders at the Islamic Local Development Organization (ILDO) on her first day in Battambang. She encouraged the Access students to “continue studying hard,” saying she was “very impressed with the high school students’ high level of English language speaking skills.”
To further encourage students to study, the Ambassador distributed a gift to the students. Each student received a new messenger bag with English learning activity books.
The English Access Microscholarship provides a foundation of English language skills to non-elite, 14- to 18-year-old students worldwide through afterschool classes and intensive summer learning activities. Access students in Battambang have the opportunity to take intensive English classes afterschool at the Australian Development Center.
These Access students gain an appreciation for American culture and democratic values, increase their ability to participate successfully in the socio-economic development of their countries, and gain the ability to compete for and participate in future U.S. exchange and study programs. Since 2004 the American Embassy in Cambodia has secured scholarships for over 300 students in ten provinces worth more than $177,000.
During her time at ILDO the Ambassador was also able to view the success of the center’s vocational training sewing center, which is now home to 40 sewing machines donated to ILDO from the U.S. State Department “Share a Future” program in 2005.
The vocational training sewing center provides young women and men with the opportunity to be trained as tailors. The current six-month training program hosts about 30 trainees. According to their sewing instructor, trained tailors can generate a stable income of $5 to $6 per day to help support their families.
Ambassador Rodley’s first day in Battambang finished with a visit to Phare Ponleu Selpak (PHARE), a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the living standards of the Battambang community primarily through free formal and informal educational programs in the arts and culture.
In addition to reaching over 1,000 children per day through its programs in visual arts, performance arts, and theater arts, PHARE also provides social services to needy families, a leisure center for preschool-aged children, and a child care center offering children lacking basic needs the proper shelter, food, and care to assist in reintegrating such children back into society.
The Ambassador praised PHARE’s success in motivating children and young adults to use art as their medium of expression and active citizenship. Seeing some of the youths train in circus performance and some others focus on visual art and water color were some of the greatest highlights of her visit to PHARE.
