Safe Housing and Education for Cambodia’s Most Destitute Girls
Project Description:
In many developing countries, women are the poorest of the poor, the most marginalized and disadvantaged. They suffer the deepest deprivations, exploitation and injustice, whether physical, sexual or economic.
At the core of this poverty is a lack of opportunity. Many are not educated, and cannot read. Without literacy, their employment options are extremely limited. In Cambodia, youth literacy is 91%, but female youth literacy is just 53%. Without education, Cambodia’s destitute girls have very few options.
Dharma Care’s Srey Lak Program for Girls provides board, food and education for some of Cambodia’s most destitute girls – some have spent their entire lives on rubbish tips or in the streets. The Program funds girls to attend the People Improvement Organisation (PIO) in Phenom Penh – a school that has won multiple international awards for its work – but still struggles to fund its work.
Over the last four years, our sponsorship program has seen the lives of sponsored girls transformed by safe accommodation, adequate food, and good education. Some have now found meaningful work; others are attending university.
The cost of tuition and full board is US$600 per girl per year. This is approximately AU$1,000. Big or small, all donations will help.
More information: peopleimprovement.org
Annual Target: $30,000
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Testimonial:
The PIO school would like to thank Dharma Care and all your donors for your generous support in recent years. These donations are vital to ensuring we continue to provide board and education for the girls in our school, some of whom would be at great risk and have very few opportunities without the care and education we provide. We also greatly appreciated your visit to our school last year to see first-hand the work we are doing in providing these girls with a promising future. Thank you so much.
Phymean Noun, Founder
Please see video / images below.
Phally is 21 years old. She comes from a farming family, but when the farm failed, she came to Phnom Penh with her grandmother and sister, and lived and worked on the rubbish dump in Stung Meanchey near PIO. She begged her grandmother to let her attend school. She was placed in PIO’s kindergarten. After 12 years at PIO, she has graduated from high school and is poised to start her university education. She wants to study accounting at uni.
