Girl Rising

Hello Everyone,
We hope that all is well with you and yours. We continue to provide help to 81 of our students, graduates and their families as they weather the COVID storm, we will update those efforts soon.

In the meantime, the students who are still studying English or vocational training continue their work online or together in smaller bubbles such as at Sohing's Farm School.

As well as our Smart Kids sponsorship program, both programs resemble families as they live or share meals together. Currently, the students and families are facing great difficulties due to COVID-19 work restrictions and food security. However, their challenges are taken in typical rural Cambodia style: keep calm and carry on.

On the topic of carrying on, we would like to tell you about a student whose name we will keep anonymous. We first became aware of her six years ago when Mr. Sokha a local village school principal/social worker, called attention to her. She and her two older brothers were homeless and living outside behind the houses of some local villagers. They literally did not have a roof over their heads.

In addition to experiencing extreme poverty and hardship throughout her young life, she lost her mother and the father left. We decided to take her into K.I.D.S. Smart Kids education program and helped her and her brothers build a small house with a toilet facility so that the three siblings could ease their difficult living situation.

She was always a bit withdrawn and somewhat struggled with her studies because of her late start in school and lack of parental guidance. Under our program manager Hak and principal Sokha, who both kept a close eye on her, she started to become more talkative and open. When her father came back in the picture more regularly, her demeanor became more quiet and withdrawn again so we moved her, at the beginning of grade 10, to Siem Reap to live with Hak, his family and the rest of the older Smart Kids, who were in the vocational training phase of their education.


In the two years since she has been living in the kind and loving cocoon of Hak's family and the Smart Kids, a new person has emerged. She is now confident, gregarious, has a beautiful singing voice, and is excelling in school. She will graduate from grade 12 in a few weeks in the top five in her class. This brave girl has climbed a mountain of adversity and we have no doubt that your support has changed and saved her life, allowing her to fly towards her post-secondary training and the next phase of her life.

Thank you for supporting her and many others like her.

Until next time,
Rick and Adrianne