THORTH A YANGON WITH ASSET-H and C

by | 2 Dec 2019 | Vocational training

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ASSET-H&C is a unique network of vocational training centres that promotes the social and economic inclusion of vulnerable people in Southeast Asia, through training and professional integration in the hospitality and catering business.
With their 14 members in 5 countries in South-East Asia, ASSET-H&C helps us by sharing their experiences, the pooling of resources, the promotion of good practices and, ultimately, the improvement of the results of each school. Members work hand in hand to increase their positive impact on disadvantaged youth & adult social and professional integration. ASSET-H&C also aims to offer training in hospitality-catering careers with a view to openings in sustainable professions.
Since 2016, the Bayon Pastry School has been part of ASSET-H&C network, which has recently been honoured by PATA Grand Award for Education and Training. At the end of October 2019, ASSET-H&C organised their annual regional seminarin Yangon, Myanmar with all their school members and the Bayon School was invited to participate.Discover the summary of this event, through the testimony of Thorth, our deputy programs director!
“It was a wonderful experience for me, as a representative of the Bayon School, to participate in the two-and-a-half-day seminar organised by ASSET-H&C in Yangon, Myanmar. This workshop gathered 12 member-schools from Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. One of the major highlights of this experience for me was being able to meet the directors of each school; we could get to know each other and exchange our experiences.
The objective of the workshop was to facilitate networking between the school members, who are working on providing the necessary skills to disadvantaged people to enable them to find decent work in the tourism and hospitality industry. Each member could share their experience of working with these people in need and learn from the other schools’ experiences.

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On the first morning, each member presented their school, their achievements and challenges in 2019 as well as their plans for 2020. In the afternoon, we discussed men-women equality, follow-up on graduates’ professional integration and alumni management. In the evening, we had the team challenge before enjoying dinner in the city of Yangon.
On the second morning, we discussed the ASSET-H&C progression and action plan for the next 3-5 years and in the afternoon, more than a hundred people participated in the stimulating conference on “Responsible business in tourism and hospitality”.

On the last day of the workshop, we visited Yangon Bakehouse Training Café to wrap up the discussion of the workshop before the participants left to return to their respective countries.
In my opinion, every school member find themselves in a similar social situation with the same challenges when trying to help their target people obtain the professional skills required for the tourism and hospitality industry. I was really excited to be able to participate in this kind of workshop, which allows us to share our best practices and take away new ones which could be applicable to the Bayon school.”

WEB-Yangon-Bakehouse

School uniforms made by Bayon’s mums

School uniforms made by Bayon’s mums

by | 25 Sep 2019 | Primary school, Social and families support

WEB-IMG_1008Normally purchased from an external provider, we have, many times, been disappointed by the quality of the uniforms we bought: issues with delivery, bad quality… Aside from these problems, we also felt it was the opportunity that represented this project that helped us set it up.
On the same model as the green gardens project that was installed in the families to provide food for the school canteen, the main idea was to give an extra salary to the family, and therefore improve their quality of living.
For this launch year, we decided to produce only the uniforms of the primary school and to buy the ones for the secondary school and pastry school from an external provider. The objective is, for next year, to produce all the uniforms.WEB-IMG_1004

The first step for this project was to recruit the “sewer” mothers. In order to accomplish this, I asked for help from the person who knows the families best: Soky, our social officer at the primary school. She helped me identify families who most needed this extra income and amongst these, 3 mothers had sewing skills: Sokheng, Mom and Mai.
Sokheng lives in a small house made of metal in a village opposite Angkor Wat with her husband and her two children. Her daughter Panha, is 6 years old and will be entering Grade 2 in October. Her son is only 4 months old, and it is very difficult for her to feed him correctly as she has no income.

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Mom lives in a big house on the side of the river that goes through the temples’ enclosure. She lives with her four nephews and nieces. They are enrolled in Bayon. She is the only person in the household to have a form of income. She is therefore in charge of buying the food and to provide for the needs of her family.
Mai has 3 children: her two daughters are enrolled in Bayon primary school, Sopheak in Grade 5 and Sreyka in Grade 4, and her son, Kvan, aged 3 is for now too young to join the benches of school.
These three women all live in very precarious conditions and did not hesitate to seize the opportunity of an income. When we visited their homes to offer the chance to participate in the production of the uniforms, they all accepted without hesitation. However, their skills were insufficient, we had to ask help from Lan, a professional sewer.

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The purchase of the fabric and accessories was done at the market, the cut of the fabric to the right size and especially the training of the mothers for the sewing of the pieces, Lan is an essential member of this chain of production for this first year. Also living in precarious conditions, she also benefitted from this project. Next year, we will make sure the mothers take charge of the whole chain of production.
To start the conception, we needed to invest in new equipment: a sewing machine, 3 irons, a special machine to sew the buttons… Luckily, the donators supported us!
At this date in early September, the production continues: we are finishing the uniforms for Grades 3, 4, 5, and 6 and we are going to start soon the uniforms for Kindergarten, Grades 1 and 2. Objective: 490 uniforms for the 1rst of October!
Phorn, the director of the primary school and Jeanne, our fundraising officer, bring me essential help for the tracking of the production. We visit the 4 women invested in the project 2 times a week to make sure they are not missing anything and to collect the uniforms that have been produced already. It is very encouraging!
We are impatient to see the students in their uniforms produced by the mothers of Bayon.

Holidays in Angkor Temples…

Holidays in Angkor Temples…

by | 24 Sep 2019 | General education, Primary school

The AuVert’gnats, a group from the Puy-de-Dôme area in France composed of four girls and four boys, proposed a rich and detailed candidature, which motivated our choice. Coming out of a two week experience in the Alpes where they helped a cow farmer with milking and other activities linked with alpine pasture, the team started uniting through strong values of solidarity and mutual aid; values they used during their month at Bayon School.
The August 2019 summer camp took another direction because this year, we associated the scouts and the bursary students of the association. Bayon School hopes to support some students after Grade 12 by offering them a study bursary.WEB-67843393_376146466401765_8203761450917822464_n
To start with, the two groups met up to exchange over ideas, organize themselves and build a common calendar. One week was more reserved for Khmer games and the next to French games, the other nationality discovering the specificities of entertainment in each culture.
The scouts offered games that the Khmer children did not know. Their preferences turned towards group and sportive games such as “balle au prisonnier”, chicken-viper-fox (the vipers catch the foxes, who catch the chicken who eat the vipers!) or the planets game. They alternated between the sportive activities and the creative activities (collage, decoration, painting…) in order to make small groups. Between 50 and 80 children were present each morning and afternoon. The summer camp was open for Grade 2 and older.WEB-67825096_343013743250901_8164017524367687680_n
The scouts really appreciated having the bursary students at their side. They considered this partnership franc-Khmer as essential as it enabled them to better understand the culture and to have access to information they wouldn’t have understood otherwise. Some of the scouts visited a family and discovered the house of our students. They will remember moments full of emotions such as the songs and the dances with the children. They loved playing outside and be surprised by the rain season and even then, continuing to play outside under the rain! Their favorite moment is a swim with some of the older students (11 to 14 years old) in one of the basins of ponds of the Angkor temples…

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They sometimes found the days a bit long, because animating for such a long time can be exhausting. With time, they organized themselves better and learned to know the children, their names, their personalities and rich and sincere exchanges came from it. When we ask them what was their greatest difficulty, some answered: “hunger!”. The canteen of the school serves rice and soup of vegetables/meat every lunchtime. A bit repetitive for the French appetite.
The group of scouts was very professional and courageous (20km of biking every day to go to the school). They led their activities with enthusiasm and respect. We thank they vividly for their engagement with Bayon School!

THE ASSOCIATION « LE RÊVE D’ELO »

by | 18 Sep 2019 | General education, Health, hygiene and food, Primary school

Following an accident 20th April 2014 in Cambodia, Elodie died at the age of 27. She was the project coordinator at Bayon School.
The project that was the most important to her was the creation of a canteen inside the school. Elodie wanted to provide lunch to the children so they benefited of at least one healthy and balanced meal per day and to avoid them going back and forth between the school and their village.
The project emerged in November 2014 under the name of “Elodie’s canteen”. In December 2014, our family created the association “Le Rêve d’Elo” with the aim of financially sustaining the good functioning of the canteen.
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Today, we count 45 members (families and friends). Through this project, seven children have found godfathers.
Our association organises two events per year:
• In spring, a pedestrian walk followed by a barbecue with a sale of envelops with a prize for each, sale of backpacks and tee-shirts
This event enables the walkers to discover the commune that welcomes us, its heritage and new landscapes. (In 2019: 350 walkers and 400 meals).
• In autumn, a dinner party (300 guests) with a raffle which has great prizes offered by our partners.
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The profits of these two events are increasing each year (2018: 17,000€, including 3,800€ of donations).
The city councils who welcome us offer their premises, often as a gesture and they give us technical support. We thank them dearly.
The regular attendees of our events are regularly informed of the projects of SEP Bayon and the payments we make.
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We are very motivated by the memory of Elodie, for whom the joy and smile of the children was her greatest prize.
Important notice: the next dinner party will be on 19th October 2019.
PORTRAIT OF SOKLY : our teacher for the pastry school

PORTRAIT OF SOKLY : our teacher for the pastry school

by | 17 Sep 2019 | Bakery and pastry school, Coffee Shop, Vocational training

Sokly is 34 years old and mother of 2 children. She joined the team in February 2017.
Before, she was a cook in a Khmer restaurant that she had opened herself. Even if it was small, she always loved cooking and took a great deal of pleasure from preparing traditional Cambodian dishes for her customers.

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After advice from a friend, she decided to try the entry contest to get into the prestigious École d’Hôtellerie et de Tourisme Paul Dubrule. She completed it successfully and followed the pastry training.
After graduating from Paul Dubrule in 2016, she also enrolled in a cake decoration training in Sihanoukville as well as with the Vietnamese company Cream to complete her skill set.
She was then recruited by Brown Coffee, a Coffee shop Cambodia chain famous throughout the country. She worked 7 months in one of their cafés and met a few students who were there for their internship for a school that was growing in popularity: Bayon Pastry School.
Her old pastry teacher at Paul Dubrule vividly recommended her to Sokhoeurn, our pastry school director. What was the essential quality that convinced Sokhoeurn? Her skills in the preparation of vienoisseries and breads.

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Bayon School was an opportunity for her to exceed her expectations. She now teaches all the classes linked to pastry, practical and theoretical. She is very happy to be able to share her knowledge with her students who are very curious, attentive and diligent. Day after d ay, she tries to make her classes more interactive by creating a variety of activities and workshops. To successfully lead this project, she does not hesitate to ask for help from ex-teachers and her friends.
The main objective for her is that the students enjoy their training and have the platform to showcase their creativity. She is also committed to the importance of post-training recruitment for the students. It is very important for the students to find a stimulating position, that they enjoy and have a salary which permits them to live and to help their families.
Sometimes she feels like a second mother for the students who decided to study pastry far away from their homes. She listens to them, helps them and is always available. `
Like every year, the end of the year is particularly difficult for her as she has to say goodbye to the students that she guided and supported all year. Unfortunately, the transition with the following promotion of students is rarely very long.

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The new academic year started at the start of September and Sokly already has many ideas of games to teach pastry in ludic way and in order to share a maximum of knowledge in the simplest fashion.
Well done Sokly and thank you for your investment!

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