US-Based Programs

CASF supports the Cambodian Institute of Portland, Maine, which teaches Cambodian dance, music, customs, and language to school-aged children.

Five hours a week seems like a lot to add to an already full schedule. When you hear of someone doing that, you wonder who? why? for how long?

Then you learn that those five hours are being spent by children aged 8-14 inside a classroom above and beyond their normal school schedule.

Then you learn that those five hours happen late on Friday afternoons and early on Saturday afternoons. Every Friday and Saturday.

Then you learn that those five hours happen on top of existing home and extracurricular responsibilities.

Then you learn that those five hours happen year round.

Their skills have grown quickly: the students have formed the Samaki Dance Ensemble, and have performed both traditional and folk dances in southern and mid-coast Maine. They have learned to recognize and pronounce the Khmer alphabet; they understand the geography and customs of their cultural heritage.

The children who attend CI’s language and culture classes are primarily the children of immigrant Khmers. Their parents arrived in the United States in the 1980’s, and quickly set about the work of adjusting to their new home. Most of these children were born here in the United States, and while their ethnicity and heritage is Cambodian, their culture is now predominantly North American. What often gets lost in the process of immigration to a new country is the original cultural knowledge; this is particularly true of the second-generation.

CASF supports the efforts of CI by providing funding and umbrella services, and by serving in an advisory capacity as needed. We thank the children and the leaders of the Cambodian Institute for furthering Cambodian culture in Maine.