Alan and Elyse Lightman made their first trip to Cambodia in December 2003, accompanying Frederick Lipp, who had cofounded the Cambodia Arts and Scholarship Foundation in 2001 (see Background Information). Over the next year and a half, they made two more trips to Cambodia, in January 2005 and in June 2005. During this period, the Harpswell Foundation became involved with building a school in a remote village named Tramung Chrum, 50 miles northwest of Phnom Penh, in the province of Kampong Chnnang.

Tramung Chrum is a Muslim community, a small minority in the largely Buddhist country. Islam in Cambodia is of a special kind called Cham. Cham is further divided into a majority sect called modern Cham, and a minority sect called Imam San, which combines elements of Islam, Hinduism, and animism. There are only about 30,000 Imam San in all of Cambodia. Tramung Chrum is Imam San. The village has about 70 families and a  total  population  of  about 500  people, including  about 150  children between the ages of 5 and 16 (school age). Previously,  the people of Tramung Chrum had only a school made of bamboo  leaves and sticks, which leaked and blew down in heavy rains. On several occasions, the people of the village made known their  strong desire to have a school made of concrete. The Harpswell Foundation began a fund raising effort, receiving funds from private individuals. The cost of a four-room school, 21 feet by 102 feet, is about about  $30,000. In January 2005, the HF went back to Cambodia. Working with their principal Cambodian partner, Veasna Chea, the Harpswell Foundation hired an engineering consultant and a project supervisor, interviewed four prospective contractors, and got the school started. It was built over the next few months and inaugurated in late June 2005. Since that time, the members of the Harpswell Foundation, especially Elyse, have made numerous visits to Tramung Chrum and have come to know many of the villagers on a personal basis.

In addition to building the primary school, the Harpswell Foundation is supporting several of the school's teachers and has just begun an ambitious program to sponsor several of the brightest graduates each year to attend classes in another village that has a secondary school, paying for their living expenses, school supplies, and fees. In this follow-up work, we have been aided by Tum Yousos, a young Imam San man who grew up in a village near Tramung Chrum, has a university education, and is dedicated to preserving Cham culture in Cambodia. (More about Yousos can be found in "About Us," where he is listed as the Director of Cham Programs for the Harpswell Foundation.)