PEPY's Environment and Health Education Program works to encourage students' increased awareness of their natural environment and the positive impact they can have on it. In partnership with local environmental organizations, PEPY supports eight eco-clubs at primary schools throughout the Chanleas Dai area. Teachers and school principals are educated about environmental issues and trained to initiate and manage extracurricular clubs, which are rare at most rural schools.  During regular meetings, eco-club members collectively decide what type of environmental improvements they want to make at their school.  After members write a proposal, our local partner works with them to help implement the improvements, which include buying trash cans made from recycled tires, planting bio-diversity gardens, and introducing water filters and composting structures to the community.  

At the same eight schools, PEPY facilitates monthly showings of Resource Development International Cambodia's innovative New World Program, a series that teaches about environmental and health-related topics alongside Khmer literacy. With songs, animation, cartoons, and pop culture icons, New World is a Khmer-version of Sesame Street, developed and produced locally by PEPY partner RDIC.

Alongside these educational programs, PEPY is active in the distribution of RDIC's ceramic water filters. The simple ceramic filters, which look like large clay flowerpots, can remove 99.99% of all germs and bacteria from rainwater and surface water.  The filters, placed inside a large plastic water storage container, provide a dependable point-of-use solution for Cambodians who do not have access to clean water.  At $8.20 (plus transport), the simple systems are affordable and, in areas where families purchase charcoal to boil drinking water, they pay for themselves in less than three months.  If maintained correctly, the filters can be used indefinitely.

With approximately 75% of deaths in Cambodia attributable to waterborne illnesses, the proper use of water filters has a significant impact in schools and communities. All eight primary schools in PEPY's target area now have water filters in classrooms, and principals have already noted the higher attendance rates resulting from lower rates of diarrheal disease.  

PEPY also works with local teachers to sell the water filters within the communities where we work, connecting teachers to opportunities for much needed income-generating activities and improving access to quality affordable filters at the same time.  PEPY works with RDIC to arrange the supply and transport of filters, and teachers sell them within the community, earning a small profit for each filter sold.  In the first four months of the filter distribution program we provided over 150 filters to families in Chanleas Dai.