180 Dreams!

Congratulations to the 180 children and their families for receiving their much needed PeopleStories scholarships for 2024. It is wonderful to see the rural community getting together to celebrate the power of education.
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Founder Victoria shares at the ceremony, "Children, you are here today not because you are poor or your parents asked you to...  You are here today because you have made a choice!  A choice to go to school and a commitment to education.  May your future be bright and let's seize the power of education."

At PeopleStories, our vision is and has always been very clear: Transforming lives through greater access to education and empowering children to pursue their dreams.
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Having a clear vision is powerful!  At this year’s PeopleStories School for Life annual ceremony, we witnessed the meaning of having a vision and how the work of the awesome PeopleStories’ team is really changing lives!

We first provided 21 scholarships in 2017 and the School For Life program has now grown to supporting 180 children and their families.

The School for Life program is in its 7th year and we had several of the sponsored children graduate from High School. This is the first time that these, now young adults, can take their own steps, choosing what they want to achieve, and we are humbled that many of them chose to stay connected to PeopleStories.

Let's share some of the amazing stories with you…

Sreymey was a sponsored child and recently graduated from a renowned STEM school in Phnom Penh. She decided to come back to rural Siem Reap to rejoin her family and we are chuffed to share that she joined the PeopleStories team as our first ever work experience trainee! Her dream is to be an educator and her heart is very much with the rural community she now serves whilst gaining experience from PeopleStories and mapping out her own path. 

This is amazing at so many levels.

Seeing how Sreymey, with the right nurture, has developed into this beautiful and intelligent person is incredible and a proud moment for everyone. Her coming back to join us is also testament to the transformational power of the School for Life program and the value children see.

Seeing how Sreymey, with the right nurture, has developed into this beautiful and intelligent person is incredible and a proud moment for everyone. Her coming back to join us is also testament to the transformational power of the School for Life program and the value children see. 

It has always been one of our goals to get former students to give back to the community, creating a more sustainable and inclusive charity that is at least partially driven by those who benefitted from it previously.  And of course it is so much more powerful if children see and hear from their own peers rather than being only told how important education is.

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When Sreymey spoke to the teachers, children and their families at this year's ceremony, she emphasized that everyone needs to play their part in making positive change possible, "Being a student, you need to have a dream for our future because it can help us study better. And all the parents, you  also should help encourage them regularly."

We have also seen several other students who graduated from High School coming back to attend our School For Life ceremony.  To say that this is heartwarming would be a huge understatement!

After PeopleStories has been for 6 years in their lives and seeing the girls and boys grow up almost feels like family. It’s the sense of belonging, the care but also the friendly nudge and push to work hard knowing how education will help them immensely later on.

​Chriya shared with excitement, “Teacher, I have started working at a guest house as a receptionist!  I am finally able to earn some income to help my family!”

Kimhang, who has grown so tall, also shared, “I have decided to help my family to farm and hope that my effort will improve their crops.”

We are now starting to see them work or wait for university and it doesn’t really matter that much what it is they do as long as they have a choice and can do what they feel is right to pursue their dreams!

Our care and our support does not stop with graduation. We continue to look for ways to help students pursue theirs with practical support. Some of them who returned started working in the city, which is an hour away from the village and we are now exploring more ways to support them.

For us this year was all about 180 new dreams in progress but also several dreams started to come true with kind hearted former students continuing to be involved with PeopleStories and, importantly, starting to work and build their own lives.

Making positive changes and ripple effects may not be as hard as you think.  Take your step today and give PeopleStories a helping hand to empower those wonderful children in rural Cambodia:
https://bit.ly/Donate_PS2024
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Story written by: Volunteer Oliver Miloschewsky