The Champey Academy of Arts (CAA) is our arts school serving primarily disadvantaged children in central Phnom Penh. After sponsoring, for nearly fourteen years, a school (The Apsara Arts Association or 'AAA'), teaching traditional dance to underprivileged children, we decided in the autumn of 2012 to redirect our resources toward establishment of a new school in the center of the city. We named our new school, Champey* Academy of Arts and there we offer classes in traditional dance - both classical and folkloric, traditional music and traditional drawing/painting.

Our mission at the CAA, as with the AAA, is to provide a safe space for disadvantaged young people where we can introduce them to their nation's rich arts culture while helping them to experience the pride, self confidence and poise which come from mastering difficult skills.

Currently at the Champey Academy we employ nine staff plus fourteen advanced or "senior" students who receive modest monthly salaries ($30 to $60) to assist with various tasks around the school. In addition, ten young, less inexperienced students receive small monthly stipends (usually just $10 or $20). Those ten young students receive the stipends because we want to encourage them to study and because their families are so poor that even such a small amount as $10 or $20 per month can make a difference in their lives.

*The word "Champey" is the Khmer language name for the white flower which, outside of Cambodia, is called "plumeria" or "frangipani." Some of the main boulevards of Phnom Penh are lined with trees bearing this flower.