First hand account of the new growth at Flame

Kids at our Steung Meanchey After School Centre

In January 2020, right as COVID-19 was first emerging, I visited Cambodia for the third time, checking out what Flame was doing and seeing what was happening day to day. Over the last 18 months, Flame had grown well over 100% and I was really interested to see it for myself.

Flame is all about education. For the at risk families we work with, we have seen it’s crucial to also work with the families and provide essential social services and support. In order to bring the help to the families, we have a mobile team of social workers going out into the urban poor communities, in addition to three established After School Centres. We also have a ‘concrete slab and tin roof only’ classroom right in the midst one of the squatting communities, staffed by a lead teacher and two teaching assistants. This ‘stage one’ centre is very basic and the environment is noisy and dirty, but better than plastic chairs in the sun! They teach around 50 children per day, bringing the total number of students in the After School Centre program to over 250. The university program now has 20 students.

The most basic centre in Boeung Trabek

With the amazing growth and the commitment to do the best we can comes a need for the funds to pay for it. We have been very blessed with generous donors who support our endeavors.

To our donors - thank you. It was truly exciting to be here and see results in person. The road is long and full of challenges, especially now with COVID-19 thrown into the mix, but we will get there if we persevere. We would love to do more. Can you help us by donating? 

- Meredith, Flame NZ Board Member

“Children of the urban poor in Phnom Penh often struggle to access education. ”