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Supporting Dharma-based development in Cambodia
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"Step by step, every step is a prayer for peace and reconciliation." - Ven. Maha Ghosananda
Welcome to our website. KEAP is devoted to working with and assisting the Khmer people in their recovery from the wars and social upheavals in the recent past. Join us in helping Cambodians chart a brighter future on their own terms, at the
heart of which is their Khmer-Buddhist way of life. This website will inform you of our work, with historical and
current information about Cambodian culture. Thank you for visiting!
Our Current Projects
The Nuns’ Project for At-Risk Children
Breaks Ground and Takes Form!
Breaks Ground and Takes Form!
Dounji Ly SaVy, a Buddhist nun in Cambodia, is a natural leader with a mission. Her long-held vision to provide safe harbor for vulnerable children, allowing them to attend and complete school, passed important benchmarks in 2017 and 2018.
After years of preparatory work, which included raising the ground level to prevent flooding and constructing a perimeter wall, the project broke ground in January 2017 at the nuns' quarter of Wat Poveal, a well-known learning center wat in the northwestern part of the country. She participated with KEAP’s board chair Peter Gyallay-Pap and a generous donor in a traditional ground-breaking ceremony for the Maha Ghosananda Children’s Learning Center. The center includes a dorm facility, pictured above in an artist's drawing, that will house 40 primary school children (20 girls, 20 boys) who will attend the public school less than a 10-minutes' walk away and benefit from activities at the center when not in class. At the ceremony, the Wat’s achar, or lay president, presided with a recitation of protective chants from the Khmer spirit world, guaranteeing in a stone-laying ritual that the ground was being consecrated for helping children in need. Monks then blessed the event with Pali chanting.
After years of preparatory work, which included raising the ground level to prevent flooding and constructing a perimeter wall, the project broke ground in January 2017 at the nuns' quarter of Wat Poveal, a well-known learning center wat in the northwestern part of the country. She participated with KEAP’s board chair Peter Gyallay-Pap and a generous donor in a traditional ground-breaking ceremony for the Maha Ghosananda Children’s Learning Center. The center includes a dorm facility, pictured above in an artist's drawing, that will house 40 primary school children (20 girls, 20 boys) who will attend the public school less than a 10-minutes' walk away and benefit from activities at the center when not in class. At the ceremony, the Wat’s achar, or lay president, presided with a recitation of protective chants from the Khmer spirit world, guaranteeing in a stone-laying ritual that the ground was being consecrated for helping children in need. Monks then blessed the event with Pali chanting.
The second benchmark was completion of first building phase, foundation & infrastructure work of the dorm facility, before the start of the rainy season in June/July:
The second construction phase started the following 2017-18 dry season. Here is where things stood in April 2018.
In the picture, on the left, is Ven. Ly Sovechea, president of the Battambang branch of the Buddhist University, which has been assisting KEAP by overseeing the construction and providing work space for local KEAP staff. Flanked between Ven Sovechea and a monk assistant at the BU is KEAP's acting country representative Ven. Som Saroun.
The construction cost for the dorm, wash facility, and support building is $204,000. Help us complete this work with a one-time or monthly recurring donation, of which 100 percent goes to the project in Battambang
In the picture, on the left, is Ven. Ly Sovechea, president of the Battambang branch of the Buddhist University, which has been assisting KEAP by overseeing the construction and providing work space for local KEAP staff. Flanked between Ven Sovechea and a monk assistant at the BU is KEAP's acting country representative Ven. Som Saroun.
The construction cost for the dorm, wash facility, and support building is $204,000. Help us complete this work with a one-time or monthly recurring donation, of which 100 percent goes to the project in Battambang
fFor more details on this initiative in local socially-engaged Buddhism on behalf of the vulnerable young in Cambodia, please read The Maha Ghosananda Childre's Learning Center at Wat Poveal.
The paintings on this page - and the many others throughout this website - is by Svay Ken, who was an artistic visonary and pioneer of Cambodian contemporary art. Learn more about Svay Ken, our collection of his work, and how you may purchase this work to support KEAP.
A Boy During the Pol Pot Regime,
1993, Svey Ken