Prince Holding Group (“Prince Group”), one of Cambodia’s largest and fastest-growing conglomerates, and Plan International Cambodia (“Plan International”) have officially set in motion its Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (“WASH”) intervention programme at all school levels in Preah Sihanouk province during the school reopening ceremony officiated by Minister of Environment, H.E. Say Samal, Preah Sihanouk Governor H.E. Kuoch Chamroeun and Under Secretary of State for the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (“MoEYS”), H.E. Khun Rachana. The ceremony is held yesterday at the Hun Sen Veal Renh High School in Prey Nob district, Preah Sihanouk province.
“I would like to thank Prince Group and Plan International Cambodia for this joint initiative to support safer school environments in conjunction with the school reopening. The program is set to install 198 pedal-operated handwashing stations across 99 schools in Preah Sihanouk. In addition, Prince Foundation also donated 990 infrared thermometers,” H.E. Say Samal, Minister of Environment, said during his speech at the event.
According to H.E. Khun Rachana, by the end of the project, over 39,000 students across 72 primary schools, 18 lower secondary schools and 9 high schools in Preah Sihanouk, Prey Nop, Stung Hav, Kampong Seila, and Kaoh Rung will have improved access to handwashing via the WASH programme.
Meanwhile, H.E. Kuoch Chamroeun, Preah Sihanouk Governor, delivered the Samdech Prime Minister’s message highlighting that in September 2021, the MoEYS officially allowed the reopening of schools after seeing a positive number of vaccinated children aged 5 and above. “With effective measures, we are proud to say that today marked the new chapter for Cambodian students, especially children who just enrolled to school to start their education journey under the ‘New Normal in Education Sector’.”
Kickstarting the year with its ‘Back to School’ campaign, Prince Group has been playing an active role in empowering young Cambodians to set them up for a bright future, most notably through the Chen Zhi Scholarship, which will provide full university scholarships, stipends and internships for 400 Cambodian students, among many other initiatives.
“We believe our initiative to ensure safer school reopening is a timely and valuable contribution. It has been a great pleasure to work with and learn from Plan International, which has been supporting child development in Cambodia for the past 20 years,” said Cliff Koh, Secretary-General of Prince Group. “We are also honoured to be invited by the organiser alongside H.E. Say Samal and H.E. Kuoch Chamroeun to jointly introduce the WASH programme with Plan International through our philanthropic arm, Prince Foundation.”
Yi Kimthan, Acting Country Director of Plan International Cambodia, said Plan International Cambodia would work with relevant departments of the MoEYS to ensure two persons per school – the school director and a teacher – learn how to install, operate, and maintain the handwashing stations. “The project aims to ensure that 90% of the school children will have increased awareness of good hygiene behaviours as COVID-19 prevention measures,” he added.
