Khmer-Buddhist Educational Assistance Project (KEAP)
“Step by step, every step is a prayer for peace and reconciliation.”
– Ven. Maha Ghosananda
Welcome to our website. KEAP is dedicated to working with and assisting the Khmer people in their recovery from the wars and social upheavals in the recent past. Join us in helping Cambodians chart a brighter future on their own terms, at the heart of which is their Khmer-Buddhist way of life. This website informs you of our work as well as historical and current information about Cambodian culture.
We are in the process of making some updates to our website with new content. We thank you for your patience during this process. If you have any questions, please reach out by emailing us at keap@keap.org.
Thank you for visiting.
About KEAP
The Khmer-Buddhist Education Project (KEAP) was founded in 1988 by academics in the Five-College area around Amherst in western Massachusetts, USA. We wished to assist the Khmer people facing the challenges of Buddhist renewal in a Buddhist country following decades of war and social upheaval. The tragic events they faced included the civil war, with the saturation bombing of the country by the U.S., in the first half of the 1970s; the near-destruction of Buddhism and all forms of religious and spiritual life during the Khmer Rouge period in the second half; and the repressive control of Buddhism in Vietnamese-occupied Cambodia in the 1980s. Since the 1990s the Dharma of the country and it people have been faced by the challenges of western (including Chinese) modernity.
Initially we worked with the Buddhist wats (the traditional pagoda or temple) in the Khmer refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodian border. They were established in the early 1980s by KEAP’s honorary founding patron, the late Ven. Maha Ghosananda. Among other activities, we organized training workshops and produced Dharma videos for the displaced Khmer in preparation for their repatriation by the U.N. in 1992-93. We carried this rehabilitation work to wats struggling in provinces in northwestern Cambodia after repatriation. We donated more than 16,000 Dharma texts and audio-visual materials to wats especially in Pursat and Battambang provinces but also to educational organizations and individuals in many parts of the country.
KEAP since 2000 has functioned as an international educational 501c3 non-profit registered in the State of Colorado. Our mission is to help create a culture of peace, reconciliation, and people-centered development in Cambodia based on Buddhist self-help principles. We assist with the education and learning needs of Cambodian monks, nuns, and laypersons. Our main activity has been providing scholarships in higher education in Buddhist studies to monks and, as much as possible, nuns and and laywomen. A secondary activity has been providing assistance to Buddhist nuns caring for at-risk children. Working through local implementing partners, including and especially the Preah Sihanouk Raja Buddhist University, KEAP serves as a bridge between Buddhist and non-Buddhist donors abroad and Buddhist educational initiatives Cambodia.
Please explore this website to learn more about Cambodia, its beautiful people and their Khmer-Buddhist culture, and how you can become involved in helping with Cambodia’s long-term process of recovery.