The Progress and Impact of Dharma Care's Srey Lak Program for Girls
Thank you for your generous support of Dharma Care’s Srey Lak Program for Girls (SPG). Since our last update, donors have contributed approximately AU$8500.00 to SPG for the girls’ school tuition, board and/or PIO’s general expenses. Below is Dharma Care’s update on the People Improvement Organisation (PIO) and our girls in SPG. Dharma Care is currently supporting 14 girls at PIO: 5 in high school and 9 at university.
As always, we are grateful to John Thompson (PIO’s project manager) and Malyda Mean (PIO’s Deputy CEO) for providing us with information to enable this update. John and Malyda work tirelessly to look after all the children at PIO. Malyda is responsible for posting PIO news on the school’s Facebook page.
After a post-Covid hiatus, long-term and short-term volunteers from both within Cambodia and from overseas have returned to PIO. Here is John, (second from left) and volunteers from Germany. The lovely girl between the volunteers is Seam Chantrea, one of the girls in Dharma Care’s Srey Lak Program for Girls.
Visits from donors and supporters, both domestic and from abroad, have also returned to pre-Covid levels.
There are now 501 and 335 students enrolled in PIO’s primary school and high school respectively. Last year, there were about 60 students living in the Shelter (PIO’s boarding school), but Malyda reports that due to lack of funding and new government regulations, PIO has had to reduce that number to 30 this year.
During the past year, there have been a great number of special events at PIO: parent-teacher meetings to involve the students’ families; activities to motivate the students, like maths contests; others, just for fun, like the time when Miss Global and several Miss Planets came to mingle with the kids.
In addition to academic activities, PIO provides regular health and dental care to all the students. This year, students from the University of Puthisastra Dental School provided general dental education. Some of the students were given dental treatment.
DCI was delighted to learn that many PIO students are now studying at university. Like SPG’s girl, Dol Sophany who successfully graduated from high school this year, many PIO graduates choose to continue their education at universities to study a wide range of subjects like law, engineering, psychology and international relations. Many of these university students work full time in the daytime to support themselves and their families and attend classes at night. PIO runs vocational seminars and invites businesspeople, like representatives from Maybank, to help the students to plan their future.
You may recall that SPG girl, Han Phally, married a fellow PIO graduate on 14 March 2023. Since our last update, she has given birth to a little girl. She is very busy looking after her baby right now but is more determined than ever to complete her university education. The education she has received at PIO has transformed this girl’s life, from picking up garbage for survival to harbouring an ambition to become a businesswoman so that one day she might help other poverty-stricken girls.
SPG’s girl, Seam Chantrea, too has found her life’s partner while working as a teacher’s assistant at Paragon International School.
Below is a progress report on the 5 girls in Dharma Care’s Srey Lak Program for Girls.
Due to her difficult family circumstances, Cheng Es has had to drop out of PIO a number of times, but always manages to return.
April 2024
Grade 7
8th in class Semester 1 2024
Excellent attendance
Sreynoch’s alcoholic father was hit by a car and killed. Her mother, who was a farm hand earning 5000 riel a day (AU$1.67), found it difficult to look after Sreynoch and her brother and placed Sreynoch in PIO.
April 2024
Grade 7
8th in class Semester 1 2024
Excellent attendance
Sokheng’s father is a motorbike taxi driver and her mother is a street vendor.
April 2024
Grade 7
Middle of class Semester 1 2024
Excellent attendance
This is Khemera whose father works in construction to support the family and to pay off their debts.
Lives with her family
April 2024
Grade 10
Middle of class Semester 1 2024
Excellent attendance
Khemery is Khemera’s younger sister.
April 2024
Grade 9
3rd in class Semester 1 2024
Excellent attendance
Since our last update, Sophany and Raksa have graduated from high school and are now freshmen at universities. The other 7 university girls are continuing to do well at their respective universities. They all work during the day and attend university classes at night.
Sophany comes from an impoverished farming family in Takeo Province.
Norton University
Major: Architecture
April 2024
First year university
Raksa’s family became further impoverished when her father and brother became ill. Raksa’s mother took out a bank loan to pay for their medical treatment, but sadly, both her father and brother died. Raksa’s mother and siblings are working as migrant workers in Thailand to pay back the loan. Raksa aspires to be a designer in the future.
Belti International University
Major: Design
April 2024
First year university
Sophanoen comes from a farming family who could not afford to educate their children. She has a day job as a sales rep at a company.
Norton University
Major: Law
April 2024
4th year
To help her family, Han Phally also works as a teacher assistant at Jungle International Cambodia. I have written a blog about Phally on DCI’s website: “Han Phally’s Journey from Rubbish Dump to University.”
National University of Management
Major: Management
April 2024
4th year
Phally is now a young mother. After a short break, she plans to resume her university studies.
Sreyleak comes from a farming family who could not support her and her 4 siblings. In addition to studying, Sreyleak works as a stock seller at Mega Mart, a cosmetic company.
Mekong University
Major: Accounting
April 2024
4th year
Both Sreyneath’s parents are deceased. She was brought up by her grandmother who placed her in PIO. Sreyneath is also working as an accountant at a company.
Vanda Institute of Accounting
Major: Accounting
April 2024
4th Year
Sokreth’s father is deceased. Her mother who is a factory worker found it difficult to feed, clothe, house and educate Sokreth and her two siblings and placed her in PIO. Sokreth works as a salesclerk at a scarf shop.
Puthisas university of Preah Sihakmony Reachea
Major: English Literature
April 2024
3rd year
Chantrea comes from a farming family. When the family farm failed, her parents had to borrow money. Repaying the loan further impoverished the family. Chantrea works as a teacher assistant at Paragon International School, and at PIO.
Cambodian Mekong University
Major: Management
April 2024
3rd year
Chantha’s father died when she was 3. Destitute and in debt, her mother was forced to sell what little land they owned and move the family to Phnom Penh. Her mother works as a baker. Chantha is now looking for part-time work to help her Mom.
Norton University
Major: Architecture
April 2024
2nd year
Girls like the Dy Sovan sisters, Khemery and Khemara, arrive at PIO, dressed in rags, hungry and malnourished, with little prospect of breaking out of a life of destitution and deprivation. Without the intervention of schools like PIO and supporters like Dharma Care their future would be a bleak one of back breaking labour at best, and at worst, vulnerable to abuse like being trafficked to become sex workers. The Dy Sovan sisters, like other students at PIO, are therefore highly motivated to do well in their studies to break free from a life of marginalisation and to broaden their future prospects.
If you would like to help girls like Khemera and Khemery, please visit Dharma Care’s “ Srey Lak Program for Girls” https://dharmacare.org.au/srey-lak-program-for-girls/ to make a donation.
If you would like to sponsor a specific PIO girl, please contact Miyako Armytage m.o.armytage!@gmail.com.
All donations are welcome and will go toward educating, feeding and sheltering vulnerable children.
- Big or small, all donations help in the operation of PIO.
- The cost of tuition and full board per child per year is AU$1000.00.
- AU$1655.00 per year for university fees.
Donations through Dharma Care are tax deductible. 15% of donations go to Dharma Care to cover administrative services. This charge is well below the industry average of 22%.