Friday, June 26, 2009

Monks on a mission to help children

June 26, 2009---Ven. Thach Ne and Thach Sathoul of the Pothivong temple in Saigon are embarking on a grand mission on a small local effort, step by step, they are bringing back Khmer literacy and teaching Khmer Krom children in Binh Phuoc province to learn their native Khmer language and the language of Buddha, Pali.

For majority of the students who come to learn at the Wat Phum Thom pagoda, this would be their first time ever at seeing what Khmer writings looks and sounds like.

Where as before, they passed writings on the wall off with a mystical glance now they are making out the spelling and can scribble copies into their notebook and pride themselves on the ability to pick out the characters of the alphabet.

The success of Wat Phum Thom pagoda led by Venerable Thach Ne is an exceptional story of success due to great zeal and dedication from both monks and local villagers working together for what they believe is their duty to protect, preserve and transfer the Khmer culture to the next generation of children who are slowly losing the ability to speak, understand and relate to their Khmer elderly and the culture as a whole.

Even though under resource, Ven. Thach Ne who is due to go to India this year -granted all visa papers are in place- to continue his study of Buddhism, is making big promises to his student.

Ven. Thach Ne wants the children to succeed not only in learning their native language but the national language as well in order for them to be more competitive and better able to raise themselves up and he hopes to do this by giving encouragement to efforts of all his students, promising them that if they excel in both languages he would sponsor and help send them to continue their study in Prey Nokor (Ho Chi Minh City) with the support of Wat Pothivong temple.

The Wat Phum Thom temple now counts 150 pupils and 11 temple kids who are supported by sheltered by the temple.


Keep update and follow their activities by following our Kumar Phum Thom Project here.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

from makeshift classroom to the temple, how the journey begin

13 Years ago, late venerable Ly Sang came to Phum Thom and established the Wat Phum Thom temple, resided there as the the abbot and later went on to try to create the first Khmer language classroom in the province. This is Binh Phuoc, Vietnam. Although Lok Ta (title of reverence for the venerable monk) Ly Sang has past away without seeing the fruit of his labor, his legacy and great devotion to the preservation of Khmer language lived on.

Today, thanks to his work, Wat (Buddhist temple) Phum Thom host a thriving number of students attending Khmer language class each evening. Sometimes the small temple class room is packed with every spaces and chairs crunched in so close together that it literally gives you an impression of a centipede with one long stretch bodies with all the students as its legs and arms.

The Wat Phum Thom temple now boast pupils of over a hundred young children and on any given night the palpable sense of excitement and the thrill of learning the mysterious but yet native Khmer language and script is so great you can almost hear the students chanting each vowels and consonant after the teacher monk from miles away and even when classes are no longer in session, the sounds of students learning their native language rings in your ear so beautifully, no less charming then your favorite Beethoven or Bach.

This though, all happens in a temple classroom that is neither barely started or barely complete. The classroom temple, separate from the main worship temple was put under halt by the government in Vietnam midway through its construction due to cited reasons that the indigenous architects who the abbot employed to construct the building had no insurances and therefore could not guarantees for the safety of the occupants.

in 2007, Lok Ta Ly Sang passed away. He did not get to see how successful his devotion had become, if he could see how many students are now in this class room, he would be so happy. Although the classroom is being used, it is still far from a complete structure, and even though, since then, the government has allowed for the restart of this construction, there is not enough money for the village to complete this building properly.

The classroom is a two story building so even if there isn't a roof or for the fact that second floor is just but a skeletal frame, that does not deter these students from learning. At least the second floor base can cover as the roof for now and for now, that is enough. For these young and curious students of Khmer language, a place to study and a new dynamic monk teacher successor, it's a lot more then they had hoped for considering that only a few years ago no Khmer language classroom exist in the province. They should be really proud of themselves because they are the first successful group to have a Khmer language classroom even if it's not complete yet.

There is always something to be done and everyone can contribute. If you want to, you can help support this project or even help to start a new one. To help to support Khmer Krom children's literacy, preserve their indigenous language and the unique cultural identity doesn't cost much. It only cost the effort to participate and care. We are lucky to be in the U.S, even buying notebooks and clothes we can take for granted here. With one notebook here we can probably buy almost 4 notebook over in Vietnam.

At the end of the day, the question is not about what you can do but it's really about how much you really care. If you think your time or sponsorship doesn't make a difference, think again. Remember, what may appear to you as one pebble dropped in the ocean, could really have a huge ripple in small pond to someone else.

To my fellow Khmer Kroms, Think, Take Action, and Join Hand to help improve Education and living condition for our Khmer Krom youth in Vietnam and help them preserve our Language and Tradition. Wherever you are, don't forget where you came from.


This article is written in memory of Lok Ta Ly Sang. Lok Ta Ly Sang passed away in 2007 in Khlang (Soc Trang)province, South Vietnam. He was a compassionate and diligent soul, he loves children and taught us Pali chants and Buddhist precepts. He was almost like a mentor to me as a kid and took care of me when I was sick, blessed me and prayed for my safe trip to America when my family left for the U.S in 1996 and I was fortunate enough to receive his blessing again in 2006 on my visit back to my hometown village.

To Lok Ta, may you find peace and Nirvana. Thank you for your dedication to preserving our Khmer heritage in Kampuchea Krom.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Mission Statement: Kumar Phum Thom Project:


The Kumar Phum Thom (Kids of Phum Thom Village) Project seeks to provide assistance to Khmer Krom Children in combating dropouts and retaining them in school through small scholarship funds that aims to reduced family burdern through asssistance in buying books, clothings, and food. Additionally our vision is to strengthen their mother tounge language before or while concurrently enrolling in the Vietnamese [national language] schools because we believe that by understanding the first language children will be better equiped to cultivate critical thinking and learning in the main stream national language.

This project is limited to one Khmer Krom village right now because of our restraints. We will focus on Phum Thom village in Loc Ninh district, Binh Phuoc Province, Vietnam.

Initially at its inception, we wanted to start a general educational support foundation for all Khmer-Krom (Vietnamese of Cambodian origin) indigenous children because as a whole, they are a socially disadvantaged group in Vietnamese society.

There are several factors that hinders these children's progress and handicaped their potential capacities; Access to education, family poverty, and misplaced or short-sighted value on education.

These factors help to contribute to their cycle of hardship and feeds further into their socially and economically disadvantaged positions.

The problem of education is that access guarantees neither quality nor retention. Yes, Khmer Krom children have access to education, but what good are schools if you can't keep children from dropping out? AsiaTimes noted recently in its June 6th edition that Vietnam State news ran a report in 2008 which AsiaTimes quotes:

Khmer students were "dropping like flies" out of school. "Most of the students with bad learning capacity are of Khmer minority; they cannot speak Vietnamese well and cannot follow the study curriculum," a local teacher told them. The report said 56% of drop-outs are from the Khmer minority, with 30% of this figure leaving due to their "inability to learn".


The viability of Khmer-Krom children to be retained in the Vietnamese educational system is a challenged with multiple faces. The problem isn't as straightforward as Khmer children simply have a “low capicity to learn”. It is a complicated balance of social economic background of their parents; medium of access or language and cultural barrier in Vietnamese based education; and combined that with a short-sightness in the value of education developed based on having been traditionally deprived of fair opportunities to advance in the society regardless of one's educational background just because of culture.

The Kumar Phum Thom Project hopes to instill values and highlight the importance and need for education and challenging Khmer Krom children to an active engagement in their development in order to challenge the status quo of their position and future in their homeland.

Kumar Phum Thom's current project is helping to sponsor the Khmer language class in the Wat Phum Thom Temple. Before the temple open up the afternoon class the village children were learning in makeshift classroom at another pulpil's home who acted as a teacher. It was running into this that we were inspired and decided to begin our project.


Watch Determination of Khmer Krom Children to Safeguard their Culture in Educational  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

If you like to help us sponsor and support the Kumar Phum Thom project please e-mail us at sdon(dot)lam(at)gmail(dot)com.