During our monitoring visit this August, it was brilliant to get the opportunity to visit the Countryside Education Project (CSEP), a new undertaking by two organisations we have worked closely with in the past, New Future for Children (NFC) and Stichting Dom-Ray.
This project was set up by Chork Ratana, an NFC graduate who wanted to give something back to the poor community he grew up in before NFC. With the help of Stichting Dom-Ray, Ratana was able to set up a school in Kor village in Prey Veng province, and he travels there every weekend to teach English to around 100 children from local villages.
Stichting Dom-Ray and Ratana approached Golden Futures because of our expertise in supporting disadvantaged children into university or vocational training. They were concerned by the vicious cycle that the young people in Kor village face. Due to poverty, their families encourage them to drop out of school, and then go to work in a garment factory, for a wage of around $5 / day. The factory only employs them up to the age of 30, at which point they slip back into subsistence farming. Education is the key to leaving this cycle - and that is what Golden Futures is all about.
Our Intervol volunteers have been working closely with Ratana, and have travelled to Kor to deliver a number of workshops on future possibilities and key skills for the future. Stichting Dom-Ray have been able to fund a number of university places for the Kor village students, and so the volunteers have devised a week of training and orientation to prepare these students for the move from the countryside to the city, as well as mentoring them to make informed decisions about their futures, and the courses they might study.
To see all this, and hear the story from Ratana himself, was a privilege, and we hope that we will be working together more in the future.
This project was set up by Chork Ratana, an NFC graduate who wanted to give something back to the poor community he grew up in before NFC. With the help of Stichting Dom-Ray, Ratana was able to set up a school in Kor village in Prey Veng province, and he travels there every weekend to teach English to around 100 children from local villages.
Stichting Dom-Ray and Ratana approached Golden Futures because of our expertise in supporting disadvantaged children into university or vocational training. They were concerned by the vicious cycle that the young people in Kor village face. Due to poverty, their families encourage them to drop out of school, and then go to work in a garment factory, for a wage of around $5 / day. The factory only employs them up to the age of 30, at which point they slip back into subsistence farming. Education is the key to leaving this cycle - and that is what Golden Futures is all about.
Our Intervol volunteers have been working closely with Ratana, and have travelled to Kor to deliver a number of workshops on future possibilities and key skills for the future. Stichting Dom-Ray have been able to fund a number of university places for the Kor village students, and so the volunteers have devised a week of training and orientation to prepare these students for the move from the countryside to the city, as well as mentoring them to make informed decisions about their futures, and the courses they might study.
To see all this, and hear the story from Ratana himself, was a privilege, and we hope that we will be working together more in the future.
