Cambodia

All for Sport

Founded in 2005, the Toutes à l'école association offers high-level education to the most disadvantaged girls.

The word "diversity" is an integral part of the Decathlon Phnom Penh project written by the local teams at the end of 2020. They wanted to help young Cambodians from all walks of life to understand the potential benefits of sport in their daily lives.

"I want to help social create more value, especially for people who lack support and who don't have sufficient ability to go to school. I think the project I've chosen 'SPORT PROJECTS WITH NGO PARTNERS' aims to share the sporting experience, and we can also provide sports products to enable them to take part in sporting activity."

Pisey Nang

URM Leader Decathlon Sen Sok

A project for girls' education

In 2005, Tina Kieffer founded the association Toutes à l'école. This association has built a school for little girls from disadvantaged families. Girls' education is a major issue in Cambodia. Many of them are forced to work from an early age to support their families, which keeps them away from school.

The Happy Chandara school offers high-quality teaching in English, French and IT, with an equal emphasis on personal development, cultural awareness, sport and creativity. Today, the school supports over 1,400 girls through to their first job.

At Happy Chandara, sport is a lever for both the health of young girls and the development of their life skills. The Decathlon Foundation is proud to have supported the construction of a sports field within the Happy Chandara school, enabling over 1,000 girls to discover the benefits of sport.

On the occasion of the inauguration of the field, we had the pleasure of witnessing a demonstration of Taekwondo, basketball and sports games, regularly practiced by the girls at the school. We also learned that one of Happy Chandara's students finished 3rd in the famous Angkor marathon.

Anne-Céline Prigent, former decathlete and Communications Manager at Happy Chandara School

As a former Decathlon athlete, a keen equestrian and mother of two little girls aged 8 and 5, and as someone who has been very involved for personal and professional reasons with Decathlon and HCS, this project is particularly close to my heart, as I'd like to pass on to young girls the message that, thanks to the values of sport, they can become whoever they want to be.

We're in the 21st century, but all too often women still face obstacles on the road to emancipation. Sport is one of the vectors that can help us leap over these final hurdles, and I believe that role models can be a formidable lever. Sport has certainly helped me gain self-confidence, test my limits and measure myself against others. It's a good school for surpassing oneself, for change and agility. Today, thanks to this project at Happy Chandara School, I'd like to pass on these values to children and young girls from underprivileged backgrounds.

I also believe that physical education and sports are an essential part of quality education, and should be developed in schools, especially now with Covid-19.

The Decathlon Cambodia teams play a vital role in supporting these young girls. Donations of sports equipment, organization of sporting events within the school and professional support for the pupils are their main actions. We would like to thank the local Decathlon Cambodia teams for their investment, and the Toutes à l'ecole association for this impactful project.