About ACE


The Attitude Centre for Education (ACE) is a local NGO founded in Phnom Penh in February 2009 and registered with the Ministry of Interior in May 2011. ACE was founded by Mr. Saing Sokchea, an experienced leadership trainer.

Sokchea spent several years providing leadership training to youth and adults in slum areas such as Dey Krahorm, Beoung Kak Lake and the Andong in Phnom Penh as well as in many remote areas across Cambodia. After many years of dreaming about establishing a leadership training centre, he was finally able to establish ACE with the financial support of Cambodian Kids Foundation in 2009.

ACE became an independent NGO in January 2011 as it strives toward becoming a sustainable, local organization managed entirely by ACE residents. Attitude Centre for Education currently runs five projects with 14 staffs and 16 volunteers to serve hundreds kids and adults across Cambodia especially in the slums communities in Phnom Penh.

Mission

To provide excellent leadership training for Cambodians with limited resources and thereby create a generation of leaders with concern for all Cambodians and the skills to lead and help them.

Core Value

Perseverance - We will take on challenges, not be afraid of failure and see them to the end.
Respect - We will respect every individual.
Action - We will not just talk, we will take action.
Independence - We will promote the right for each person to express their thoughts.
Sincerity - We will do things from the heart.
Excellence - We will strive for excellence for the entire community.

The Need

There is currently a severe shortage of Cambodian youth with leadership skills in Cambodia, especially from within the poorer citizens. 30 years ago the Khmer Rouge stripped Cambodia of its leaders (killing them) in order to prevent an uprising against their regime. The results can still be seen today in that much of the development of Cambodia comes from external sources. Foreign run NGOs play an enormous role in dealing with social problems in Cambodia.

In order to have Cambodia achieve independent and sustainable social development, Cambodians must learn the skills to solve their own problems and make their own decisions. ACE teaches Cambodians youth leadership skills so that they can effect change in their own country, emphasising that the change for Cambodia needs to come from self-governance. ACE’s Centre was started because there are very few environments conducive for learning leadership skills, a lack of leadership role models and a lack opportunities in which to apply leadership skills.

In many other countries the public school system provides opportunities for youth to learn leadership skills in the form of student councils, extracurricular clubs and other organisations. However, due in part to the legacy of the Khmer Rouge regime, the public school system in Cambodia is under-funded, so no such organisations exist. A large number Cambodians are impovished and don’t have the means to afford a good education, and as a result, many lack significant role models from which to learn.

How is ACE Unique?

Many NGOs in Cambodia already provide leadership training, but their programs are targeted towards, and only affordable to, middle and upper income Cambodians. This lack of inclusion of Cambodia’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens has resulted in the main beneficiaries of these programs being the wealthy. This furthers entrenches the wealth disparity between the rich and poor, as those with means seek to maintain systems which reinforce their privilege and thus further impoverish the poor.

ACE is also unique by providing a very tightly integrated program where students not only learn leadership training, but live in a self-governed environment and gain practical leadership experience on a daily basis.

Accomplishments

Pre-ACE and ACE Leadership Training Accomplishments

Before Formal Establishment of ACE (2006-2009)

On the order of 2000 participants have joined trainings led by Saing Sokchea before the establishment of the Attitude Centre for Education. Most of the participants were young people from the slums. Others included people from government agencies, the police, the military, staff members from NGOs, students and lawmakers. Some of participants from NGOs receiving training were from:

  • Acid Survivors
  • Andong (slum area)
  • Aziza School - Drey Krahom (slum area)
  • Aziza’s Place
  • Beoung Kak Lake (slum area)
  • Bridges Across Borders
  • Chibodia
  • Future Cambodia Fund
  • Goodwill
  • New Future for Children
  • Sustainable School International
  • Project Future

After Establishment of ACE in February 2009

In 2009
  • Full time leadership training for 24 live-in students
  • 23 two-day workshops for leadership training covering 15 NGOs and 773 participants

In 2010

  • 24 trainings for 475 participants, 125 were females
    • Participant Survey Results:
  • 58% from slums or remote, poor communities
  • 21% Farmers
  • 14% NGO staff members
  • 7% Others.

To Date in 2011 (as of July 1st, 2011)
  • 11 Trainings for 275 people
  • 2 Survivor Challenges

The trainings were provided to participants in the following provinces:
  • Kampot
  • Kep
  • Kompong Speu
  • Kompong Thom
  • Mondulkiri
  • Phnom Penh
  • Prey Veng
  • Siem Reap
  • Sihanoukville

Director / Leadership Trainer Profile

Mr. Saing Sokchea

“I feel that Saing Sokchea and the Attitude Centre for Education are amazing and irreplaceable assets for creating young leaders for Cambodia during this critical time in Cambodia's development.” - Christopher Merritt, Advisor to Director, New Future for Children

“In April 2006 Sokchea and I started Aziza Schoolhouse in the Dey Krahorm slum community of Phnom Penh, which in the beginning was a small, after school program offering free English. Thanks to Sokchea’s ability to partner with the community, notorious for its issues with violence, gangs, prostitution and drugs, we’ve become a trusted institution and community Centre providing trainings and services to the community 7 days a week. As the Country Manager I am routinely told that what we accomplished is extraordinary, to which I reply that the credit belongs largely to Sokchea.” - Drew McDowell, Country Manager, EYC

Sokchea’s greatest contribution has been his work as a leadership trainer, where he teaches a comprehensive curriculum on life skills with an emphasis on relationships. The result from these trainings on our students has been truly transformative, where the visible difference in their attitudes and self-confidence was unmistakable. Seeing that he was so effective, we have been invited by 5 additional NGOs to date to do training in their communities, and each one has been an impressive effort with great results. - Drew McDowell, Country Manager, EYC