Ending trafficking before it begins in Cambodia

Dear friends and Partners,

It is hard to believe that it is almost the end of the financial year. What an incredible year we have had. We are so proud of all of the girls on our programs. With 125 girls on our scholarship program and working with over 600 girls through our life skills workshops and Girls Clubs across 5 schools in the urban poor communities, the team of social workers has certainly been kept busy. Of course we can’t do any of this work without your support and for walking this journey with us, so please accept my deepest gratitude for believing in our work. We believe that education changes everything and has the capacity to change lives, not just the lives of the girls on our programs but the lives of their families and communities.

Today I am highlighting how your support is helping our girls to rewrite their life stories by sharing the story of Sokhea.

Sokhea’s story is written by Sam who is our National Director of Programming.  

I was able to recently visit the home of one of our scholarship beneficiaries, Sokhea, who is well-liked for her hard-working, brave and enduring characteristics. She was referred to AFP in 2014, by a partner school when her family was in a highly vulnerable situation. Her father was the only one earning an income as a driver for a factory and earned only $250 a month, yet he had to support his four children and his wife who needed to stay home and look after the children.

Living in small rental room, Sokhea is the oldest and is very hard-working. She loves studying and has always wanted to become a lawyer. However, her family condition meant she didn’t have much hope as she didn’t have good study materials, and was often concerned that she would have to drop out of school to work to help support her family.

Upon being enrolled into our SHINE Girls Project (previously known as Scholarship Project), Sokhea received all the basic study materials she would need for the whole year (15 books, 2 sets of Uniform, Shoes, Bag, and a set of other student materials) which has also been given to her each following year; As well, our social worker provides regular case management support to both Sokhea and her family which has kept the family motivated. With regular mentoring and support, the family has less worries about expenses for Sokhea’s study, and could focus more on earning money to support their general living. We have also been able to provide 30kg of rice monthly to her family since early 2017 which has contributed to the families’ economic stability. “We don’t have to worry whether we have enough to eat, and I can save money for my other children’s study or other unexpected expenses” said Sokhea’s mother.

Sokhea’s parents are really committed to fight for their children’s education.

As Sokhea is very motivated and ambitious to have a better education, (At her recent school the teaching quality was poor, which is a general issue at many schools of the public education system in Cambodia.) she applied and took an entrance exam to study in New Generation School which is the best public high-school in Cambodia.  Although Sokhea stated she was nervous to apply, her commitment and determination to overcome any obstacles saw her being successful and she was granted a place at the school. Sokhea stated “I was worried about it too, but I thought I had to try first to see if I can do it or not, I want to take risk”

Sokhea is studying in grade 10 and she’s busier than ever because she has class from early morning until 4pm, as opposed to general education which is only half day, but she really enjoys it. “I have to compete with other students because they are all smart and they have money to study more whatever they want to” she expressed her concern. To support Sokhea further, we are also now providing an extra scholarship for her to take a quality private English class as we believe it is important to keep motivating her to fulfil her dreams; Sokhea is also a member of our AFP’s Girls Leadership Committee. It is our platform of outstanding girls to work together to provide peer workshops and to organize important events such as International Day for Girl and Khmer New Year which provides her with more leadership experience and recognition,

Sokhea is still aiming to be a lawyer; “I can see that many poor people cannot get justice because they don’t have money, so judges do not care about them, so I want to change this” Sokhea said.

Sokhea is an inspiring example of how your support is making such a difference in the field. Sokhea is just one of our inspiring stories and we thank you for partnering with us to enable these girls to shine.  

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• Travel with us to Phnom Penh!

Dear friends and Partners,

Where has the past 3 months gone? It only seems like yesterday when I was sharing with you about all that had been happening in the field for the last quarter of 2017.  And here we are in 2018. We have already seen so many wonderful stories of impact, growth and determination from our girls who are part of all our girl focused programs. Living in extreme poverty requires strength, tenacity and resilience to be able to reach for the stars.. We are so proud of all the girls on our programs who are attempting to not only rewrite their own life stories but the stories of their family, community and future generations.  

One way of highlighting the impact of your support is to share a story of one of our girls. Today I am sharing about Sarim. Sarim's story was written by Sam who is our National Director of Programming.  

The First for College, Story of Sarim

Living under a temporary house in a single room covered with a zinc wall and roof, Sarim is from a family of  9 who all currently live together. Sarim is the 4^th child among her 5 siblings, 3 older brothers, and 1 youngest sister. 5 years ago, her family migrated from Prey Veng province to Phnom Penh in the hope for a better future. Her father was offered a job in a concrete sewage making site, and later on the business owner allowed him to build his current house to live on the land temporarily, so that the family can guard the land and the sewage. Although they were grateful, they also concerned as they never knew when the owner would ask them to leave.

Due to the family economic situation, Sarim’s 3 older brothers could not go to school, and worked in the sewage plant with their father. This however upset Sarim’s parents, “I want my two last daughters to go to school no matter how hard it is, because I don’t want them to have the same future as my sons” said Sarim’s father.

The family were barely earning enough for their basic living expenses and with increasing debt, they took out a $2000 loan from a local bank. This of course only perpetuated the daily challenges they faced with now having to pay back the loan with high interest rates.

In 2016, Sarim was referred by her school director to AusCam Freedom Project who was actively working in her school.  Our social workers visited with Sarim and her family to understand their needs and shortly after Sarim was enrolled on to our Education Scholarship Program.(SHINE Girls).  Sarim received all the basic study materials she would need (books, 2 sets of school uniforms, shoes, school bag, and other student materials). She was allocated her own social worker and mentor as well as the opportunity to attend life skills workshops, health support and many other program opportunities.

While being enrolled on SHINE Girls helped to reduce some of the family expenses,  our social worker also determined that the family were struggling to meet their daily food needs as they have 9 people (8 adults) in the family. The family were then also enrolled on to our Rice Project and are provided with monthly rice to support feeding their whole family. This has greatly helped the family since they can save $60-$70 per month which is usually spent on buying rice every month, “The rice support helps us a lot since I can save more money for other urgent expenses, and we are so happy because we don’t have to worry so much since we have good rice to eat” said Sarim’s parents.

Sarim has grabbed every opportunity given to her and she worked hard at school. In late 2017, Sarim graduated her national grade 12 exams which made her parents and us very proud of her. Following graduation, we arranged mentoring sessions for her along with the other 4 graduated girls to help them make decisions on their prospective higher education. Sarim has always shared her desire to work in Marketing. “I like talking with friends, and you can see me talking non-stop, so I think marketing or working in sales is good for me” she said laughing when she was asked about a future study plan. However, going to University was going to be a difficult commitment for the family.

Although at the time, AFP was not providing University Scholarships as our focus was on girls completing their school education, we believed it was important to continue walking the journey with Sarim and the other school graduates.

Through generous donors and sponsors, we have been able to send our first group of girls off to University! Sarim is studying a degree in Marketing at the Cambodia National Institute of Business.

“Studying at university is so different from high school, I start facing University assignment now (laughing). I rarely work or study in a group but now I have to do it in every assignment” said Sarim.

Meanwhile, Sarim’s parents are incredibly excited and proud, “I really want her become to be a good and impactful human resource in the future and now my struggle for my daughter’s education is paying off as Sarim tries her best to study and became more responsible, that is the first step to be a good citizen”.

The family greatly appreciates the support they receive from all the AFP sponsors that enable Sarim’s study as well as motivating their commitment to focus on education to help their daughter have a new hope for a bright and successful future.

Sarim is also now part of our Girls Leadership Committee and graduated recently from our first Digital Literacy Training. I can see that Sarim has a wonderful future ahead of her. Thank you for walking this journey with her as well.

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