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Press
Release
American
Assistance for Cambodia
& Japan Relief for Cambodia
Tokyo office: 4-1-7-605 Hiroo
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo (150-0012)
Tel: 81-3-3486-4337
Fax: 81-3-3486-6789
e-mail: bernie@media.mit.edu
contacts:
Bernard Krisher in Tokyo at 81-3-3486-4337; fax: 81-3-3486-6789
Doug Schlemmer, or Nuon So Thero at 855-234-27823
The media is invited to attend the opening
event. Transportation will be available from Phnom Penh, with limited seats on a
helicopter. Please notify Doug Schlemmer (855-17-817-320) or Nuon So Thero
(855-12-844-317) as soon as possible if you plan to cover this event
October 30, 1999
FIRST THREE OF 200 SOLAR-PANELED, COMPUTER-EQUIPPED CAMBODIAN RURAL SCHOOLS WILL
OPEN NOVEMBER 4 IN THREE REMOTE PREAH VIHEAR VILLAGES
The first three of an expected two hundred
village schools, aimed at providing knowledge and opportunities to Cambodia's
rural children, will be officially opened on November 4 in three remote,
underserved, Preah Vihear villages.
The donors of the first three schools: Japanese parliamentarian Mrs. Wakako
Hironaka ( a former minister of the environment); Prof. Nicholas Negroponte, the
director of the MIT Media Laboratory, and the Tokyo Shintoshin Rotary Club, will
attend the opening ceremonies in the remote villages, eight hours by vehicle
north of Phnom Penh.
Each of the five room schools, named after the donor, is equipped with two solar
panels, sufficient to provide enough energy to operate a computer for four-five
hours a day. The village children will be taught to use computers with the view
of providing them skills that can assist villages in benefiting from services
and knowledge available in more populated areas. It is also aimed at
establishing telemedicine services and make it possible for village children to
connect by e-mail to other children around the world.
At the opening day ceremonies a demonstration of Web access and a telemedicine
link to Mass General Hospital via Shinawatra satellite communication links will
be attempted. E-mail and voice contact will also be shown via Inmarsat, provided
by KDD, and children will be talking to other children far away via Iridium.
These villages have had no electricity nor telephone links. The schools are
being built from individual donations of $13,000 (plus $1,700 for the solar
panels) through the NGOs American Assistance for Cambodia and Japan Relief for
Cambodia.
These funds are matched by a World Bank credit through the Social Fund of
Cambodia which manages the construction. An amount is also set aside to pay the
rural teachers a supplementary fee of $30 a month to motivate them to move and
teach in the villages. The local Cambodian NGO, Women for Prosperity, will
recruit teachers and help to organize training workshops for them.
Donations for over 20 schools have already been received from persons in the
United States, Japan and Hong Kong. Many of them are naming the schools after
deceased parents, grandchildren or their organizations. A Japanese alumni group
from Nagoya is naming its Cambodian school after their own high school which
celebrates its 120th anniversary next year. Another donor asked his family not
to hold a funeral after his death in order to donate the amount that had been
saved up, for two schools. An American couple is naming three schools after
grandchildren. Other donors include the editor of TIME Asia, the chairman of the
well-known jewelry firm, Harry Winston, and a retired Fuji Film plant manager.
The Japan Cambodia Volunteer Assn. in Tokyo is sponsoring a school chosen by
Cambodian foreign students studying in Japan.
Many donors are average people who believe education to children in villages
will assure a more stable and peaceful environment in the future Cambodia, whose
population underwent so much trauma. An estimated two million Cambodians died
under the cruel Khmer Rouge regime when schools stopped functioning. A priority
of this project is to establish schools in poor, rural areas whose children have
been deprived from any educational facilities or been forced to learn outdoors
for lack of funds to construct schoolhouses. The campaign brochure seeking
donations bears the catchphrase: "Put a Roof on Their Head."
Donors of the first three schools will attend the opening ceremony in the Preah
Vihear schools on the morning of November 4. They will be received by King
Norodom Sihanouk at an audience in the Royal Palace on November 5. The project
has received the warm support of both King Norodom Sihanouk and Prime Minister
Hun Sen.
Full transparency is provided to donors who can see their schools and
information about the students and village on the site
(www.cambodiaschools.com).
The finances of construction are also audited for the World Bank by Price
Waterhouse, an American accounting firm. Computers for the schools have been
donated by Apple-Japan, The MIT Media Laboratory and individual donors.
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Bernard Krisher Tel: +81-3-3486-4337
4-1-7-605 Hiroo Fax: +81-3-3486-6789
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan Cellular: +81-90-30-888-493
e-mail: bernie@media.mit.edu In Japan: 090-30-888-493
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OCTOBER 8-29, 1999
MOBIL NUMBER IN THE U.S. 917-304-6327
FAX INTO MY COMPUTER AT ANYTIME: (USA) +419-831-1406
New York 718-520-0863; fax718-520-0837
Washington 202-966-7903; fax 202-966-7460
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