For the close to 20 years REECH has been working in Cambodia, it has supported 40 grassroots agencies working with highly vulnerable, “at risk” infants, kids, teens and young adults. REECH does this in three very specific and targeted ways:
- Providing essential resources to the agencies to ensure they meet the needs of their clients;
- Equipping young adults and mums living in slums with whatever it takes for them to earn an income as well as equipping Khmer teachers by running professional development workshops to up-skill teachers, increase their capacity and in turn lift the country’s education standards;
- Facilitating the education of teenage girls and young women to complete their Year 12 studies, and if they choose, go onto university.
The fast approaching end of the current financial year is the perfect time to reflect back upon the past 12 months and the various ways REECH has resourced, equiped and educated. Of all the projects in each of the three areas one or two stand out as absolute all time favourite encounters. You’ll find some of those stories below. As you read them you may like to consider our end of financial year invitation to financially support the work of REECH and the agencies it supports.
Jenny Knight
Chair, REECH Cambodia
Guest of Honour: One tinsel clad tuk tuk!
One my favourite resource stories took place miles from nowhere in the grounds of a very remote primary school. There, DDSP, a REECH supported agency that is only agency in central Cambodia working with people with disabilities, has set up a respite centre for young adults with disabilities.
The centre has long had a taxi tuk tuk that travels throughout the surrounding region picking up teenagers and young adults from their villages and taking them to the centre where they receive a meal, social interaction, care and lots of love. Years of rough dirt roads finally took their toll and in early 2024 the taxi tuk tuk quite literally fell apart.
Devastated DDSP approached REECH to provide a new tuk tuk. An anonymous and very generous donation made the purchase of a new tuk tuk possible . The new tuk tuk was presented to the respite centre last June. The tuk tuk was draped in tinsel, the kids were beside themselves with excitement and the regular tuk tuk passengers were so relieved to once again have transportation available.
Cambodians love a celebration and the delivery of this tuk tuk was as good an excuse as any for a party!
Breaking the illiteracy cycle
The educate story that brings a huge smile whenever I reflect upon it is catching up with Amey and her mum, Ya, in January this year. About two years ago, Ya went to Hope for Cambodian Women, a REECH funded NGO. With tears streaming down her face, she explained to Nary, the agency’s director that, as a single mum, she could no longer afford to keep then 14 year old Amey in school and that she had no choice but to send Amey to work in a garment factory.
Ya had left school in Grade 2. She was illiterate and innumerate and she had long determined her story would not be Amey’s story. Finances now dictated otherwise.
Nary immediately contacted REECH and a scholarship was offered to Amey. This scholarship meets her school costs and pays a stipend to Ya to cover Amey’s food and rent. When I met Amey and Ya in January both threw their arms around me and gave me letters of appreciation. The letter from Ya was particularly special. Watching her daughter thrive at school, Ya decided to take courage in both hands and began attending Hope for Cambodian Women’s beginners’ literacy classes. Her thank you note was the first letter she had ever written. How precious!
Teaching teachers to teach
And then there’s the favourite equip story: the teacher training workshops REECH ran last July. It’s just a bit too easy to become a teacher in Cambodia. Once a student passes their Yr 12 exams they can sit a further government exam. Passing that exam qualifies them to teach in government primary and high schools.
There’s no requirement for tertiary training or ongoing professional development. Hardly surprising then that Cambodia’s education system is consistently ranked the lowest in the ASEAN region.
For years, teachers have been telling REECH that the nation’s education system is failing its students. Up until a few years ago, the only response REECH had was to provide resources to classrooms, books for students and encouragement for teachers. Finally, the idea of providing professional development for the teachers in schools REECH supported began to take shape. The first teacher training workshop was run two years ago with 25 educators attending a series of workshops. As we presented each participant with a certificate of completion they all asked when the next workshops would be run!
REECH returned in June-July last year to conduct a second series of workshops. This time 45 Khmer teachers and educators attended two days of workshop run by a bunch of Aussie educators. The following week, another workshop was run for 15 educators in Pursat where the focus was on teaching kids with disabilities.
Interest in these workshops has now grown so much that, when we return to Cambodia in a few days’ time to run this year’s workshops, we’re needing to run the workshops on two different occasions to cater for the 90+ educators who’ve registered to attend.
2024-25 was huge for Reech
The past financial year has been a big one for REECH:
- the release of a book of stories of young women who are the first in their families to finish high school and uni;
- over 100 bikes were given to high school kids to enable them to get to and stay in school;
- university fees were paid for young female garment factory workers to ensure they have career options other than an unsafe factory
- the salaries of teachers, tutors and youth workers were paid keeping classrooms open and youth services operating;
- two retreats were run for Khmer and expat women in leadership.
- laptops were gifted to REECH uni students . . . the list goes on and on!
