Sayla McCowan (left) and her Grade 5/6 class at Jack MacKenzie School in Regina, along with University of Regina education professor Buryl Bernard (at board), talk about life in Cambodia.
Photograph by: Don Healy, Leader-Post
Buryl Bernard is a man whose feet are in two diverse worlds — Canada and Cambodia — but the land of the golden smiles is never far from his heart.
The University of Regina education professor's four trips to Cambodia in the past two years kindled his passion to improve the country's educational system, which continues to feel the effects of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime.
His passion led him to develop a project called the Cambodian-Canadian Classrooms for Change, which partners Canadian classrooms with those in the developing nation. He hopes the project will encourage Canadian kids to get involved in global issues by developing a personal connection with Cambodian students and raising funds to improve their educational opportunities.
"My job here is very satisfying, but working in Cambodia to try and co-ordinate things to help the people over there has been so enriching," Bernard said recently. "My life and the lives of these students/projects have become intertwined and I am continually reflecting and thinking about my day-to-day life through a lens which has been forever impacted by what I have experienced in Cambodia."
His plan includes developing a database of Cambodian classrooms, teachers and schools.
"It will be almost like a Foster Parent plan, where you get a picture of a kid," Bernard said. "In this case, it'll be a picture of a school and a biography about the school. That's how I envision it to be sustained beyond the period of the pilot."
The project began at Jack MacKenzie School last September because of the elementary school's previous partnership with the university.
"We usually do several things back and forth with the university — the students come out and teach lessons and we go there for tours," said Grade 5/6 teacher Sayla McCowan. "Last year, I had my class there with several others on a tour and Buryl was talking about some supplies that he was taking to Cambodia, and I said, 'It sounds like a wonderful thing for my class to be involved in.' "
Her enthusiasm was contagious. Teachers Laura Rhead and Karen Marchuk quickly got on board and the pilot project was set up between Jack MacKenzie School and Aknuwat Primary School in Achalak Village Commune.
On two visits to McCowan's classroom, Bernard has shown students exquisite pictures he's taken of Cambodia and explained why the land of golden smiles keeps calling him back.
"I was impressed by the kids that I met — they are just so happy — 'the land of the golden smiles' is what they say," Bernard said. "The children are always laughing and are very welcoming."
He hopes other schools in Saskatchewan, and across the country, get involved because funds are vital to upgrading educational opportunities in Cambodia. He feels great empathy for classroom teachers, who find it increasingly hard to stretch their monthly salary of $40.
"That used to be enough to feed families, but rising fuel costs, production costs and the cost of rice has really cut into what $40 does for a family," Bernard said. "Often, teachers are forced to cancel classes to do other work to subsidize their classroom wage. They've been known to take bribes to pass kids — and this all stems from the time of the Khmer Rouge."
He said when the Khmer Rouge came to power, it was viewed as liberating. That changed under the brutal Pol Pot regime.
"Pol Pot was fond of saying that the classrooms will be the fields and the pencils will be hoes so everyone was forced out of the major cities into the countryside and they were informed that they were going to grow rice," Bernard said.
An estimated 1.7 million people were massacred on the "killing fields" of Cambodia or worked to death through forced labour.
"They killed anybody who wore glasses, anybody who was an intellectual and anybody who taught," Bernard said. "As a result, the school system lost a generation of teachers and Buddhist monks, as well. Largely, the people who survived were peasants and uneducated people."
The country's devastating losses have resulted in too few teachers to instruct the growing number of students who want to be educated. Since Cambodia doesn't have the financial resources to train teachers, classes are held in shifts.
"A Grade 3 teacher might have 40 kids in the morning and another 40 in the afternoon," Bernard said.
His proposal to help the Cambodians captured the hearts of Kindergarten to Grade 8 students and the staff at Jack MacKenzie School.
Younger students brought bags and containers of pennies to school while Grade 5 to Grade 8 students competed in a Pennies for Cambodia challenge. Not only were students eager to win a pizza party — the prize for the classes who raised the most money — but they relished trying to outdo each other and their teachers.
Since getting involved in the project, students in the southeast Regina school have been counting their blessings and the massive mounds of change they collected to help effect change for kids in southeast Asia.
"The whole school raised $2,663.08 and that money will buy stuff for Cambodia like school supplies," explained Troy Treslan. "It's good to help poor people."
Grade 5 student Amber Thompson is proud her class raised the most money and that the entire school helped to exceed the original goal of raising $500.
"Our reading buddies, the Grade 2 classroom, won for their penny group so we're going to have a pizza party with them in the gym," Thompson said.
Bernard's Powerpoint presentation was an eye-opener for many children including 10-year-old Berfin Tunc.
"The pictures were really sad, but now we can send money and that will help a lot," Tunc said.
Andy Luu has a greater appreciation for his life in Canada after seeing and hearing about conditions in Cambodia.
"Their schools have dirt floors!" he said. "I'm really glad to have the stuff that we have. Here, we take pencils and pens for granted and there it's like treasure. And Mr. Bernard said there were landmines there, and if you step on them they explode."
Sydney Broghen, 11, was amazed that all of Bernard's photos showed people smiling despite enduring daily poverty.
"They have to cook over an open fire with pots to heat their water — they don't have all the fancy technology that we have that does everything for us," she said. "I hope they'll get school supplies or another outhouse or something to help the teacher — like another blackboard or chalk.
"I think that everybody in the school who participated was really generous. Bringing the pennies, knowing that they were going to Cambodia, made me feel really good because I knew we were helping people in need and I knew that pennies sitting in drawers here are just junk but in Cambodia they are a big deal."
Grade 7 students did a lot of research about Cambodia and regularly share their findings with the school body during morning announcements.
Shea Greggains was intrigued to learn that kids who live a world away don't celebrate their birthdays.
"They are so poor, but they are so happy," she said. "The entire school shares three outhouse toilets and they don't have many school supplies so they have to share."
Just as students have been learning many lessons about Cambodia, so is McCowan. She, too, is incredulous that people who have so few material possessions appear to be so rich in spirit.
"Maybe it's because they have so little that they're so happy with what they have," she said. "We kind of get caught up in, 'We need, we need,' and really it's just what we want."
She's pleased Bernard will deliver every dollar raised by Canadian classrooms to Cambodian teachers so they can purchase student supplies, teaching materials and play equipment.
"There will be no middleman because Buryl will take the money there and they will be accountable for the money that they spend, but they will be able to pick and choose what they want to use the money for at the school," McCowan said. "So as Syndey said, perhaps they'll want a new outhouse because they only have three."
As for Bernard, he's thrilled by the school's response to the pilot project.
"The money these kids raised is huge because when you're looking at $100 — that is 2 1/2 months wage for a teacher," he said. "What you can do with that in the classroom really changes the possibilities."
The United Nations ranks Cambodia 131 of 177 countries on the Human Development Index, which is based on life expectancy, education level and standard of living. In comparison, Canada ranks fourth.
At Aknuwat Primary School, two kids sit at each desk and they use old slates and chalk to copy material from the blackboard at the front of the classroom. Despite its few resources, Bernard grades Aknuwat Primary School, which is located in central Cambodia, as an "above average" school.
"Typically, what you find is that towards the larger centres in each of the provinces they'll have better schools because they're more visible and there seems to be more affluence in the central parts of Cambodia. But as you move out towards the villages the quality deteriorates," he said. "Some places have minimal structures as far as bricks and mortar. It might be a tin roof and open elements. The typical Cambodian classroom is a cement structure — it almost reminds me of a bomb shelter ... There's no electricity, no running water and they use outhouses — the schools that have them. A lot of schools in the villages don't even have an outhouse."
Bernard is gratified Regina kids have a greater understanding about conditions in Cambodia and a desire to help.
"What I really wanted was students to recognize that it doesn't have to be Cambodia — it can any neighbourhood where they see a wrong that needs to be made right and that they do have the power to effect a change if they want to," he said. "We talk about this idea of transitioning between first understanding there is a problem, empathizing (not sympathizing) with the people, being hopeful that you can make a difference, find some way to rectify the issue and then taking some action. It's just reinforced my belief that this is attainable. We live in a socially constructed world with all kinds of inequities. I think we all have the power to make a change."
His vision to bring about change in Cambodia has been supported by the Centre for International Education and Training in the U of R Faculty of Education.
"I have to be thankful for the position that I have here in the faculty — not only do they provide me with opportunities to pursue some of these things, but they actively support me," Bernard said.
When he takes a sabbatical from the university next year, he plans to implement a project that will promote play in Cambodian classrooms — many of which lack a physical education component in their curriculum.
"Over the 10-week period that I'm in Cambodia in December 2010 and January 2011, I'll meet with (teachers) twice a week for two hours and we'll just go through some activities that they can do with things like Frisbees and beachballs. Then they'll take the kit and it will be a classroom resource for all the participants in the program," Bernard said.
He credits Rhead, Marchuk and McCowan for being instrumental in rallying the students and staff at Jack MacKenzie School.
"So often you raise money and you give it to an organization and that's it — you don't see any end results. This way we will," McCowan said. "What the students have learned is phenomenal. It's a different way of life."
The school will continue to raise money for Cambodia and has applied for $500 from a charitable foundation set up by retired educator Jack MacKenzie.
Bernard greatly respects the school's namesake whom he describes as a man "who has ensured through his actions that kindness and effort are more than words, but a spirit which the school embodies and practices."
Anyone interested in further information or donating to the CCCC project can contact Bernard by e-mailing him at Buryl.Bernard@uregina.ca or calling 585-4526.
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