running water project
PhD
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She commenced a PhD (part time) in 200? titled ‘Equitable Entanglements’ that in part investigated the meaning of human equity. One of the tangible outcomes of the PhD has been the construction of 2 schools in rural Kampong Thom.
Through the Teachers Across Borders Principal’s Leadership and Administration workshop in June 2016, Thy and Susie met the principal Mr Lim KimEang of Kuok Nguon secondary school. While offering to fix the well at his school, he told us he needed a school building. This became the site for the first school. The second school was built at Porpel where Narith is principal. All schools in Kampong Thom province require funding for new buildings and/or renovations to existing buildings.
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The two schools built as part of the PhD research followed this model.
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The three volunteer programmes: Teachers Across Borders Australia Inc., Montlaur Human Equity Project (construction of two schools) and the Running Water Project with a PhD undertaken by Susie are an entanglement of things. They all seek to alter the equity for rural and economically disadvantaged communities in Kampong Thom.
The design of the Running Water Project is flexible to the needs of the school communities we encounter and is grounded in our long-term involvement in the education system in Kampong Thom, Cambodia. We have strong relationships with the Provincial of Education and have been granted permission to enter all schools in the province. The agreed parameters established for the project were and remain constrained by time and money. Working at the grassroots level, we have often experienced difficulty in attempting to alter the existing global aid framework for thinking and acting in an alternative manner, keeping human equity at the forefront. The power relations within this small group of co-workers (Thy, Narith and me) remain consistent within a model of foreign aid to a developing nation. However, what emerges is a strength of commitment by Thy, Narith and Susie to enact change through the education system to improve the capacity for human equity for as many people as possible.