Ending trafficking before it begins in Cambodia

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.

Links:

• Keep regularly updated with stories on our Blog