Khmer Education foundation

Khmer Education Foundation Inc (KEFI) was officially founded and became a not-for-profit charity in 2013 with the intention of aiding deserving Cambodian students go as far as they wanted in getting an education that would help them break the cycle of poverty that remains today a major obstacle to economic well-being in Cambodia. Since 2002 the founders and other donors of KEFI have been individually helping students in Cambodia and has since become a formal not-for-profit charity in 2013. Today we are registered with the IRS as a 501(c)3 entity that receives donations from all parts of the world.

With that goal in focus the Foundation has helped over 65 students from primary school to university and on to master’s degrees in education. With annual donations we have received from many donors over the years we have been able to follow the success of these students that a solid education was able to provide.

Today we have entrepreneurs, nurses, teachers, young people pursuing careers in banking and microfinance, accountants, flight attendants and several other careers that became possible by financial aid which gave them the educational opportunities to pursue their career dreams.

We continue to support individual students to realize their dreams

We have now embarked on a new project with a challenge that will impact young Cambodians for several generations and in greater numbers than we have been able to help in the past. The village elders of Nokor Thom District have asked the Foundation to help build a high school. The district needs a high school to keep the students in school and completing their basic 12-year education. Without a high school within their district, middle school students will drop out of school at grade 9 or travel 7-8 miles by bike each way into the city of Siem Reap to finish their high school studies. Given the population of the Nokor Thom district, the final design plans of the high school would benefit 727 students or more over the next few years.

The impact of such a project cannot be overstated in terms of the future generations of students within this district. If we can build buildings consisting of 5 classrooms each on land approved for the high school that already has the local and national government approvals, it would allow the students to continue to complete their 12 years of education near their homes and give them the first step up to good paying jobs and opportunities at further higher education.

We have completed phase 1 of the project meeting our target date and on budget. We have started Phase 2 of our High School building project which will be another classroom building of 5 classrooms that will be able to accommodate another 150-200 students. So far, we have completed the 1st classroom building now with 174 students in the 10th, 11th and 12th grades. We received a very generous donation of 25 laptops from a German finance company that will allow us to have a computer lab so that the students can learn digital skills that will help them get good jobs and good income. At a cost of $66,500 per classroom building and how much it will change so many lives for so little I really hope that we can complete the project in the next few years.

For those of us who have been to Siem Reap and Angkor over the years you will appreciate the fact that this high school would be located within the Angkor archeological park boundaries and would be in the shadow of Angkor Wat. How fitting that this 12th Century Cambodian cultural icon would be neighbor to a 21st Century high school campus. Donors traveling to Cambodia would be welcome to visit the school to see how much impact their donations make.