Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPS), meaning “the brightness of art”, originated in 1986 in Site 2 Refugee Camp on the Thai border. The idea of a creative association, which would use art and expression to help young refugees overcome the trauma of war, emerged from drawing workshops held for children in the camps. This original idea continued after the refugees returned to their homeland, and PPS was formally founded in 1994 by a group of former Site 2 children.
Phare Ponleu Selpak aims to promote children’s access to their rights of which education is a key issue. Promoting access to formal education includes the availability of a school, which is free of charge, the development of a high teaching standard and the availability of school materials combined with complementary sources of knowledge including books.
For the past 11 years, the circus school has welcomed kids and teenagers to train all day long in several circus disciplines: acrobatics, juggling, balancing, contortion, trapeze and clowning. Twenty of those kids are now young adults who have become outstanding professional artists performing in Cambodia and all around the world.
The music school welcomes 70 children and young adults daily. Through the music school's wide range of activities its pupils can adapt their musical talents to a number of different settings. Musicians are also trained in traditional Khmer music making them able to perform during traditional ceremonies (funerals, pagodas, weddings) but also in modern rhythms with contemporary musical instruments. This enables them to mix their knowledge of traditional music with new beats.
PPS is strongly involved in the enforcement of Child Rights through delivering social services to the most vulnerable. PPS is aware that it is impossible for children to follow educative and cultural activities without their basic life needs being fulfilled. PPS social services support these needs in order to ensure children have access to their other rights.
The first artistic school and the start of PPS. Welcoming around 120 children and young adults, the visual arts school enjoys a high reputation in Cambodia and has started to develop activities abroad. Exhibitions have taken place throughout Cambodia, in hotels and cultural centres but also in Thailand and France. PPS visual arts school is involved in set design and making costumes. It has also decorated many orphanages, schools and other buildings aimed at children.
