Background

The Rabbit School was founded in 1997 as a response to a need to provide educational activities for children with intellectual disabilities. At that time there were no educational services at all for children with an intellectual disability. For this group of extremely disadvantaged children, the establishment of the Rabbit School marked the first crucial step in developing appropriate, formal educational programs for Cambodian children with intellectual disabilities. The Rabbit School is one of the very few schools in Cambodia that can respond to the educational needs of intellectual disabled children. Most of these children still do not have access to education because most of the Cambodians believe that disabilities are a consequence of bad actions conducted in past lives. That is why disabled children are discriminated and excluded by their communities. These problems are amplified by the poverty that most families live in, which makes it impossible to pay for education. We believe that children with disabilities have the same fundamental rights as their fellow citizens to a decent life with equal dignity, whatever the origin, nature or severity of their impairments. Therefore, it is our mission to work towards the rehabilitation and full integration of children with disabilities into the Cambodian society. The Rabbit School provides a place where disabled children are treated with dignity and where they can learn and grow at their own pace. In Phnom Penh, the school currently provides education to 152 pupils between the ages of 5 to 25 years. Since 2014 we have started to extend our education program to three provinces outside of Phnom Penh. By the end of 2017 we hope that more then 500 children with intellectual disability have accessed school.