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Overview
The key impact of our work lies in the excellent standard of education
that will become financially self-sustaining in the long term. The
Cambodia Project aims to assist the school communities in achieving independence and viability from revenue streams that include tuition fees and microfinance to sustain the tuition model, as well as local agriculture and trade, ecotourism, and volunteer tourism for the business model.
The Cambodia Project will also implement a program that offers scholarships to students (up to 50%) from lowest-income families, and commits these secondary students to give back to the school they attended once they enter the workforce.
Sustainability plans will be initiated at year five and then take place fully over the following ten years of operations as The Cambodia Project removes itself from active financial involvement to focus on other communities. The Cambodia Project will hand the respective school to a local and viable NGO with sound and similar-minded level of commitment and integrity. We will continue in oversight and advisory capacity, however, to ensure that the schools run efficiently and successfully in following our mission to provide high quality, holistic, and sustainable school models.
Sustainability
In order to develop the most effective education programs for local populations, The Cambodia Project school model is designed to be sustainable. Each school will possess strong management, clear strategic planning, a solid physical infrastructure, and financial self sufficiency that begins at year five.
1. Strong Management and Clear Strategic Planning - Under the tutelage of its founder, Jean-Michel Tijerina, CPI is managed by staff located in both New York and Cambodia. Technical advice in several key areas, such as education planning and economic development, is provided to CPI by development professionals and students from leading international graduate schools including Columbia University, Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), University of Texas (Austin), and Stanford University. Bridges Across Borders (BAB) is CPI’s strategic partner in Cambodia. BAB, staffed predominantly by local Cambodians, has several successful education and community development programs already operating in Cambodia and will act as CPI’s local partner.
2. Solid Physical Infrastructure - The school structure is designed to be easily maintained in the local environment. CPI school designs incorporate green technology that includes rooftop terraces, solar voltaic panels, and rain-water capturing to promote environmental sustainability and reduce the school’s carbon footprint. The facility will also be leveraged by the local population after-hours for community-based events.
3. Financial Self Sufficiency: Tuition, agriculture, vocational and trade skills, ecotourism, and microfinance - The sustainable funding model developed by CPI to finance school operation costs is a combination of diverse revenue generating streams. Microfinance provides loans for tuition, entrepreneurial graduates and students’ families, and facilitating economic development in school communities. Revenues contribute to scholarships designed to subsidize the lowest income students’ tuition. Agriculture and craft revenues feed conditional cash grants to families to ensure student attendance, compensating for the productivity loss relative to farming work. Vocational training programs equip students with skills allowing them to secure employment post graduation and fulfill their loan commitments. Ecotourism revenues subsidize school maintenance costs and salaries for teachers. Finally, partnerships with NGOs specializing in non-educational issues – such as health and community development - benefit the holistic design and solidify our strong approach.
For further information, please contact: sustainability @ thecambodiaproject.org.
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