Dear friends of Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPS),

At war times, the Battambang province was heavily bombed and last night events remembered this war to all the people here who already suffered so much from it.

An ammunition Depot on military ground located near our village, less than one kilometre away, started a fire last night. Explosions lasted for 4 hours, four very long hours with one especially intense hour of continuous blasts. Children living on our ground where immediately moved to our administrator house in downtown Battambang, and happily they all made it safely.

Victim’s figures are still to be estimated, as a lot of the nearest villager houses that where located closer to the site where totally burned down. We do know that PPS-helped families went away from the dangerous area shortly after the first explosions. PPS staff spent the whole night trying to reunite families that were separated during their escape. On this side of things, the morning proved successful, with no one close to PPS missing – Staff, staff families, beneficiaries, all the people that use to be working with us or that we use to help trough our various programs are safe by now.

Now for the material damage. While the most important thing certainly is that nobody around PPS was harm, and some uncertainties survive on the destiny of individuals living in the village without being known to us, several buildings on our compound where severely damaged. Rooftops from the Circus school, public school and art school are totally or partially destroyed, ceiling from our offices and toilets fell down damaging the computers. At the time of writing “’we need to secure the rooftops before the rainy season comes”, a heavy rain started, which is probably right now spoiling our pedagogic materials even further. We where caught in a cold, and sure all of us are trying to protect and shelter what they can, but we lack essentials so much. The circus school especially took so many years to achieve its current level of performance. It could be a financial disaster as well, as Circus performances represents a highly significative part of the gross income for PPS.

We are estimating an approximate budget of 5.000usd of damage to the buildings, a figure that should be refined trough a serious entrepreneur opinion, but this is only for the buildings damage; we still have to go through the loss in materials (computer, circus equipment, classroom’s furniture…)

While the young children are still away (the area is still presumed at risk), PPS is sheltering three families that cannot return to their homes, as a safety zone has been established that encloses their homes. The risk still going on is some concern from the military authorities that even more explosive stockpiled in the basement may still explode. There are actually 49 families who totally lost their housings. These families need support to rebuilt their houses and face elementary needs.

Overseas friends can help by sending money to

Comite de Jumelage de la ville de Torcy
Pour Battambang
Jean-Pierre Ossorio
36 rue du jeu de paume
77200 TORCY

Or, for those of you living in Cambodia, straight to us, at :

Phare Ponleu Selpak Income
Canadia Bank LTD. / Battambang Branch / Compte Numéro 04 00 306 001372

Phare Ponleu Selpak will keep you updated with the actual use of your money in total trensparency. Please state if you intent this money to be spent on emergency issues for the villager or to contribute to the rebuild of Phare damaged properties (rooftops, school expenditures, etc…)

On behalf of all the people here at Phare Ponleu Selpak,
Jean-Christophe Sidoit.

Mobile: 012 482 005

jcsid@free.fr

Should you need any more information on Phare or an update on the actual situation in our village, please feel free to contact:

Jean-Philippe Monteiro,

(Phare representative in Phnom Penh)

Mobile: 012 561 005

Jean-Philippe.Monteiro@Freebel.net

Phare Ponleu Selpak:

From a refugee camp initiative to a multi-angled sustainability-through-arts project.

Phare Ponleu Selpak started back in 1986 in Site 2, a Refugee Camp located on the Thai border. From simple drawing workshops for children in the camps, the idea of an artistic association emerged: an association that would use art and expression to help young refugees overcome the trauma of war.

The experiment continued after the young refugees left the camp to return to their homeland in Battambang. In 1994, Phare Ponleu Selpak was founded by former Site 2 camp children, now young adults. The newly born association found a home at Anh Chanh village, near Battambang. The association quickly diversified its activities. Along with drawing, came music, circus, a library and lots of other activities such as an animation centre, a school and a literacy support programme ... Within a comprehensive project, educative, social and cultural actions extended in the village. In 2002, collaboration with the Ministry of Social Affairs and UNICEF allowed the association to welcome young victims of human trafficking, AIDS’ orphans, and children living in extreme social situations. Finally, in 2003, thanks to a partnership with the Ministry of Education, a public school with a capacity of 830 students settled inside PPS. Three hundred village children who had never been to school before started attending classes as soon as the school opened.