Right from the beginnings of Community Support Associations’ formation, the CSA team were hoping to put together the resources and recruit a CSA English ClassEnglish Teacher to open our own English Classes for the children of Chansor Commune.
In August 2012, we were able to secure the services of Mr Hean, who generously offered to teach the English Classes for us, and even offered his family home as a school room.
With word out that we needed desks and resources to open our school to students, we had many generous people step forward. With desks, whiteboard, light & other resources English classes were open for business!! Then, from Jake (England) offered support in building the Bamboo Library room, to store our resources and equipment.
So began the Chansor Commune School, offering free English classes to the village children. Each week day from 5 to 6 and 6 to 7, children are welcomed to the classes. The time frames are structured to suit around state school times. And school aged children from 5 onwards are all encouraged to attend.
The school has gone from strength to strength. Consistently having attendances of up to 80 children.
Then in March 2014 a very generous donation from Tim Audy (England) saw the CSA team able to purchase our very own block of land in Bos Village (just up the road from Mr Hean’s house). From there even more generous sponsors stepped forward. Graeme and Trudie Rogers (Brisbane, Australia) kindly offered their support and donated the money needed to build the school building. Geoff & Helen Barlow (Ballina, Australia) and the Hillston Uniting Church also donated generously to build the kitchen/amenities block & the water pump well.
Further to this, Dario & Yvonne Serifin have offered their support in setting up the community garden attached to the school. With mango trees and garden implements purchased, we intend to encourage community members to be involved in the school it what ever capacity they can offer.
Our hugely successful cottage industry of selling harem pants & scarves in Australia (although the stock is purchased in Cambodia) has seen the profits used to level the block, bring in top soil, hire a tractor and fence the entire block of land. Thanks to Karen Willshaw (of Karen Willshaw Photography), Cocos Island Visitor Information Centre, Ali, Kire & Loz, for all their hard work in being our “sellers” of pants and scarves to their network of friends & family. And thanks to the buyers of course!
We offer thanks to all who have been involved in the Chansor School Project. You can be assured that by offering additional free educational opportunities to the children a real difference is being made to the entire community.
Kind regards –
Community Support Team
Rathany, Bophay & Ali
D5 Creation