Education Cambodia Project #58364

Give 300+ rural Cambodian youth a bright future!

by PEPY Empowering Youth

Project Report | Oct 8, 2024
An Event Full Summer

By Chhunnay Bin | Partnership and Development Coordinator

Civil Engagement Project

Dear PEPY friends and family,

We hope you're doing well. PEPY’s programs have reached important milestones in empowering students and preparing them for their careers. We celebrated the accomplishments of both program and university graduates, while also hosting a range of activities including debates, workshops, group discussions, public speaking events, and competitions. These initiatives fostered practical skills, built confidence, and promoted networking and community involvement.

In the past quarter, there have been numerous events across all program areas, involving students, teachers, local authorities, and the community. Over 1,500 participants took part in these events. The Learning Center Program organized activities such as an English Speaking Contest, a Student Community Civil Engagement project, leadership talks, and a Debate Contest. Meanwhile, the Outreach Program hosted events like the Dream Management Youth Debate Contest, a Skills Fair, and Scholarship Recognition. Additionally, the Youth Innovator's Space and Incubator Program launched a new initiative: the PEPY Accelerator, an 8-week training program designed to equip aspiring entrepreneurs with essential skills to launch and scale their businesses.

We truly value your extraordinary kindness and support for our youth from all programs. Your contributions will enable hundreds of young individuals to improve their lives, their families, and their communities. We encourage you to stay connected and see the difference your donation is making by subscribing to our newsletter at www.pepyempoweringyouth.org/subscribe. We eagerly await your response and thank you once again!

Warm regards,
The PEPY Team | contact@pepyempoweringyouth.org

Links:

Gerneral Quarterly Report

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Dec 22, 2023
Thanks to you, we are dreaming BIG in 2024!

By Kathryn McDaniel | PEPY's Partnerships and Development Manager

Dream students in the debate competition

Dear PEPY friend,

We hope this message finds you well and that you are having a great week. We would love to begin this email by thanking you for contributing to our Dream activities at Varin High School. Without you, we would have been forced to significantly reduce our services and many high school students would have missed their chance to access higher education and plan for their futures. Today we are pleased to bring you some exciting developments from the Dream Management Program!

This quarter was kicked off with our Debate Contest. The contest enables students to showcase and develop their public speaking skills, articulate their ideas on stage, and promote fairness in competition. Twenty students participated in four groups spanning grades 10-12. A total of 453 people attended including the District Department of Education Youth and Sports Director, the school principal, PEPY staff, teachers, and students. Four-hundred-twenty-four attendees joined our Public Speaking Contest to see the final efforts of our top 10 competitors. The speakers focused on topics of their choice related to education, environment, music, and attitude. Lastly, we organized a Closing Ceremony in partnership with the school leadership to honor and celebrate our students and Dream teacher partners. A total of 424 attendees joined the event including representatives from the Provincial Education Youth and Sport, an Education Youth Sports District Director, the principals, teachers, parents, students, and PEPY staff.

Sot Mao, a Dream student, shared, “I am happy and proud to receive this one-year completion certificate, and my grandma is proud of me too. I am committed to participating regularly in Dream Classes next year and giving my best.”

None of this would have been possible without your generosity! You helped us keep our doors open in Varin High School while we sought new partners to bring financial stability to our program. Now, we are pleased to share with you that as of a couple of weeks ago, Child's Dream Foundation decided to fund not only Varin High School's Dream activities but expand our program from three schools to 12 in 2024! We are effectively quadrupling our reach next year and are overwhelmed but very excited.

As we begin the process of closing this campaign, we would like to express our gratitude to you on behalf of the entire PEPY community. We appreciate that you believed in our work and saw value in our Dream Program in a moment of financial crisis. We will continue posting reports and updates through GlobalGiving but hope that you will sign up for our newsletter to receive uplifting stories and updates.

In the meantime, we would like to wish you and your loved ones a wonderful holiday season and we look forward to connecting with you in the new year.

Warmly,

The PEPY Team

Dream student in our Public Speaking Contest

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Sep 27, 2023
Thanks you for Making Dreams Happen!

By Kathryn McDaniel | Partnerships & Development Manager

Dream student in our Public Speaking Contest

Dear PEPY friends and community,

We hope this message finds you well and that you have been having a great week so far! The PEPY team has just returned from our bi-annual staff retreat recharged and ready to provide the best services to our program participants. The retreat was a great opportunity for the Dream team in particular, as they are aiming to make significant programmatic changes and needed the opportunity to come together and review their plan and strategies.

The Dream team is working on an expansion plan to add over nine additional high schools in our target districts and in additional districts that we have recently assessed. Our proposal is in the final stages of review and if accepted, a significant portion of our current program sites' budgets and the entire expansion effort will be covered! This would mean that PEPY would be tripling or even quadrupling the number of students we support each year by 2024. We are very excited to help thousands of more young people build their confidence in themselves, identify their dreams, and stay in school in pursuit of a better future.

None of this would have been possible without your support! Currently, Varin High School's Dream Project is desperately underfunded. Without your donations, we would not have been able to continue our activities in Varin this summer and we would not have attracted the interest of the local partners who are now invested in us bringing Dream to more high schools in need. Thank you for helping our expansion and for enabling our hard-working Dream team in Varin to continue their crucial work.

Before you go, we wanted to share a recent community story with you!

Meet Phat: Phat is in his last year of study at Varin High School. He has four siblings and is the third child of a family of farmers. Phat first joined Dream Class in 2020 when he was in Grade 10 during the COVID-19 pandemic. He only got to attend one in-person class before lockdown started and then the classes went online. At that time, Phat did not attend class regularly because he did not feel confident to express his ideas and felt disconnected from the class. After seeing how much Dream benefitted the seniors, Phat tried to be involved in Dream Class every week. By August 2023, his attendance had been 100% for the last two years!

Phat shared, “From 2022, I committed to be involved in Dream every single session even if my family wanted me to help them in the rice field. I rejected them to focus on Dream after class. [By] joining Dream Class, I understand how to have self-confidence, teamwork, and scholarship opportunities. Through Dream Class, I hope to get a scholarship to continue to higher education at the university.”

In the future, Phat wants to be a math teacher to share the joy of math with the next generation. He would also like to become a historian as he feels passionate about sharing Cambodia's story. He told us, "Learning is the best gateway for our life."

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Your generosity has helped students like Phat believe in themselves and work towards their dreams! Thank you for supporting our work and we look forward to sending you more updates in the coming months.

Sincerely,

Kathryn and the PEPY Team

Phat, a Grade 12 student in Varin High School

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