Their group -- Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPS) -- this month celebrates its 25th anniversary.
Srey Bandaul still remembers learning to draw.
It was in the late 1980s in a swelling refugee camp on the Thai border where thousands were sheltering as soldiers from the Vietnam-backed regime in Phnom Penh fought the Khmer Rouge guerrillas they had toppled from power.
His instructor was a French aid worker, who taught drawing to Bandaul and his classmates, all young teens like him who were traumatized by an early childhood under the ultra-Maoist regime. More than 1.5 million people are estimated to have died as a result of the Khmer Rouge regime.
“The teacher gave colors and paper to the children, and she let them draw whatever they wanted,” Bandaul said in a recent interview at the French Institute in Phnom Penh. “The children started drawing. I myself love drawing. The teacher saw that we were talented.
“My friends drew pictures of Khmer Rouge killing people. I drew lovers holding hands and beaches.”
Bandaul and his friends have since used drawing as a way to find solace after the trauma of the Khmer Rouge period and the years of civil war that followed.
Inspired by art, they returned to Cambodia prior to the UN-organized national elections. With help from their teacher, they obtained funding and a plot of land to start their own organization in 1994.
“Our teacher came back from France. Seven, eight, nine of us were looking for each other, and the teacher was also looking for us,” he said. “After meeting in Battambang, we spent a year to be trained into capable artists so that we could teach others.”
Their group -- Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPS) -- this month celebrates its 25th anniversary.
Since it was founded, PPS has helped thousands of troubled children to find peace and seek better lives through art.
“We have helped artists who have completed their studies to get work. Currently regarding performance, our [group’s] identity has spread across the world,” Bandaul said.
Khuon Det, another founder of PPS, said the group quickly widened their focus from drawing.
Det had become interested in circus skills while at the refugee camp and soon established a course for aspiring performers. Many went on to train future generations in the art.
“We wanted to help Cambodian kids because of our experience growing up during a protracted war and in the camp. We learned these artistic skills, so when we came back, we wanted to help disadvantaged children, so they could embrace national identity through art and culture,” Det told VOA Khmer.
Since 1994, PPS has developed its program and curriculum and has expanded to Siem Reap.
Its more than 1,000 students can study arts including dance, circus performance, applied arts, visual arts, graphic design, theatre, music, and animation. At the same time, they can also pursue their general education.
Some of the students have gone on to a make a name for themselves internationally.
Dina Sok and Sopha Nem, two young PPS artists from Battamabang, are an example.
The pair won scholarships to study at the National Circus School of Montreal, the most prestigious circus school in the world.
After years of intensive training and hard work, Dina became the first Cambodian to be selected to work for one of the world’s best circus companies, Cirque du Soleil. Sopha, meanwhile, performs for another prominent circus company in Canada.
Sopha’s younger brother, Nem Mann, 23, a Battambang resident who started performing when he was eight years old, told VOA in Phnom Penh that PSS has played a very important role to lift poor Cambodian children like him and his siblings from poverty.
Seven of Mann’s 12 siblings have attended classes at PSS.
“Since I was a little kid, I ate at [the PPS] school, and I studied at [PPS]. I’ve got everything from Phare from clothes to textbooks and a place to stay,” Mann said.
“Phare has helped six other members of my family. My brother was trained there before me, and then my other brothers and my three sisters have also joined. We all have eaten at Phare.”
The talented performers at PPS use dance, modern circus, theatre and painting to tell Cambodian stories in Battambang from 7:30 to 8 p.m. and in Siem Reap from 8 p.m.
Khuon Det hopes that in the near future PPS can expand to other provinces in the country.
In what would mark somewhat of a full circle, the group hopes to one day set up classes in countries experiencing conflict and upheaval, and give back to children in refugee camps like those in Bangladesh.
“We are considering working at camp sites in other countries, so that the children at the camps have a chance to learn art.”