sweet briar magazine inside - Sweet Briar College

F E A T U R E
Better Schools,
Brighter Smiles By Colleen Murray
Alumna’s work helps Cambodian
children build better futures
C a m b o D I a
LIVING IN SINGAPORE WITH HER
HuSBAND AND TWO BOYS, Paige Shiller
okun ’88 works for an organization that
changes children’s lives with books and
toothpaste. Caring for Cambodia is a nonprofit
devoted to the education of nearly 5,600
children in the Siem Reap province of
Cambodia. As an employee of CFC, Paige sees
positive change happening there all the time, a
welcome reward for the CFC team that has
helped to build the organization from the
inspiring vision of one Texan woman.
Seven years ago, Jamie Amelio of Texas
visited the Cambodian temples of Angkor Wat,
where children stood begging outside the
temple walls. When she asked one of them why
they wanted money, the child replied: to go to
school.
When Jamie questioned villagers, she
found that teachers are paid a tiny stipend and
some not at all. e children and their families
were supplementing teachers’ salaries.
Investigating further, she discovered other basic
needs: books, shoes, hygiene instruction,
proper nutrition and more. In the schools,
children were crammed 10 to 15 to a desk in
shoddy structures infested with insects and
birds.
After that trip, Jamie soon founded Caring
for Cambodia, which not only provides a
strong Cambodian education for the students,
but helps them to live healthier lives. In some
cases, it has saved them.
Since 2006, Paige Okun has held one of
two paid non-teaching positions at CFC. She
works remotely from her home in Singapore
and visits Cambodia several times each year. As
chief operating officer, she handles all of the
fundraising and administration of the
foundation. Her work assists CFC in covering
the cost of teachers’ salaries, libraries, school
supplies, food and more. e children no
longer have to pay for anything to attend
school.
“We will take any child in the district who
wants to come to school,” Paige says.
e organization has eight schools, ranging
from preschool, the first in Cambodia, to high
school. It uses a professional teaching
curriculum that is internationally recognized,
but remains distinctly Cambodian.
“Our schools are run by paid professionals,
all of whom are Cambodian,” Paige says. “We
have more than one hundred employees
ranging from security guards to cooks to
teachers to librarians. We feel it is very
important for the staff to be Cambodian in
order for the program to remain sustainable
and replicable.”
CFC had two goals for its teachers when it
began its own training program: First, that they
learned to teach a modern, effective
curriculum, and second, that the curriculum
they taught preserved the Cambodian spirit
and culture. e organization recruited a group
of practicing international teachers to volunteer
as consultants. e group visited the schools,
discussed best practices in teaching and created
modules to educate the teachers on these
practices.
e consultants had the national
curriculum translated from the official
Capital Phnom Penh Largest city Phnom Penh Official language Khmer Government Constitutional monarchy Area 69,898 sq mi
Population 2010 estimate 14,805,000 GDP (PPP) 2009 estimate $28.092 billion Per capita $2,084 Currency riel (KHr)
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