Our mission

Why Cambodia?

After the genocide led by the Khmer Rouge, during which 90% of the country’s intellectuals were executed, 65% of Cambodia’s population is now under 30 years old. Poverty is so widespread in rural areas that many parents have no other option than making their children work from a very young age.

Public schools, overwhelmed and overcrowded, can only offer classes on a part-time basis. It is therefore essential to help build a new educational system that creates valuable professions for the country, and allows girls to become engineers, teachers, and more.

100% success rate at the baccalaureate

Located just fifteen kilometers from Phnom Penh, the Happy Chandara campus now welcomes 1,300 young girls from extreme poverty and includes a nursery school, primary school, middle school, high school, two dormitories, a medical center and an agroecology center.

Its goal is to provide high-level education in Khmer, English and French, so that students become free and educated women, capable of passing on the best to the next generation and playing an active role in their country, in a world that respects the environment.

Every year, 100 new girls from the most disadvantaged backgrounds are enrolled in nursery school. With a 100% success rate at the baccalaureate every year, Toutes à l’école then supports and hosts its young graduates in its two student housing facilities in Phnom Penh, near the universities.

Comprehensive support for our students

The Happy Chandara campus provides a complete response to the needs of its students and their families living in extreme poverty: quality education, balanced nutrition, medical care (general medicine, vaccinations, dental and eye care, psychological support). The association also rebuilds the most dilapidated homes of students’ families so they can access decent living conditions.

An agroecological and educational farm

As environmental awareness lies at the heart of Happy Chandara’s pedagogy, the campus created in 2016 an agroecological farm producing 30 tons of organic fruits and vegetables per year for its three canteens, which serve 2,000 meals every day. From kindergarten onwards, all students are made aware of climate change issues through hands-on permaculture workshops and courses that open them up to the world. These lessons also help transmit strong values such as altruism, tolerance and equality.

A fully green and vegetalized campus

Particularly affected by the climate crisis, Cambodia faces increasingly extreme heatwaves, and public schools are sometimes forced to close their doors. Since 2022, a campus-wide vegetalization programme (climbing plants on corridors, canopies over playgrounds…) has reduced classroom temperatures by 4°C, allowing lessons to continue without interruption.

Key Figures

• 1,300 girls enrolled in school
• 400 post-baccalaureate students
• 100 new pupils enrolled in kindergarten every year