Help a girl escape Cambodia's sex industry!

In the early 2000s, Dateline NBC went undercover and exposed the village of Svay Pak (on the outskirts of Phnom Penh) as a hub for child sex trafficking, sparking a national and global movement to end trafficking of women and children in Cambodia. At the time, Svay Pak was a known stomping ground for international sex...

Srey Neang* was born in 1985 in Kandal, Cambodia and is the oldest of 6 children. Her parents are landless, and survive through meager wages earned as agrarian day laborers. Despite her love of learning, poverty forced Srey to drop out of school in the 6th grade in order to earn money to help feed her siblings. Srey was...

In the first half of 2012, your generous support opened the doors to a better life for 98 women and children living and working in the red light districts of Svay Pak, Beung Kak II and Phnom Penh Thmei, Cambodia. In addition to the Non-Formal Education (NFE) literacy and life skills classes, the project supported training...

This month our team visited NFE graduate Srey Leak ("lee-ack") at her new job as a beautician in Phnom Penh’s riverside Old Market. Formerly a karoke bar worker, Leak completed NFE in 2010 and in 2011 was one of five graduates to receive additional beauty skills training from the program. LO Director of Field...

Jacqueline Lee is an InTheField Traveler with GlobalGiving who is visiting our partners’ projects throughout Southeast Asia. Her “Postcard” from the visit in Cambodia: On March 14, Alexis and I visited Lotus Outreach’s Non-Formal Education program. Bright and early we met up with Raksmey from Lotus...

Srey Mach demonstrates the importance of Non-Formal Education benefits that cannot be measured, like confidence, as well as the close bond that NFE students develop with project manager Sokhorn. Although she finished the course in 2007, our staff is still in touch with her and easily arranged an interview during our visit...

One of 13 children, You Sok Khea never had the chance to attend school in her native Kampong Cham province. Having spent her childhood helping her mother raise her siblings, her first taste of independence came after she moved to Phnom Penh as an adult and found restaurant work. A few years later as a wife and mother of...

The totals are in for the first half of 2011! We currently have 108 students in our Non-Formal Education classes, with 94 women, 80 former or current entertainment workers and 31 vulnerable children. The story of 22 year-old Korn Srey Neat demonstrates the type of outcome we hope to achieve for each and every one of...

Our director of field operations, Glenn Fawcett, shares his experience on a recent visit to one of our Non-Formal Education classes at Srey Sros karaoke bar: At a new NFE beauty skills training class in Phnom Penh, we asked the students if we could take their photos and share their stories, or if they would prefer...

The youngest of eight children, Khorn Bopha went to live with her grandparents in Kompong Cham province at age four after her parents’ contentious divorce. The people in her new village looked down on her for having been abandoned. She was routinely mocked and derided; although her grandparents loved her she felt like...

With your support in 2010, Lotus Outreach started a new Non-Formal Education and Life Skills course for 30 sex workers, entertainers and their children in the Kroul Kor area of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.The story of one recent addition to the program at Kroul Kor, Som Keo Morakath, indicates how difficult it is for an...

Giving Cambodia’s Red Light Workers the ‘Green Light’ to a Brighter Future One of Lotus Outreach’s greatest strengths is its ability to adapt in response to the needs of local populations. This month’s update on the Non-Formal Education and Life Skills (NFE) program is a great illustration of this quality and its...

On behalf of Lotus Outreach and over 100 urban sex workers and children served by the Non-Formal Education (NFE) program in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2009, we would like to thank you for your generous support. Against all odds and despite significant challenges in the face of the global economic crisis and ongoing brothel...