Our story
Read about the history of The Happy School and The Happy School Scholarship Program.
How it all started
Since 2004 around 1000 disadvantaged children in Cambodia have, directly because of CBF and The Happy School, received an education leading to life-long change.
The Happy School was initially established as a local community initiative in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, in response to the large number of children who simply couldn’t afford to go to school.
The project was run by three monks, a teacher and school director, named Men Sovan. Its single classroom was made up of plastic tables and chairs on a dirt floor, covered by a tarpaulin roof. But despite the lack of facilities, it was still a place for underprivileged children to gain fundamental literacy and numeracy skills.
In January 2003 a small number of foreigners were asked to help out by teaching the students English and Art for a few hours a week. When they turned up for work one day in April, they found that the school had blown away in a storm.
Determined to re-build, the volunteers wrote to family and friends in Australia and Ireland asking for help. Their friends responded by holding numerous fundraisers that eventually raised enough money to build a storm-proof classroom and cover the school’s operational costs for the next 18 months.
The classroom was christened ‘The Happy School’ and opened for business on the 15th of June 2003. It was a place for Cambodian children, who otherwise would have most likely missed out on a basic education, to play and learn in a safe, colourful and supportive environment.
Over the years, the school grew in scope and size, moving to a few different locations in Phnom Penh and at its peak helped around 150 children a year from primary to secondary school to learn and develop in a variety of classes including English, Maths, Khmer (the official Cambodian language) and IT. Many international travellers donated their time helping to teach our students English, forming lasting bonds with both the school and the children. In fact all of the current international CBF board were Happy School volunteers at one stage. And to discourage absenteeism, and to counteract the family pull to send their kids to work in the the fields or streets, we initiated a program whereby students families were given quarterly bags of rice for hitting attendance levels.
2020, with the COVID-19 crisis, proved to be a big year of change throughout the world, and also with The Happy School. The Happy School was forced by the government to close for large periods of time while Cambodia’s, and the world’s, economy stalled. This severely impacting our ability to teach our students as well as our donation sources. Because of this we were forced to reassess the education model of The Happy School and it was unfortunately decided that the ongoing financial commitment of the physical school, with property rental, staffing wages, utility and administration costs, had just become untenable in relation to the funding levels we were receiving. A better use of our limited financial resources, and to ensure continued beneficial educational opportunities for those children in need, was to change to a direct sponsorship model. This model allowed CBF to place all of the Happy School students into the state and private school system by paying for their school tuition fees, uniforms and books expenses.
This approach further evolved in the ensuing years to offering a full, all-encompassing scholarship to a highly respected, well-established, independent private school in Phnom Penh, called Westline. www.westlineschool.org/
As a nod to our past this education initiative is now known as “The Happy School Scholarship Program.” We currently provide a full scholarship for 10 students, covering tuition, books, laptops, uniforms, school fees, internet access and extracurricular activities. We also fund a full-time local Project Co-Ordinator to monitor their progress and assist in their well-being.
The Happy School Scholarship Program has proved to be truly transformative, with a few of our graduating Westline students transitioning into university, where we still support them on their educational journey.
We would love to help even more disadvantaged children in Cambodia and provide more Scholarship opportunities to those in need. To do so we need your help. Please donate now and know that every dollar you give goes directly to our program.