A picture report of my 2+ week KEAP mission to Cambodia November-December 2009.

Peter Gyallay-Pap, founder & exec director, Khmer-Buddhist Educational Assistance Project (KEAP)

 

The nonformal school for vulnerable children, Siemreap

My father-in-law Nou Seng, recovered from a life threatening illness in July, is here teaching 8 vulnerable children who showed up for classwork, including Buddhist chanting and a few minutes of meditation, at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning, November 21st. Several well-funded foreign missionary groups, equipped with vans to pick up children at their homes, have been weaning the kids away from this Khmer-Buddhist education initiative. Also, the previous month’s extensive flooding had parents and guardians keeping children at home to help with mop-up and repair chores. This year, there are more than 20 children in the program supported by the Dragon Mountain Sangha in Crestone (CO) and individual donations. The program assists children from very poor families who would not otherwise be able to attend the local public school located adjacent to my in-laws home pictured here. This is a value-added program, in part as there is no chanting, meditation, or instruction in Buddhist morality offered in the public schools of Cambodia, a country that is 90 to 95% Buddhist, where Buddhism is a way of life, an integral part of the country’s social and cultural fabric.

 

         

 

 

Monk education, Phnom Penh

         

- Khyentse Founsation post-graduate scholarships

Ven. Chun Sophal, seated right in the bottom left picture (with Ven. Som Vichea), and Ven. Hak Sienghai, seated on the right in the center picture (next to Ven. Chhom Mao), were selected by a senior monk committee as recipients of Khyentse Foundation scholarships to study in Sri Lanka. They depart in late January 2010 for a full year of M.A. degree work at Kelaniya University’s Post-Graduate Institute for Buddhist and Pali Studies in Colombo. Tian Yee, of  Singapore’s Firefly Mission (a KEAP donor) and I are flanking Vens. Hak and Mao. We are grateful to the Khyentse Foundation for their unswerving support for a program whose goal is to help strengthen the Theravada Buddhist lineage in Cambodia.

                                                        

                                                                                                       

 

 

 - Supporting monk teachers and students

In an informal ceremony at Phnom Penh’s Wat Unnalom toward the end of my stay, KEAP’s part-time volunteer coordinator Keo Vichith hands a donation to Ms. Chhorn Mom, a dedicated Dharma teacher of Sanskrit at the Preah Suramarit Buddhist High School. Other teachers of monks receiving recognition, who were unable to attend, were Pali teacher and textbook writer Mr.Prak Kuhn, based in Battambang province, and Mr.Ros Saven, a gifted Pali professor at the Preah Sihanouk Raja Buddhist University. (In 1993, KEAP commissioned Prak Khun to write a Dharma book that turned out to be a Pali grammar text that is now used officially throughout Cambodia to teach monks.) KEAP's senior advisor, Ven. Yon Sen Yeath, assisted with the selection. We thank a donor in Seattle, Washington (USA) for allowing us to honor gifted teachers of monks who are in financial need. Remuneration for monk teachers is among the lowest for teachers in the country. We hope this modest recognition and gratitude for their service will help promote excellence in teaching for monk education.

 

Flanking Vichith and Ms. Chhorn are four monk students – from left to right, Vens. Suon Bunyong, Voeun Sarorn, Sok Sopheap, Tit Sarun – who are among 13 monk students at the Buddhist University who are receiving KEAP scholarships during the 2009-2010 academic year. In a project administered by the Buddhist Association of Cambodia, KEAP provides monthly stipends to selected monk students in years 2, 3, and 4 who have demonstrated academic achievement, a commitment to the monastic life, and financial need. Sponsors of individual monk students include the Bandar Utama Buddhist Society in Malaysia, the Zen Community of Oregon, the Dragon Mountain Sangha in Crestone, and individual donors. The new academic year starts in May 2010 and runs through February 2011.

 

Support for the nuns center at Wat Poveal, Battambang

I spent the week-end of Nov. 21-22 into Monday facilitating the nun’s project to upgrade their center as well as to reprint a Dharma text and purchase a stock of rice. Assisting with this program are the Dhammayietra Center and Samakithor (Dhammic Solidarity) in Battambang. During the rainy season, the run-off and seepage from the roof of the main building has damaged the facade over the years. In a picture taken on a previous visit, head nun Sa Vy is standing on the roof of the building, whose middle floor is meditation space with nuns' living quarters on the floor above and on the ground level. With help from the Firefly Mission in Singapore and World Charity in Denver, we provided support to build a metal roof. The work on the roof, gutters, and drainpipes, led by Sa Vy’s son, began immediately.

 

Head nun Sa Vy is a teacher and meditation master whose gifts are in demand in wats throughout the province. She travels to teach nuns and laywomen, but also monks seek to learn meditation from her. With support from the East Side Meditation Center in Seattle, we reprinted 200 copies of a text she requested for her work entitled “The Way of Practice for Lay People.”

 

 At left, head nun Sa Vy with five other resident nuns, the four orphans they care for, two girl helpers, and Ven. Sam Sophat of Wat Poveal,

who has been supportive of the nuns center. During the rainy season retreat, ending in

October, fifteen women took the white robes to stay at the center.

We discovered on an earlier visit that the diet for the eight nuns and four orphans living at the center was less than adequate. Ven. Santidhammo, an American Theravadin monk who serves on KEAP’s board, provided funds to purchase a dozen 50-kilo sacks of rice. We hope that with the money saved on the rice, they can buy fresh produce to supplement their staple of fermented fish paste (prahok).

 

Our next immediate goal, with completion of the roof, is to help repair and repaint the building. (We previously helped bring in electricity and piped water). The improved facility will serve as a meditation center and hopefully attract more nuns (it can accommodate 30), including younger nuns who could serve as Dharma community resources to, in particular, women and children in distress. 

 

 KEAP, P.O. Box 657, Crestone, CO 81131

  peter@keap-net.org   www.keap-net.org