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| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
Local students, leaders, and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints met on May 2, 2022, to celebrate the completion of a new building at the Trop Secondary School in Batheay District, Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia.
Leang Kimleng, Principal of the school, along with Chhorn Chan, Deputy District Governor, and the Venerable Phal Sopheap attended the ceremony.
Members of the Church in attendance included Hun Lim, the Kampong Cham Cambodia District President. Elder Bret and Sister Kimie Dandoy, Elder Rodney and Sister Patricia Smith, and Elder Ron and Sister Kiem Anderson represented the Association of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Leang Kimleng remarked in his speech, “Although you and I have different nationalities and different religious beliefs, you and I can work together to build a common goal for the sake of children.”
Elder Bret Dandoy from the Association said, “We are all children of the same God, and as brothers and sisters, we are pleased to help those in need.”
In 2019 the Trop Secondary School had only one building with four classrooms and an office for more than 500 students. The Venerable Phal Sopheap, the head monk at the local Wat, began to raise money from the community to build a second building with five additional classrooms. They planned to do the fund-raising in stages. After the first $20,000 was raised, they began to build.
COVID hit in early 2020, causing fund-raising efforts to stop. The skeleton of a building sat for 18 months until Principal Leang Kimleng asked the Association of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to complete the building. In the past, the Association had provided WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) assistance to the school.
It took about two months to complete the building. In addition, new desks for all the classrooms were installed. The school now has double the previous classroom space. The students all lined up outside between thunderstorms to greet the visitors with an ovation and to say “thank you.” The new building will benefit the 500-plus students in the school and the community.