Empower 300 children and women to overcome poverty

We would like to say thank you so much for your donation. With your support, we can continue to empower our villagers to move them out of the poverty bracket through education and training. Here is a nice success story of Kunthea* who joined our sewing program and has changed her life.

Kunthea has eight members in her family. She stopped studying in grade 11 as her parents couldn’t support her. Then she worked as a housekeeper. Kunthea liked sewing since she was young. One day, she had a chance to learn a free sewing class, but due to a short training period, she couldn’t use her skill to run her dream sewing business at home. Then she got a job as a seamstress, making bags and some other handmade items. Kunthea didn’t like the job as she wanted to run her own sewing business at home, but she still worked there for the money. One day, Kunthea was arranged by her parents to marry a man in her village who she didn’t love, so she refused to that as she already had a loved one. Her parents got angry with her and kept forcing her, but she still disagreed and asked them to marry a man she loved. Although her parents didn’t happy with that, she finally decided to leave her family to live with a man she loves at the age of 21. She did not feel happy to do that with her parents, but that was only one of her best choice. Kunthea is one of the amazing women who dare to fight with her family on the marriage arrangement.

After living with her partner for a year, she had a daughter, so she stopped working as a seamstress. She just stayed home, looked after her daughter and did housework, so the family expenses relied on her husband who works as a housekeeper and earns less income. They started to have a bad financial situation. However, after her daughter was 1 year old, Kunthea went to work again as a housekeeper to help her husband. Two years later, she had another daughter, so she needed to stop working again. Her family expenses had increased, but she couldn’t go to work as she needed to take care of her two daughters, so her family had a big problem with financial.

One day, through our staff outreach, we met Kunthea at her small house and asked her if she was interested in our sewing program. She was happy to hear that because she wanted to improve her sewing skill, so she can set up her business at home. However, at first she hesitated to join the program because she was concerned that her husband disagreed and she didn’t understand like the old school, but after we talked about our sewing program and we let Sampheas, one of our seamstresses shared about her experience, so she stopped worrying about that. And her husband is a good man, he supported his wife’s decision.

Kunthea was very happy to learn sewing again, even though she traveled around 30 minutes to study every day, she had never felt tired with a goal of setting up her dream sewing shop at home.

After just three months, through her talent and a great attitude, she was chosen to become our seamstress, making products for us. She was very happy to start earning income. After completing our sewing course, she was fully confident to set up her dream sewing shop at home. And a few months later, with support from her husband, she could also set up a laundry shop at home.

Through attending our sewing program, Kunthea has achieved her dream. She is currently working with us as a seamstress, running her own sewing business and laundry at home. She is very proud of herself now as she can help herself and more importantly, she can prove to her parents that what she had decided to choose a man she loves is right because she is now living in a happy family with her two daughters.

“When I attended a sewing class at HHA, I have improved my sewing skill a lot. I meet new good people. Also, I gained a lot of knowledge, especially about parenting and money management.”

*We changed her name for privacy purpose.