PN Cambodia - education to end poverty

Hello dear supporter of equal access to quality education!

This is an update on our program's impact - please view the attached 2025 Annual Report.  Thank you for donation, for investing in the lives of these Cambodia youth!

A Country on the Rise — and Those Left Behind

Cambodia’s trajectory over the past two decades has been remarkable. A country that rebuilt itself from the ground up after decades of conflict has become one of Southeast Asia’s more dynamic emerging economies, with a technology sector that is growing quickly and a demand for digital talent that consistently outpaces supply. Yet the gains of that transformation have not been shared equally.

Three in four Cambodians still live in rural areas, where access to quality education — let alone higher education — remains deeply constrained by distance, cost, and entrenched inequality. Higher education enrollment has nearly doubled over the past decade, but in 2023 only 16.4% of women and 29% of men aged 25 and older had completed any secondary schooling at all. One in five working people earns less than $2.15 a day. And the technology sector, for all its promise, remains largely inaccessible to those who need it most: women hold fewer than 10% of tech positions in the country.

These are not statistics about a distant problem. They describe the families of the young people PNC selects every year — and the reality those young people are determined to change. PNC has been working in Phnom Penh since 2005, giving the most disadvantaged young Cambodians a route into the digital economy that they could not access any other way.

How the Program Works

Passerelles Numériques (PN) is an international non-profit active in Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Madagascar. PNC’s two-year program, now in its twentieth year, trains 100 new students annually in Phnom Penh. Tuition, accommodation, meals, healthcare and equipment are all provided free of charge.Finding the right students is itself a major undertaking. Each year, PNC's selection team travels across 18 of Cambodia's 25 provinces, running information sessions that reach more than 5,000 young people — then narrows the field through a written exam, motivational interview, and home visit to assess each family's economic situation. Those who make it through have both the drive and the need to make the most of the opportunity. At least half are women; around 89% come from rural communities. Every student receives, at no cost to them:

• A nationally accredited Associate Degree in Computer Science, specializing in Software Development or Network Administration & Cybersecurity — a major PNC recently reopened in response to growing demand from Cambodia's digital sector
• Advanced training in English, professional skills, AI literacy, and personal development
• Full wraparound support: housing, meals, healthcare, laptops, and dedicated socio-educational follow-up
• A four-month internship with a partner IT company, mentored by working professionals

Roughly 30% of the curriculum happens inside companies — three times the industry norm for vocational programs in Cambodia. Graduates do not leave with a diploma alone. They leave with references, experience, and an employer who already knows their work.

Twenty Years of Results

PNC has been tracking its graduates carefully since the beginning. Across 1,842 alumni, the picture is consistent:

• US$305/month: Average starting salary for PNC graduates — more than seven times the average household income before joining the program (US$41/month)
• 95% employed: Share of graduates in work within three months of completing the program
• 30% contributed: Proportion of their monthly salary that alumni send back to their families, funding healthcare, nutrition, housing improvements and siblings’ education
• 9,210 people: Total number of students and immediate family members whose lives have been materially changed by the program

What these numbers represent, in practice, is a generation of young Cambodians who grew up in communities where a career in technology was simply not a conceivable option — and who are now quality assurance engineers, network administrators, web developers and team leads in a fast-growing industry. Their salaries reach back into their villages. Their siblings stay in school. Their parents no longer carry the same financial precarity. And their own trajectories, now established, continue to accelerate.

This is what two decades of consistent, disciplined work produces. Not a single intervention, but a compounding cycle of opportunity.

Thank you so much for your support - please consider sharing our work with your friends, family and workplace!  During this difficult economic time, any amount of support goes along way, collectively, to support our impactful program!

Links:

• 2025 Annual Report