Students build a bridge

Board member Ken Colson, a man of the post-spry generation (he'd be considered a village elder if he was Cambodian), lamented that he had to cross a rickety system of planks to visit the home of Heung Mai, an 8th grade girl who is attending our school on a scholarship that he provides. He visited her home to meet her family and to witness the poverty that had caused her to drop out of 7th grade. 

When Ken almost fell crossing the planks over a culvert that helps prevent flooding during monsoon season, he talked with our principal Mey Cheoun about building a bridge to create a safer crossing. After all, Ken reasoned, many students use the makeshift bridge each day.

Ken left matters in Mey Cheoun's hands and less than a month later, Mey Cheoun assembled resources, student labor (yes, other boys and girls) and built the bridge seen in the photo, a lasting solution to a 'shaky' situation.