that genius wrote: ↑Tue Mar 27, 2018 7:14 am I really admire your intentions...however I'm cynical it will succeed.

As soon as you start educating and feeding students for free (I presume) things will start going bad, people will attend just to freeload, not because they want/need education. You'll have relatively well-off families sending their kids to you. In addition, you assume you won't pay tax. FAIL. You will need to register the school, and your NGO, and that costs money.

I suggest you visit PSE or Hagar, two highly-respected and successful NGOs who do something similar but on a grander scale. They can tell you the kind of problems they face, for example they have to employ social investigators who check that the poor families are in fact poor...be aware

simon43 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 27, 2018 7:45 am As others have commented, there may be many issues and hurdles to cross. My comments are not a criticism of your dream, more to make you think on possible problems:

We've been gifted the land..

What does that mean? Are you Khmer and allowed to own land? If not, what you mean is that a Khmer person has lent you the land, (and may want you off his/her land at a later date). You should get a rock-solid lease contract for that land.

I'm in Myanmar, not Cambodia, but I think similar rules apply. You will need to register your school with the relevant authorities, your school buildings may have to meet certain requirements (size etc), and probably you need to be able to provide a long-term land lease contract to demonstrate that the school cannot be kicked off the land.

A small part of monthly donations will go to us to keep our heads above water and allow us to continue working hard. We will also subsidise our income with bar work and weekend tours through the guesthouse we are working with.

So no monthly donations means that you will drown? IMHO, you need to have a relatively solid living income that is completely independent of the school donations.

You're TEFL-qualified. Why not get paid teaching jobs at a local school and run your charity school as a separate effort that is then somewhat protected from your own ups and downs and financial income.

Although I don't run a charity school in Myanmar, I do run my own 'one-man-band' charity effort to support a number of local schools and orphanages with teaching and learning resources, such as school books, posters, dictionaries, computers and educational software.

But I also work as a teacher at an international school. My charity is funded by donations and some income from my teaching job. Have a look at www.TeacherSimon.org or www.facebook.com/TeacherSimon.org

Kammekor wrote: ↑Tue Mar 27, 2018 7:55 am OP, there's so many pitfalls down the road you are intending to go, and you will fall in each and every of them it seems, since you seem pretty unaware about the local situation.

Do what's been said above, and contact NGO's with experience. You should do that in the first place before even considering collecting stuff to put in your container.

Some pitfalls....

1. Children attending just for a meal.
2. Children attending every now and then when it suits them or their parents, not actually learning anything but slowing down learning if attending.
3. Resources rapidly disappearing, only to find out they end up being sold in the market. Children will sign up just to receive a goodie back with resources.
4. Children from middle class or even rich families attending.
5. Resistance from private schools close by can make life pretty difficult.
6. Dealing with the local, provincial and national offices of education. You can NOT just start a school. Arrange all documents before even hiring a container.
7. Children dropping out of state school to attend your school.
and so on.

Cowshed Cowboy wrote: ↑Tue Mar 27, 2018 8:08 am Shipping containers are very uncomfortable to work out of in a climate like Cambodia’s. As a temporary solution I got some old ones that we had sitting around our site on a sugar estate in Africa renovated and converted for office use as we were running out of building office space as we expanded. Even with fans around people’s desks and locating them in a partially shaded area it wasn’t a pleasant working environment, at least I think that’s why my staff were asleep half the time.

simon43 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 27, 2018 8:28 am OP, why not do something along the lines of my charity in Myanmar. I don't run a school (because of the many pitfalls and responsibilities mentioned in this thread).

Rather, my efforts support existing government schools, monastic schools and orphanage schools. I visit each school, understand the status of the school (number of students, abilities, resources, number of teachers, teaching skills etc).

Then I work out a support plan specific for that school, in terms of what type, what level and how many school books are needed, what resources I can provide to assist the teachers, what can be done to allow more local kids to attend that school.

I then follow up every few months to check that the equipment that I have provided is actually benefiting the school, (and hasn't been stolen or locked in a cupboard) etc.

In this way, I can hold down a full-time job, and still do a charitable activity that makes a real difference to many school kids, not just a few dozen (that would be the case in your project). My charity model is very efficient from a funding point of view because I don't 'throw mud at the wall and hope some sticks', which would be the case if I just donated the same box of books etc for each school. I only donate what the students need, as appropriate for their age, subjects studied, abilities and needs of their teachers.

Because I don't run a school, I have no problems about regulations for establishing and running a school.

If my income/donations fall, then my charity efforts can go 'quiet' until better times. That works fine, because the schools already have my resources and I only have to provide additional resources if there are new students, or if there are new grades or subjects.

So in this model, I can continuously expand the network of schools that I support, meaning more and more students (and their local teachers) benefit.

I'm not allowed to live in a house in Naypyitaw (local police rules...). so my hotel room is my office, with colour printer, laminator, book binder, scanner and boxes for each school that I slowly fill up with the specific books and software for that school.

So... you could do likewise and use that land and shipping container as your office and resource store, and then reach out to deserving schools and students in your region.

Believe me, it is far less stressful to operate using my charity model than the one that you propose

Username Taken wrote: ↑Tue Mar 27, 2018 10:06 pm Tax info http://www.tax.gov.kh/en/btos.php

John Bingham wrote: ↑Tue Mar 27, 2018 11:08 pm

Kammekor wrote: ↑Tue Mar 27, 2018 10:36 pm OP, let me give you a third pair of eyes with a small quote from Simon:

Because I don't run a school, I have no problems about regulations for establishing and running a school.

The establishment of a school, in Cambodia as it is functioning now, with what you have on offer now, is going to be extremely difficult. And that's as sweet as I can put it. At least two ministries to deal with. And then you have to deal with provincial POE and local DOE. There's really NO WAY you can pull this off within weeks or even months, and the political climate will change while you're here - not to your favor. Your guesthouse owning friend, unless he's a really well connected guy, is not going to be of much help these days.

Basically I say - forget it. Teach English is someone's back yard. OK.
Teach English in someone else's already established school. OK.

But starting your own school..... My God.

FORUM MEMBERS: HELP ME. I really don't want you to have the idea you are doing something great for the world when you're actually in a one way street facing a wall. But I can't find the words.....

You're right. This is not a good time to come in here with a well-intentioned but naive project. It would have been welcomed 10 or even 5 years ago, but the climate has changed.

There is a strong undercurrent of dislike for meddling westerners these days. Interfering organizations with a strong political bias are not welcome. Well- established ones who
have spent time co-operating with the various ministries and local government and society are still welcome. Fly-by-night operations are not.

I'm pretty skeptical about why these guys want to set up in Kampot too. It's hardly a remote or terribly impoverished area. Is it the availability of cakes etc?

If they tried it somewhere really remote and isolated I'd give them some kudos, those hills in the west of Kampot are full of impoverished former Khmer Rouge families, but how would you get a container there?