Education

Believing that education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty, we are passionate about enabling impoverished young people in rural Cambodia to gain an education.

Opportunity Cambodia began a project in the early 2000s to educate extremely poor children in a rural commune in Cambodia. These children came from circumstances which almost defy description – extreme poverty, dysfunctional families, illiterate parents with no real hope for the future.

They thrived under our program of health care, education and support for daily living and most of them progressed amazingly well through the school system to high school, and a number of them wanted to go to University.

You may be interested to read our earlier newsletters which provide an insight into our school education program.

Over the years working in rural Cambodia we became very aware of the chronic lack of trained professionals in many areas – education, health, administration, engineering.

Cambodia’s late C20th history of war and genocide has had a lasting impact on the country. Cambodia remains one of the LDC countries – the least developed countries in the world, and is one of the poorest countries in our region. It is widely recognised that one of the biggest risks to its growth is the fact that most of the country’s labour force is young and not equipped with the level of education and skills to ensure the successful economic and social development of the country. There is a severe shortage of trained teachers, nurses, engineers, doctors, administrators, lawyers etc.

We were impressed with the ambition and determination of many of our older students to gain a tertiary education and to contribute actively to their communities. And their country sorely needs future leaders and role models.

We decided to support our students to go to University and we opened a Centre in Siem Reap in 2019. We also began a program to provide scholarships to enable a wider cohort of impoverished rural students to gain a tertiary education, as comparatively few rural students have the opportunity to attend university.

We advertise the Scholarships and students are selected on the basis of good results in the National Exam, advice from high school principals regarding the student’s commitment, focus and ability to work hard, and most importantly financial need.

Our students attend a wide range of degree course including teaching, nursing, law, midwifery, medicine, finance and banking, engineering, IT.

In Cambodia many students who arrive at university with their dreams and ambitions do not complete their degrees/training due to lack of funds and appropriate support systems.

We recognised how important it would be to provide a ‘home away from home’ for our students in Siem Reap. Here they are supported to make a safe transition to life in the city, and the necessary resources to ensure they can complete their degrees.

Our scholarships provide full support – tuition fees and books, accommodation and food, health care, mentoring and emotional support, training in life skills, household management, basic financial skills and leadership, subject coaching. And very importantly for these young people away from their families and communities, we provide a warm, caring and supportive community. We also organise sporting activities, visits to Cambodian cultural and historic sites, and importantly visits to potential employers such as clinics, hospital, banks etc.

Most degrees are four years, and are structured to enable students to have part time jobs. In their third year we place students in flat share accommodation where they learn to live independently . We also assist them to find part time jobs in situations related to their degrees. This is a very successful initiative as it really assists students to improve their English, and develop their confidence, and generally ensures they are more than ready and qualified to gain good jobs after graduation.

The students’ Siem Reap ‘home’ , its resources and activities, are always available to our students and graduates. We encourage them to come ‘home’ as often as they wish – and they do!
We are so proud of our first group of graduate students.

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