OUR HISTORY

Marist Solidarity Cambodia (MSC) is an international non-government organization which encompasses the “LaValla Project” - LaValla School, Villa Maria Hostel, LaValla Village hostel and an Outreach Program.

MSC aims to support young Cambodians with physical disabilities by way of furthering their education and assisting them into employment.

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MSC is an integral part of the mission of the Marist Brothers whose foundation in France 200 years ago initiated a commitment on the part of Saint Marcellin Champagnat, the founder, to provide schooling for poor children from marginalized families. That commitment and that dream are being realised here in Cambodia as MSC works for poor young people with disabilities wanting to give them new and better opportunities, hoping that their formal education will prove decisive in changing their circumstances.

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LaValla School established in Phnom Penh in 1998 is a government approved school in Cambodia providing a full elementary school education for children and young people with physical disabilities.

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Villa Maria built by the Australian Marist Fathers in 2005 is now a hostel for the young people attending university. The new LaValla Village is the hostel for students of MSC who are attending the local Government High School in Takhmao. 

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An outreach program of the LaValla Project assists approximately 100 young Cambodians with physical disabilities who live at home and attend their local schools.

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Many of MSC’s students come from rural provinces of Cambodia and due to difficulties with travel they are residential.

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In 2010 MSC was established to integrate various programmes and sites into one entity, which we now call the “LaValla Project”, with its own Board of Directors under the aegis of Marist Brothers Province of Australia.