Education for 300 Urban Poor Children

Sunshine is now supporting the education of 300 children, from 200 families – 1,000+ direct beneficiaries.

Here is a story of a boy in the programme:

Panya is a gentle 9 year old boy who has been with Sunshine Cambodia for 5 years, along with his 7 year old sister, Nita.  Their father drives a remorque (a trailer pulled by a motorbike) and their mother works as a cleaner for a microfinance organization.  But even though they have work, they barely earn enough to get by.

Panya, which means ‘wisdom’, is now in Grade 4 and with Sunshine’s support has received school supplies, uniforms, help with paying “informal” school fees, and a food subsidy.  He has many friends and enjoys attending Sunshine’s children’s club where he’s learnt lots of useful things but what he remembers most are the lessons on child rights and child abuse, and playing on the computers.

 “I know that when people hurt me or other children, it is the child abuse and it is against our rights and we will look for help from others,” he said.

Even though he is one of the top 5 students in his class at public school, he enjoys learning English at a privately-run school even more.  

“I prefer studying English at the private school because at the public school, the teacher does not explain the lesson much and there are too many noisy students in the class!”

Over the years, he has seen many improvements in his family’s life.  They now have enough food to eat and his father has bought a better motorbike for work.  They can sleep on a mattress instead of a straw mat and they have nicer clothes to wear. His parents have a better relationship and the whole family practices better hygiene!

For Panha though, his education is the most important thing for his future.

 “My dream is to be a doctor so that I can help people and make enough money to live on. And if this dream doesn’t come true, I have another dream of working in a bank because bank workers can work in air-conditioning and dress well all the time.  I don’t want to work under the heat of the sun! Banks can also help people improve their finances.

Thank you very much for supporting me through Sunshine!”

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