Location: in Tatouk Village Sonikom district Siem Reap Province

No of children: 305 (50:50 boys:girls)

No of educators: 1 principal + 3 teachers

No of classrooms: 6

No of building: 1

The Sok San Primary School sits on an open land along the right side of the 10th km track from Sarsadam town to Kouk Duong village where most of the children come from. Newly built and just opened last year, it still lacks much in facilities and amenities.

Travelling to the school, the track runs off from Sarsadam is a straight route flanked on both sides by clay dug canals and rain-fed rice fields owned by the villagers. In the month of June till early November, the rice fields will be flooded by rain making the journey during the peak rainy season (August-September) almost impossible by vehicle due to heavy mud. Buffalos and villagers are seen busy plowing the fields and planting their rice seedlings.

After the rainy season, the weather cools down making the journey pleasant. The rice fields turn golden brown. The canals continue to be water-filled but gently dropping in level till they turn parched dry by December. Even the houses seem to appear like islands while the villagers resort to catching small fishes to make them into fish paste to supplement their meals. By end March, the weather begins to turn warm and then hot but dry kicking up more and more dust until the heat becomes unbearable in April and May before the humidity returns with the monsoon rain to the relief of the villagers.

It is with this scenario that the children of Sok San Primary School face annually as they arrive at school in their tattered uniform and worn out shoes, if any carrying whatever pieces of books and stationery in tattered bags or sometimes just mere plastic bags to protect from the rain or dust.

The school, like all national type schools, is divided into two sessions - the morning session starts at 7.30 am finishes at 11.00 am and the afternoon session starts at 1.00 pm finishes at 4.30 pm. The 305 children are separated into 2 sessions but currently the batch of Primary 4, 5 and 6 constitute a small number and are combined into a single class. The children originally come from a bigger school called Yeang Primary School down the track. The move to this new school has been strategic due to growing number of pupils. Now these children do not have to walk that far to school which used to be 5 km away but now just 2 km away.

New development is coming to the school this year which sadly lacks many facilities including toilets and a canteen (a makeshift one under one of the thatched huts serves as a canteen stall while Dunman Sec contributed to construction of a resting shed and a temporary toilet with 2 water jars in December). The school will soon have another new building just opposite to the current one that will include a toilet for both boys' and girls' sections. A field sits in between these 2 buildings. And more children will be expected to join the current batch.

Even with the additional building, Sok San School still lacks many amenities and facilities:

Amenities:

• Stationery

• Exercise books

• School bags

• New uniform & shoes

• Text books

• Food

• English language teacher (and more teachers)

• Sports equipment and materials

• Medicine

Facilities:

• Library

• Reading Corner

• Resting Shed (Can plant more trees)

• Vegetable Garden (part of Lunch Project?)

• Water storage tank

• Washing area

• Sick Bay

• Electric supply (solar power can be explored)

• Water filtration units for classes

Most of all, it lacks the vibrancy and liveliness of a normal healthy school. The classrooms remain just bare rooms that go 'dead' every time when the children end their lessons for the day. Do you want to make a difference to the lives of these children?