Following the success of the Phnom Penh school, co-directors Sam and Egon decided to open a branch in Battambang. They found a suitable building about 1.5 kilometers from the central market on a dirt road. The lease was signed on 15th April 1974 and it opened only three weeks later on 7th May. The school had three classrooms, a reception/lounge area, a director’s office, and accommodation for one teacher. Seven classes began with an initial enrollment of 137 students. In the second term, classes increased to eleven, with 241 students. The school closed in March 1975. By that time the Khmer Rouge had surrounded Battambang and captured the airport. There was almost no resistance because most of the government forces protecting the town only existed on paper (and payrolls); they were “phantom soldiers”. The two remaining staff, Egon and Tony, were rescued in the nick of time by an Air America helicopter which flew them to Phnom Penh. There, Egon resumed teaching at the main school until the end of the semester – 11th April. Sam and Egon were among the last foreigners to be evacuated from Phnom Penh on 12th April.

 

Until the last few months of its existence, there were plans to open ETAPP branches in Kampong Som, Siem Reap and Pailin.

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Bonary Vong

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When I was working with WFP as a volunteer in Khao I Dang refugee camp in 1980, I was approached by a young woman who heard I'd been a teacher at ETAPP in Phnom Penh. She had been a student at the Battambang school. She showed me these photos, which she had kept hidden at risk to her life through the Khmer Rouge time. Her father, a Lon Nol army officer, had been executed soon after the takeover, but her mother, sisters and brother had survived. I helped put them in contact with relatives in the USA, and four years later I visited her and her family in Los Angeles.
Her name is Bonary Vong, and her sister was the star dancer of the KID classical ballet troupe (see colour photos on "Dancers" website  >>Open Air Dance Performance in Khao I Dang​)