In this place where everything starts, where the School Continuity program was born for 200 children, the project now welcomes more than a thousand children a day: it is Central. “The second camp welcoming the most kids after Central takes care of a third of the kids we have every day. It is a project of an incredible scope for both the kids and their families. I think it is impossible for any other camp to take care of that many children”, Rodri, 1st year european monitor. The Central program takes place on the main campus of PSE in Phnom Penh, where is the heart of PSE and where the monitors staying in Phnom Penh sleep and spend their free time.
When entering on Central campus, the communicative joy and the dynamism of the monitors is immediately contagious. The kids arrive starting from 6am and for more than an hour they are welcomed by dozens of monitors wearing their orange T-shirts, forming a hallway of songs and dances making the children starting the day the best way. And, every morning, pick ups and touktouks filled with monitors, rice bags and breakfast pots drive through this same hallway in the opposite direction to go to the paillotes.
The School Continuity Program’s first goal is to entertain the children in an educational way. That’s why they are encouraged to get good habits in terms of health and hygiene.
The School Continuity Program’s first goal is to entertain the children in an educational way. That’s why they are encouraged to get good habits in terms of health and hygiene and the first step for the thousand of kids going through the blue gates of Central PSE is to get showered and to brush their teeth. These lines of little boys and girls rolling themselves in kramas (traditional Khmer scarves) before getting buckets (little plastic pots) of water spilled on them and rubbing conscientiously their bodies, teeth and hair are definitely a must-see.
Every morning, thousands of breakfast are then distributed thanks to the Service Team, constituted of 8 monitors – 4 Europeans and 4 Khmers, they make sure the day runs smoothly by preparing the meals’ organization, by cleaning the kramas and the buildings or by preparing the showers for instance. Far from being easy, these tasks are made the different monitors, one after the others throughout the four weeks.
This year, numerous workshops have been dedicated to recycling, English learning, yoga and emotional intelligence.
Despite the massive number of children, the daily activities are very diverse. Children can be seen playing all day long, together during a big game, individually during the Ferias, or divided into kroms for the educational workshops. When there are not special days like the Olympics, the ferias or the gymkana, twenty different activities are proposed to the kids: one prepared by the dental team, one by the medical team, one by the reading one, one by the khmers monitors only and the sixteen others are under the responsibility of the thirty European monitors. This year, numerous workshops have been dedicated to recycling, English learning, yoga and emotional intelligence. This way, children participate to very different activities and never get bored. Central being the heart of the summer programs, here even more than anywhere else, everything is set up to make kids learning while being entertained. “We have a lot of resources and space, that’s why it’s the program where we can welcome the more kids. It is absolutely necessary because it’s the only place where we can do it”, explains Luis, coordinating the program for the second time.
During lunch time, a shift of a considerable extent takes place in Central: thousands of kids leave after their lunch, letting the space to thousands of others arriving from School. If there is also a shift in some paillotes from 60 to 100 kids, in Central it is about 300 to 500 kids arriving on time to get their lunch and taking a nap before starting the afternoon activities. The organization required is significant and up to 1,200 lunches a day can be served! In order to accompany them during this shift, the monitors can count on the Social Team’s help who is responsible for the kids’ departures and arrivals: they know each of them and know who has to leave, who has to stay, who is leaving by bus and who is leaving by bike.
“This is a period of the year during which they are happy and they only worry about being happy”, Inés,
The nap following the shift allows everyone to rest and get some more energy, and it is fundamental for the children as some of them still work after having spend the day at the camp despite all the efforts of PSE. “I think it is a period of the year during which they can become kids again and not worry about what happens at home of in their work. This is the period of the year during which they are happy and they only worry about being happy”, Inés, European coordinator of the program. In this sentence is the objective that all monitors share: making the kids happy.
Day after day, children learnt to open themselves and it is obviously seen during the emotional intelligence-oriented activities where they express better and more their thoughts and feelings. It can also be observed within the games they participate to: the kids use less violence and work better in team, they are visibly more fulfilled. “It is heartwarming to know that PSE and you are changing the life of these kids. They saw you and they jump in your arms without knowing you, trusting you 100% already”, tells Anna, European monitor for the first time.
The laughs and songs that animates PSE main center in Phnom Penh thoughout the month of August, the thousand of smiles and just as many Tshirts of all colors represent the promise of a happy childhood, the promise of playful learning, the promise to getting out of misery and dreaming of something bigger.
Inés concludes by recalling the importance of the School Continuity Programme: “Although we have the feeling that it is only a few hours and four weeks a year, I think there is still something left. If families continue to send their children here, it is because they see them happy, they know they are being cared for here, they know they have everything they need. The purpose of this camp is also for PSE to attract new families that they could help, and for the NGO to continue to grow. I think the impact of this program is only positive.”
