Support the futures of 3,000+ Youth in Cambodia

Dear PEPY Community,

2020 has been quite a year of ups and downs! As Cambodian schools and learning institutions slowly re-open, the PEPY team has felt honored looking back on your commitment to supporting our work and our students this year. COVID-19 has been challenging for all of us, and your support has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated! 

Scholarship Project Story: 

PEPY Scholars faced many hardships as schools closed, and the economy worsened. Many of their parents were working in neighboring countries until lockdowns forced them out. Simultaneously, a considerable percentage of scholars (primarily teachers and workers in the tourist industry) were losing their jobs. As a result, many families were pressuring their children to leave school to help with farming or construction work to supplement their income. 

While we recognize the pressure and desire to help their families may be high, our team was concerned that students would return to their villages and drop out of school and miss their opportunity to find more sustainable work opportunities in the city. We reached out to their families and ultimately provided students and families with stipends or emergency support if they had low food security. Over time, scholars' families grew gardens from the seeds we provided them, and several families initiated chicken coops with the resources and training we provided them. 

The stipends enabled students to stay in the city and continue their studies while we help them find new job opportunities. Several months ago, we hired one of our scholars, Channra, to work as a Scholarship Project Assistant to help the scholarship team support students and identify more job opportunities. In addition, we allowed scholars to work in Phnom Penh for the first time as long as they could maintain their reporting agreement with us and felt capable of making such a big transition. As of December 1st, less than 20 scholars remain unemployed while approximately 20 scholars have reduced salaries! 

The PEPY team provided Urban Gardening training to scholars to grow their own food and save on monthly expenses. Students reported that the garden not only reduced their costs but also contributed positively to their mental health. One of our students, Pha, said, “Urban gardening is pretty good [to] help me reduce my daily spending on vegetables as I need to eat vegetables every day. It also provided me good health with no chemical vegetable. After study[ing] I take all my time to look after them because it also helps me reduce stress and get a fresh feeling. And a big thanks for supporting me [with] seeds and containers. I would like to plant them more.”

Future Plans: 

• We launched our Future is Bright Lab and Library in November. This initiative allows students and alumni to rent computers, accessories, and training material to self-study or use applications for their homework or look for jobs. We encourage IT-inclined youth to form clubs and meetings to further their web development and coding skills. This project is currently open for GlobalGiving donations as we hope to reach our goal of 40 computers by December 2021. 
• PEPY is partnering with USAID's PACT Cambodia We Act Project to start PEPY's Youth Innovators Space (YIS) and Social Enterprise Incubator. We hired two new amazing staff members, Phalla and Sreypov, who have extensive business and incubator experience to manage this project. We plan to identify dedicated and creative youth in Siem Reap to allow them to diversify the market and be tomorrow's job creators.   

We hope these changes are as exciting for you as they are for us! We look forward to keeping you updated as these new initiatives progress, and we help make sure every scholar gets back on track in 2021.