Cambodia & Solidarity : Tina Kieffer, Toutes à l'école, ‘I'm a happy president’

2 days ago5 min read

The first Charity Gala of the French Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia will take place on 3 April 2025 at the Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra. All funds raised will be donated to the associations Happy Chandara School - Toutes à l'école - NGO and Planète Enfants & Développement Cambodia. This is an opportunity to revisit our interview in the field with Tina Kieffer, founder and president of the Cambodian association Happy Chandara.

Tina Kieffer, ‘I'm a happy founder and chairman’

In all simplicity, but with her characteristic energy and determination, Tina Kieffer willingly lent herself to the game of the ‘flash’ interview. In just ten minutes, she explained how and why she has changed her life, the difficulties involved, but also the joys and happiness she feels for the young Cambodian women in her association's care.

Interview

Tell us about Tina today

Yes, I'm a former journalist and I've completely changed my life. About 15 years ago, I fell madly in love with Cambodia. I came here on a trip and I was still a journalist at the time, managing the editorial team of Marie-Claire magazine.

‘Then I met a little girl who was very unwell in an orphanage. I was shocked and thought I had to get this four-year-old out of there.

It was quite complicated, because adoption was closed at the time. But I still managed to get her to France. And when I got her there, I said to myself that it would be good to go further, not just save a child, because I saw the condition of little girls at the time and it was difficult. There was still child prostitution, lots of little beggars... so I went back to France with the idea of founding a school.

And, as I was working for Marie-Claire, I still had some leverage and I decided to mobilise the newspaper around girls' education. So I launched an event called ‘La Rose Marie-Claire’, which helped finance the school's first building. And that's how it all started and how, little by little, I gave up journalism because I was completely inspired by the school.

No hesitation for a project launched in a traumatised country?

It motivated me to continue in education, because we know very well that the Khmer Rouge killed almost all the intellectuals, doctors, teachers... and, at that time, around 2005 or 2006, when you went to public schools, there were sometimes 60 kids per class, with teachers who were really struggling.

So founding a school really made sense. It made even more sense for girls, because in state schools there are mainly boys and the girls stay at home. So I was very motivated. In any case, I knew that the Khmer Rouge weren't coming back...

Was Happy Chandara your first experience?

I think it was the first day back at school. A hundred little girls came into the playground holding hands. What's more, it was my birthday and I thought to myself ‘happy birthday, old girl’ (smile). In the end, things went pretty quickly.

‘In just over a year, I found the land, I had the building constructed, it was a project to which I was 1000% committed.

And suddenly it was there! The little girls were there. And then, above all, the first emotion was perhaps the second playground. In fact, at first they were completely stunned, rather worried, because they had just come out of their shanty town. But very quickly, they became little girls like any others. They learn to jump rope, they laugh, they act crazy and then I realise that not only are we going to give them an education, but also a lot of happiness.

Tell us about your support

A lot of it came from the editorial team and journalists at Marie-Claire who I had mobilised for the cause. With the newspaper, I was able to do reports on girls' education and therefore give media coverage to the school. I also got support from leading news journalists like Claire Chazal, Élise Lucet and Béatrice Schoenberg, who were all friends of mine.

‘And, as journalists, they knew how important girls' education was, so they helped me to publicise the project.'

So that you can then raise funds, because, as you know, there's an old saying that ‘you only lend to the rich’. If you're not well known, it's very hard to raise funds. So I was helped by that, but also by companies like Sephora and L'Oréal, but that doesn't make it easy.

But it's true that I've been supported by some really loyal people - it wasn't easy at first - and I've been pleasantly surprised.

What are your plans for Happy Chandara?

Maybe I won't set up another school, because that's a lot of work. We need to raise funds and we can't say that the international context is very reassuring at the moment. On the other hand, we're realising that our students are achieving results that, frankly, I wasn't expecting. They have had 100% success in the baccalaureate. We have taken on 400 new post-bac students.

‘So the idea is to train these young women who will go on to make a difference in the country.'

For example, many of them are going into environmental protection, and we have thirty who are at university studying agriculture, and who are preferably going into organic farming, as we are doing here.

So the idea is not only for them to become educated and therefore free women, but also to help rebuild the country. So it takes a lot of work, because we have to support them, send them to the right schools and guide them towards useful jobs.

What do you like best about Cambodia?

Perhaps I'd say the people. There's one thing that has always struck me here: when you go to quite poor places like this, the people are extremely smiley, nobody comes to beg, they live in very precarious conditions and they keep smiling. What's also very interesting, and gives food for thought, is the very different attitude of some of the nouveau riche, who are not smiling at all and are pulling the g..... e.

‘It really makes you think about how to find meaning in life. Some of the people here don't have much, but they're still open-minded.'

I think that's what attracted me. Then, my fifth child is Cambodian and I think that also influences my love for the country.

So you're a happy founder and chairman

Absolutely, I'm a happy founder and chairman. Yes, they make me happy and they pay me back a hundredfold. Frankly, I thought we were going to be dropping out at the end of the third year, but no. ‘We don't want to stop, we want to have the chance to learn.

‘We don't want to stop, we want to pass the baccalaureate’, they say, even though you can see that the mothers can't read or write and come from very difficult backgrounds. So I wasn't expecting that. It's true that our teams have motivated them a lot, it's not just about instruction, it's also about education, it's about health... we have a global approach.'

But, frankly, I'm amazed, really amazed.