Khmer Cultural Development Institute (KCDI)

The Khmer Cultural Development Institute (KCDI) was founded in 1992, as one of the very first NGOs in Cambodia and ratified by the Supreme National Council. In 1994, the Kampot Traditional Music School for Orphaned and Disabled Children was built in Kampot town in Southwestern Cambodia during the civil war and near a Khmer Rouge stronghold, at a time when there were very few NGOs in Kampot because of the intense fighting and anti-personnel mines.

Following the vision of the founder who taught Violin at the University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, the Kampot Traditional Music School was built in order to revive and preserve Traditional Cambodian Music and Performing Arts, after the devastation of the Khmer Rouge genocide (1975-79), which killed 90% of Cambodian Artists.

Traditional Khmer Music, Dance and Shadow Puppet Theatre dates back over 1000 years and was taught for centuries from Master to pupil using the oral tradition, without being written down. During the Khmer Rouge regime this wondrous cultural heritage was nearly lost forever. Cambodian Music is used for every aspect of life and Traditional Music and Arts are considered Sacred in Cambodia.

Our School with Cambodian Kru (Masters) from the Royal Palace and National Theatre, teaches Traditional Khmer Music, Dance, Folk Dance, Yiké (from the ancient Kingdom of the Champa) and in 2015, with Sovannah Pum, we revived the art of making and performing Shadow Puppets in Kampot, preciously lost to the Province during the civil war and Khmer Rouge genocide.

Our School also takes care of the most vulnerable of Children, who have lost their parents, been abandoned or abused and have nowhere else safe to go. These Children are Resident at our School. We are a member of International Childsafe and our Cambodian Staff receive regular training in Child Care and Child Protection.

Our School also has an Emergency Temporary Shelter to assist Children found on the street, or assessed as being in extreme danger, as well as homeless parents, mostly mothers with small children or pregnant women who are living on the street or in desperate circumstances. Then In coordination with the local authorities and Childsafe partners (of whom we are also a member), we help to find a safe solution. We also run an Emergency Food Package and Counselling program to help Children and families, but also the elderly., sick and disabled, who are in dire circumstances and suffering malnutrition.

All Children who are resident long-term at our School, receive full-time care, scholastic education and tuition in Traditional Khmer Music and Arts, support to go to college or university and/or to receive vocational training. We have a network of almost all our former Students and many have gone on to become professional Musicians, formed their own Dance Companies, Teach Music or Dance, have become business owners, work and have their own families, whom they bring to visit our School.

Additionally KCDI (our School), has a program for Vocational Training and Education of Blind Children and Youth, who stay at our School and receive (where required) support with Braillle and a Braille Teacher at state school, as well as high level tuition in Traditional Khmer Music. We currently house several Blind Students who have now formed a professional Music Ensemble "Vichak Santepheap" - The Path of Peace, and released their first professional recording.

A Community Arts program we run, also provides free tuition in Pin Peat Music to impoverished Children from the TaPream primary School in Tray Koh District of Kampot, with some Students studying Dance.

Students from the Kampot Traditional Music School have performed abroad in France, Belgium, Holland Italy, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Qatar and Thailand and have won several National Prizes for their Yiké performances. Last year our smallest students performed The Khean Folk Dance for the opening of the Southeast Asian Games (SEA). A CD, "Voices from Kampot" was recorded in 2012.

Our future programs include further training in Lakoun Sabaik Toch (Shadow puppetry), the learning and preservation of rare Music Instruments and the Chapey Dong Veng and always the continuation of caring for those Children who are forgotten and invisible.