Caring for Cambodia & LU College of Education Partnership

cambodia-fall-2015-264Caring for Cambodia (CFC) was founded as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 2003 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It emerged in response to a national lack of educational mentors after the genocide from 1975 to 1979 that targeted the educated members of society.

The mission of CFC is to “create and sustain safe, modern, and technologically equipped schools,” as well as train teachers and provide classroom materials. Long-term goals of CFC include training Cambodians to run the organization for Cambodians, improving early childhood education, and preparing students to aim for and excel at the university level.

Established in 2010, Lehigh University’s partnership with CFC centers on four goals:

  • To provide students with opportunities to teach, research, and/or evaluate programs, thus promoting connections between theory and practice
  • To internationalize Lehigh faculty, students, and curricula by creating new, meaningful learning experiences and engaging directly in international education development in Cambodia
  • To assist CFC by providing research-based evidence for their program implementation
  • To create a sustainable educational landscape in Cambodia

A Lehigh student leads an English teaching demonstration at a ESL conference hosted by CFC

These priorities have guided the partnership since its founding. Lehigh has since run evaluations, led workshops, organized program development, and completed other research-related activities. The data collected since 2010 indicate that CFC schools have lower dropout rates for primary school level: 2% versus the national average of 10%. Another Lehigh study showed that CFC graduates have a higher college matriculation rate of 33 percent, compared with the national average of less than 16 percent.  Lehigh faculty and students have also run formative evaluations on the Food For Thought and ESL programs at CFC schools. In 2012, a CFC Club was established on Lehigh’s campus.

For more information about Caring for Cambodia, please visit their website.