Financial Year: 2009-2010 - The Oaktree Foundation

a new project in Cambodia (cont.).Given it’s high youth population, clear need for educationalopportunity and the powerful narrative of a young nation stillrecovering from the oppressive and destructive regime of theKhmer Rouge, it was ultimately decided that our country focuswould be Cambodia.Following a project selection process run in Cambodia, wedecided to partner with Kampuchean Action for PrimaryEducation (KAPE), a local Cambodian NGO with an outstandingreputation in the education sector. KAPE will implement theBeacon Schools Initiative, within 3 public schools in the poorestprovinces of Cambodia, completely overhauling schooloperation, management and curriculum over the course of fouryears. The most exciting element of of this project is a schoolmanagement model based on public-private partnerships. Thiswill ensure a higher standard of accountability, transparencyand overall quality.It is estimated these ‘Beacon schools’ will help at least 1,350students directly, as well as the indirect beneficiaries such asteaching staff, student families and the school community. Theinnovative nature of this project recently caused the RPD Teamto be invited to AusAid in Canberra to share with them thepracticalities of this project – and they were extremely impressed!OUR GENERATIONS CHALLENGETHE 5th year of the annual Our Generation’s Challenge (OGC)fieldtrip has seen many successes in the last 12 months. Runacross July, the FY was kicked off with ten volunteers from acrossthe country meeting in Darwin for a solid three days of issuestraining before jumping on a flight to Dili. The team spent threeweeks travelling through East Timor and Papua New Guinea:connecting with youth networks, development practitioners,government department, local organisations andinternational agencies.The 2009 trip created a new direction for OGC – being the first ofits kind to visit one of Oaktree’s projects on the ground; Plan TimorLeste. The team also spent four days in Port Moresby witha new project in Cambodia (cont.).Youth Organisation ‘The Voice’, running organisational skillssharing workshops and gainingan insight into grassrootscampaigning and youth activism in the pacific. This was aparticularly powerful experience for volunteers from bothOaktree and The Voice, and prompted a new understandingof the strength of friendships and collaboration with youngpeople across our region, and a strong desire to extend this toall the arms of Oaktree’s work within Australia.Building on the success of the 2009 trip, the 2010 OGC team willreturn to PNG and then visit the Solomon Islands. This allows theteam to visit Oaktree’s partner project in the remote highlandcommunity of Yangis, PNG, and return to Port Moresby todevelop our partnership with The Voice while also fostering newfriendships with youth networks and development circles in theSolomons and across our region.OUR WORKIN AUSTRALIASCHOOLS 4 SCHOOLSOAKTREE’S Schools4Schools program partners Australian schoolswith schools in South Africa, to support the Gold program.2009-10 for Schools4Schools was characterised by a periodof consolidation. In 2009 we saw a National Schools4Schoolsprogram rolled out in over 40 schools.. In late 2009 theSchools4Schools team undertook a thorough evaluation andreview of the program making some key strategic decisions onthe implementation of the program for 2010.20 21