The story of first recipient of the Srey Bandaul Art Development Fund.

On 23 March 2022 Phare Ponleu Selpak hosted a roundtable discussion on child protection and the promotion of positive discipline for children under the topic, “How to Apply Positive Discipline at School”, with seven guest speakers, including Mr. Chhun Ramy, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) and Mr. Teng Visal the Deputy Director of the Provincial Office of Education (PoE) in Battambang and representative of a few public schools. Student representatives participated in the audience as well.

Here at Phare Ponleu Selpak, we believe strongly in the power of the arts to change lives. And science is on our side!

It’s been more than a year our visual arts students have been on and off school following the Government’s protocol as the pandemic spread over the Country. We had shown you back then how the first home confinement had provided Phare artists with time to reflect on this huge wave affecting us all. While Cambodia is facing a new outbreak, they have been expressing their insights and their appeal to pay closer attention to protect ourselves and others. Have a look at their latest works!

“My family’s connection to Phare, as I came to learn, dates back to the 1980’s when my father, as a Member of the Executive Committee of one of the resistance groups at the Thai-Cambodian border, had an oversight responsibility of the civilian affairs of all the refugee camps the group was overseeing, of which Site 2 – where Phare founders grew up and started drawing classes – was part of.”

After the most difficult year in our history, including the closure of our circuses with disastrous impact on funding, we have triumphed against the odds to win four gold awards at the Stevie International Business Awards (IBAs)! Phare has just been recognised once again for our audacious 24 hour circus World record attempt and fundraiser.

This June 2021, the Cambodian Ministry of Education announced that all schools will remain closed and children will continue learning through online classes. For rural and less privileged communities, it still means a lot of active participation from teachers and parents to compensate for the lack of access to internet and digital devices, and the long term gap it is digging to reach back the standard education level all children are entitled to get.

Phare is still taking an active role in the ‘Love Does Not Hurt Campaign’: a three-year advocacy campaign launched in 2020 to push for an end to Humiliating/Corporal Punishment and to promote Positive Discipline in the Southeast Asian Region. In May and June, our social support team conducted a new series of awareness sessions in 16 villages of Battambang Province, to which more than 330 persons attended. You might not be familiar with the concepts of Corporal Punishment and Positive Discipline? Read our article to know more!

This pandemic has brought the inequality and inequity in education to the forefront. While we did our best in extending kindergarten classes to the communities with “home” schooling, this reality gave us the motivation to take a fresh look at our Kindergarten serving 200 children.

History was made at 08.10AM on Monday 8th March, when no less than 90 Phare circus performers took a final bow after a continuous circus performance that lasted 24h, 10min and 30sec in a stunningly ambitious Guinness World Record attempt in the category of Longest Circus Show.

Do you want to be a Guinness World Record Breaker?
And help Cambodia’s leading arts and education NGO Phare survive the pandemic?
Then please join us on March 7th for our thrilling virtual gala and record-breaking Longest Circus Peformance Ever!

Those who have visited our campus after fall 2019 must remember the iconic «Anapyabal» mural on our circus building, painted by the world-famous Irish urban artist FinDac. After his visit to  Cambodia and Phare, he made limited edition prints of Anapyabal for Cambodia sold through our partner Tribe Gallery and another one for the international audience. 100% of profits have been donated towards Phare Visual and Applied Arts School students’ scholarship fund. 

Along with our main programs targeting the youth, we continue to develop greater community outreach projects with « Voice of older people », which aims to use the arts as an innovative tool to raise awareness in the community about the condition and challenges of the elderly women, and notably the disabled. 

Cirque du Cambodia is a documentary film showcasing the success story of Phare alumni Dina and Sopha. Starting on UN World Children’s Day, a special online benefit screening will be organized to raise money for our school and inspire people to help changing other Cambodian children’s lives through the arts!

These are strange times we are living in. Behind the scenes of Phare are slices of life stories, with their ups and downs, but mostly carrying with them the hope of brighter days to come. Listen to Phare voices, round #2!

After all Cambodian schools closed in March, Phare’s Education Department responded by developing outreach programs in the surrounding communes to provide our kindergarten children with face to face, socially distanced classes. Meet our teacher Hanny, who has been very actively engaged in teaching her students in the communities.

Phare had the pleasure to co-organize a day of circus workshops to entertain and bring joy to the children of the « Metta Karuna » Center, a like-minded organization of Battambang Province which provides education and care to young people coming from dire family circumstances including severe poverty and abandonment.

Phare is well known for its circus and arts schools, but did you know it is hosting a professional graphic design and animation studio under the very same roof, whose latest COVID-19 animation movie amassed more than a million views?

Working in times of COVID-19 can be unsettling. Behind the scenes of Phare Ponleu Selpak, our staff and students tell us about their concerns and their strengths.

In these troubled times, our first thought has been for the many impoverished communities in Battambang Province who are counting on Phare’s support. Social support has always been at the core of our mission. To understand the economic situation and immediate needs of families affected by this global crisis, Phare’s social workers conducted a detailed survey in April.

Our passionate and dedicated teachers Lon Lao and Chen Phy joined this exciting initiative with six students from their leisure drawing classes to learn, create and discover about the natural and cultural heritage sites in their country, their region, and around the globe.

With schools being closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic many of the children are at risk of dropping out of school permanently. Our mission to empower children and provide the support needed for them to stay in school and pursue their passions has never mattered more.

Like many content creators around the world, who are responding to the COVID-19 crisis online with engaging public health videos, Minor Act has teamed up with us to create a very unique Cambodian creative response: “Wash Ya Handz!!!”. 

Home confinement has provided Phare artists with time to reflect on this huge wave affecting us all and adapt to the situation by doing what they know best. 

I never imagined to be in the midst of a global pandemic during my lifetime. It is as if we have been thrown into an horror movie activating our survival instincts. Everyone in the world is being impacted in some way or another.

We did it: About fifty runners participated in the 16 km Angkor Ultra Trail around the temples of Angkor on January 18, 2020 to promote Phare Ponleu Selpak but most importantly to raise funds for the renovation of our dance studio.

Last month, our Big Top hosted an array of short showcases thoroughly prepared by our younger performing arts students and their leisure class teachers. A unique opportunity for them to gain valuable stage experience and showcase their talent.

Meet our budding artists, who are studying both at the Phare Public School and our
Performing Arts School! Thanks to our Sponsorship program, they can enjoy free education
and lots of creative activities on our campus.

Let the music play!

Our music students need a new space to create, perform and collaborate! That is why we initiated the construction of a brand new building made of five classrooms and a central pavilion stage to perform and gather. All that made in a sustainable way by the famous architect Stuart Cochin, with two landscape garden corners, and covered by a bamboo canopy to protect our students from Cambodia’s burning sun and heavy rains.
Learn more