Support the futures of 3,000+ Youth in Cambodia

Dear PEPY friends and family, 

Wow, what a year! Over the last few weeks, we have been celebrating our youth participants' graduations as well as their personal and professional successes. Each and every youth that has had the opportunity to develop themselves and improve their livelihood is because of your generosity and kindness. In this report, we would love to highlight what we have accomplished this past year with your support. 

We are proud to share that we have supported over 900 youth through our Dream Management, Scholarship, Learning Center, and YISI Programs.

• In the Dream Management Project, we have been able to give rural youth access to more programs and initiatives than ever before. We coordinated the first Public Speaking Contests in our partner schools with the local government so students would build their confidence and study skills. The local government officials were so impressed with the speakers that they helped us enter them into the National Public Speaking Competition. In the rural and remote regions, our youth rarely have opportunities to travel in the city and join competitions with their urban-based peers. All of the participants were thrilled and are so excited to have the chance to join the event next year. Many of these youth were too shy to share their thoughts in the classroom, and now, they are speaking on stage in front of hundreds of people! We cannot wait to expand public speaking programs across rural Cambodia.
• 194 out of 199 of our eligible work scholars and alumni are employed! We are so happy that almost all of our scholars and alumni have found work again, that they are facing less economic hardship, and that we have been able to move more of our resources and funding back into our running programs to support future youth. Next quarter, we will be working to ensure the remaining unemployed youth receive a rewarding job opportunity and we look forward to updating you soon. 
• Just two weeks ago, 59 Learning Center students graduated from our course after completing their English language, soft skill, and IT students. This is the first year we have introduced coding into our curriculum! Since the students are now able to take IT home and continued practicing in their free time, their IT skills are more advanced compared to the previous Learning Center students. This gave us the opportunity to teach them more administration, graphic design, and web development applications during the last couple of months. All of the students have impressed us with their passion and drive to improve their communities in their Civic Engagement Projects, and we are so excited to see what they will accomplish in the future! You can check a recent video of their community waste management and education development work here: https://youtu.be/rByylPS4yi0
• Lastly, our YISI Program supported over 50 entrepreneurs this year. By the end of the Social Enterprise Incubator Course, YISI helped launch 3 women-led businesses in the community and expanded/improved over 5 existing businesses. One business we are particularly excited about is Storius Cambodia which was founded by our Youth Innovator Thangdy Roun. Storius is an audio-guided app that enables tourists to travel to different countries and locations independently while listening to detailed insights, historical facts, and stories from locals. The app has been translated into English, Khmer, and Chinese and they plan to add Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos tours and languages soon.  

Please see our recent quarterly report (linked below) for more detailed information!

Before we go, we wanted to share a student story that really stood out to us and reminded us why our work is so important:  

Deva's Story

Deva Rorm is a 20-year-old scholar from Srei Snam District. He was born and raised by a single mother in Srei Snam District, Siem Reap Province. He has 3 siblings and he is the last child in his family. His father died when he was only 4 years old. Deva and his siblings had a tough childhood since his father passed away because his mother had to migrate illegally to Thailand to earn money. He shared, “It was so difficult for us when my mum went to Thailand and left us [here] living with my grandmother. I was so small and I didn’t have a chance to stay with her often.”

Deva decided to stay in school and now, he is the only person in his family to graduate from high school and continue on to higher education. He was also the only male student from Srei Snam District to receive the PEPY scholarship in 2020. Deva realized that he has a great talent for drawing and designing, so after receiving the scholarship, he decided to pursue a Bachelor of Architecture at Build Bright University, Siem Reap Campus. He is now a junior at university. “Since my family is very poor, I never imagine[d] that I would have an opportunity to continue my studies after high school, but the PEPY scholarship made it possible for me so I could shape my talent and follow my dream,” said Deva.

Deva is a hard-working student and always earns a high GPA. He is also working as a full-time Graphic Designer at Eyso Creative, and he has been working there for almost a year now! Since he is doing what he loves, Deva is proud of his work and will keep pursuing his goal to become an architect. We are so proud of incredible youth like Deva, who are dedicated to their studies and contributing to their community. We cannot wait to see his first architecture project come to life!

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Thank you so much for taking the time to read our updates. None of this would be possible without your generosity and we are very grateful that you are part of our community. We wish you a wonderful new year and hope you are just as excited as we are to see what the future holds! 

Sincerely,

Kathryn 

Links:

• Our Recent Quarterly Report