Overview: Intermediate Classrooms (ICR) built in Mondulkiri are among the most remote in the en-tire ESCUP Program. There are in all seven ICRs in the province comprising eight rooms. These were built by the program with community support at a total cost of about $4,000. With a reported total enrolment of 231 children, this comes out to an investment of $17.31 per child, a highly cost-effective outlay of funds. The buildings are made primarily of locally available materials consisting mostly of wood and bamboo. Tin roofs are generally purchased at market and transported on ox carts to selected sites. In most cases, student tables have been donated by surrounding state schools using furniture that has been rendered redundant by the introduction of specialized CFS classroom tables. As with the tin roofs, communities transport the tables through the jungle on oxcarts, a very arduous task.

The Kinds of Communities Served: The children served by ICRs are relatively diverse in their make-up. In the three or four cases where ICRs are situated deep in the jungle, the chil-dren are generally entirely comprised of Phnong villagers, many of whom have never been at school though they may be 15 or 16 years old. In a few cases, ICRs serve migrant popula-tions with no state schools in the area. Migrants in Mondulkiri often tend to be of Cham ethnicity moving from Kampong Cham Province. It is only in a minority of cases where ICR en-rolled children are of Khmer ethnicity.

A Tale of Blood, Sweat, and Tears: ICRs are not arbitrarily dropped on communities as often happens in many larger con-struction projects. Rather, ESCUP staff members start the process with community mobilization efforts, trying to con-vince communities of the importance of such facilities and the need for them to contribute to their construction. This often entails meeting communities at night because people work at far away plantations during the day and also because the dis-tances are so great that it is not possible to return to Sen Monorom on the same day. The journey to ICR sites is not generally possible by car and usually requires a back-crunching journey on motorcycles through the jungle, crossing streams, or in some cases just walking along for-est paths lined with magnificent mahogany, koki, and banyan trees. ESCUP staff usually travel in groups to avoid meeting wild ani-mals along the way, which still occur on occasion. Thus, the con-struction of these facilities under such difficult conditions is indeed a success story.