Supported in 2023 by the RAJA-Danièle Marcovici Foundation, the association Toutes à l’école (“All Girls to School”) works to assist disadvantaged children worldwide.
About Toutes à l’école
Founded in 2005 by journalist Tina Kieffer, Toutes à l’école aims to change the lives of the most disadvantaged Cambodian girls through education, enabling them to become free and educated women, able to protect themselves from prostitution and to build a fairer, more humane, and environmentally respectful world.
Each year, 100 new girls between the ages of 5 and 6, all from the poorest families, join the Happy Chandara campus in the suburbs of Phnom Penh. Today, the campus hosts 1,300 students from kindergarten to high school, as well as 400 post-secondary students in two residential facilities.
With ambitious academic goals (100% admission rate to the high school baccalaureate, compared to a national average of 66% in Cambodia), the association develops new projects annually to enrich its program and raise awareness of social and environmental issues among students, such as the creation of a permaculture center and classes on the climate crisis.
Key Words to Describe the Association
Main Objectives
The primary objective is to educate disadvantaged Cambodian girls, offering a high-level curriculum from kindergarten to high school, taught in Khmer and English.
The campus also hosts a medico-social centre providing healthcare, as well as dental, ophthalmological, and psychological follow-up. All pupils receive vaccinations against common diseases, and support is extended to their families.
The association also promotes humanist values such as altruism, tolerance, equality, and the fight against racism, encouraging students to contribute positively to their country.
Environmental awareness is integrated into the curriculum with 500 hours of workshops annually on topics such as permaculture, paper recycling, and waste sorting, guiding students toward professions of the future.
The 2023 Cambodian Project: “Educating Girls Also Means Protecting the Climate”
This educational program Éduquer les filles (Educate Girls) focuses on developing open-mindedness and environmental awareness. Actions are structured around increasing knowledge, strengthening skills, and encouraging participation in environmental protection activities.
From early childhood, Ouverture Sur le Monde (Opening to the World) classes are taught from kindergarten to the end of primary school by experienced teachers.
From middle to high school, ecological transition workshops are integrated into the weekly timetable (one to two hours per week) and led by specialist teachers, supported by interns from leading institutions. Teaching materials include impactful documentaries on climate change subtitled in Khmer, news articles, and field visits (such as plastic recycling plants) to enhance understanding of climate change, pollution, and renewable energies, while developing research, analysis, argumentation, and writing skills.
Directed projects engage students in concrete environmental actions through more than 500 hours annually of activities such as permaculture (nurseries, mushroom cultivation), paper recycling, insect farming, and the production of organic soaps and compost. Waste collection is organised twice a month, and 60 bins have been installed across the seven villages of Anlong Chen Island.
Every week, 600 students work on projects to propose climate action initiatives. Among these, the Zero Plastic campaign prohibits single-use packaging on campus. An Eco-Committee and Eco-Club provide platforms for students to devise local initiatives to combat climate change.
