COUNTRY GOAL of Bandos Komar is that by 2019, children and youths enjoy full potential of their rights in living with dignity to become human capital for sustainable development of the society.

Goal Justification:
To enable children and youths to exercise their rights with dignity, it is essential to provide them with quality and equitable education so that they become agent of change of their society and they deal with confidence with emerging challenges in their lives after the school.
In other words, Bandos Komar is engaged to nurture and build up human capital to tackle changes that will impact on human’s livelihoods.

Integrated Early Child Care and Development Programme:

Goal: By 2019, children aged below six years old, living in the target areas have full potential and opportunity to carry on their study in primary education level with equity, quality and effectiveness.

Justification:
All statistical data and empirical data collected by NGOs involved in preschools development and MoEYS, visits to parents, educators, members of committees, and staff of primary schools describe the tremendous positive impact that community preschools have on cognitive, social and motor development of enrolled children aged 3 to 5. Therefore since 2005, it became clear to IOs, NGOs and MoEYS that the scale-up of community preschools are an effective alternative for the development of young children in Cambodia and probably elsewhere. Benefits of community preschools identified by parents and local authorities are numerous, ranging from self-confidence, sensitization and practice of basic hygiene, nutrition improvement, to good preparation to socialization in the primary school.
Often perceived as non-formal education for rural children, community preschools actually offer in most remote places unprecedented opportunities for young children to enjoy equitable rights to education.

Integrated Quality Primary Education Enhancement Programme

Goal: By 2019, children and youths living in the target areas acquire knowledge, skills, confidence, sense of entrepreneurship and perseverance in the national and regional context.

Justification:
In the context of recent regional economic integration of Cambodia, challenges ahead for youths are huge in terms of employment and economic opportunities. School remains an avoidable instrument of skills provision and sense of entrepreneurship strengthening to turn challenges into opportunities.
By strengthening education quality, adapting life skills to market needs and developing confidence to children and youths, Bandos Komar ambitions to prepare them to harsh competition and highly selective labor market.
Five key strategies will back up this programme such as:

■ Strengthening capacity of local partners:
Capacity building of local partners includes awareness raising on respect and enforcement of child rights, enhancing quality of parents education, increasing pedagogical skills of teachers and supplying teaching materials, sensitizing the commune council on impact of community preschools for ECCD.

■ Improving nutrition of early children:
Besides his own experience, Bandos Komar will inspire from other existing effective models such as UNICEF and World Food Program to breakdown the vicious circle of children’s malnutrition by combining action in preschools and home-based parents education.

■ Upgrading water, sanitation and hygiene
Lack of water, hygiene and sanitation will be addressed through appropriate infrastructure accompanied by education in body and mouth hygiene with early children at their preschool that will be sustained in their family with the participation of their parents.

■ Improving community’s health
Community health will be improved through health education of both children and parents, plus facilitated access to health center services in the target areas. Basic health prevention of early children will be responded through education to hygiene and health such as hand washing, de-worming, follow-up of stunting and underweight via weigh-height measures, etc..

■ Partnership with stakeholders and networks at national
and sub-national levels
Bandos Komar will continue partnering with relevant stakeholders and networking with existing education forum and plate-form ( MEDICAM, NEP, child rights plateform, Plan International, UNICEF, ..) to update necessary insights and inputs in order to enhance and sharpen his action.

■ Strengthening and scaling-up Child Friendly Schools
This includes:

– Promotion, quality enhancement and responsiveness increase
– Capacity building of school leadership and support committee
– Awareness raising on child protection
– Improvement of children’s nutrition

■ Upgrading water and sanitation
Appropriate water infrastructure will be introduced in schools to ensure availability of water for safe drinking, hand-washing, gardening, etc..

■ Improving reproduction health
Basic knowledge on reproductive health will be mainstreamed in the school curriculum with update inputs such as library books, posters and teaching materials.

■ Promotion and strengthening life skills in school and the community
Innovative activities dealing with life skills will be introduced and upgraded to effectively inculcate sense of entrepreneurship to children during their schooling and afterwards in their community.

■ Mainstream resilience and reduction of natural disaster and climate change in school activities with children
To enable children to acquired preparedness and readiness to deal with natural disasters and climate change, the schools will mainstream these issues in the curriculum with the support of field activities, library books, posters and other teaching materials

■ Partnership with stakeholders and networks at national
and sub-national levels
Bandos Komar will continue partnering with relevant stakeholders and networking with existing education public forum and plate-form (MEDICAM, NEP, child rights plateform, Plan International, UNICEF,..) to update necessary insights and good practices in order to enhance and sharpen his action.