As the alleys darken with the passing of daytime, Homie Puli Café lights up with a warm glow as it awaits a volunteer group of National Chi Nan University teachers and students returning from Cambodia. It will mark the end of a journey that began with professors Cheng I-hsuan and Luo Ya-hui of the NCNU Department of International and Comparative Education and eight students in the summer of 2018.

The volunteers were implementing a plan to assist Cambodian parents with bedtime reading exercises for their children. The Cambodian village of Pro-Hut faces a labor drainage as youths move away in search of jobs in the cities or regional countries, leaving behind a community mainly staffed by women and kids. Between tending agricultural chores and the inaccessibility of pre-school education, children could benefit from early instructions in reading, decided Cheng, who previously worked with non-governmental organizations, and Luo, a reading instructor.

The overseas program was made possible with the support of predecessors, including a nutrition program utilizing soybean milk, conducted by the Taichung Municipal Hui-Wen High School and Siem Reap-based NGO Khmer Akphiwat Khmer Organization (KAKO). The seven-day instruction trial was formulated, re-evaluated, and rehearsed by the eight NCNU students with valuable input from Hui-Wen and KAKO. The hardest part, according to the NCNU delegation, was to ensure how the prepped materials could create a foundational start for six-year-olds through basic education that will connect back to the Cambodian academic system.

The students also took into account the limited time and resources available to the parents of Pro-Hut by distilling the educational concepts of crowd and peer learning into mnemonics that lead with “This is…,” “Why…,” “Contemplate…,” and other question-taking initiatives. The NCNU delegation reports that the fast-learning village members were receptive to the parent-child reading exercises and quickly completed training, leaving the students with time to paint wall murals for children and reflect upon their volunteer experience and the plight of the disadvantaged with little or no access to education.