Strengthening Families, Safeguarding Futures

This quarter, Free To Shine supported vulnerable girls and families through targeted social work, emergency response, and community capacity building. Our team worked with families across nine communes and three districts, maintaining active casework for 48 girls and families, completing 180 safety visits and 75 socialwork interventions to reduce trafficking risk and keep girls in school. During the quarter we enrolled 22 new girls and progressed 17 planned exits to safety where families have the stability and knowledge to protect girls independently.

In response to displacement from the Cambodia–Thailand border conflict, Free To Shine provided urgent assistance in coordination with local partners: hygiene and clothing packs for 53 displaced families and food packages reaching 80 families, funded through internal allocations, partner support and targeted fundraising. Five additional families received extenuatingcircumstances packages to address acute loss of income, food insecurity and related threats to girls’ education.

To strengthen household resilience, we distributed raised garden beds (concrete beds, roofing net, seeds and fertiliser) to 10 households in Siem Reap, improving yearround food security and reducing economic pressure on girls to leave school. We also completed ChildSafe training of trainers with FriendsInternational and are preparing to train local volunteers and leaders as ChildSafe Agents so communities can identify and respond to childprotection concerns earlier and more effectively.