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For the past 17 years, school director Kimchoeun Hak has dedicated his professional life to being the best leader for the many teachers and students at Ta Ey's secondary and high school. Back in 2006, the local government increased the number of secondary schools in every commune in Cambodia. With that, teachers with the ability to become school directors were necessary in order to lead the schools. This was the moment that everything changed for director Kimchoeun, as he was chosen to take over the chair at Ta Ey School. With this opportunity in hand, director Kimchoeun wanted—and still wants—to help children in rural villages and develop the school together with the local community.
In recent years, the number of students is increasing rapidly, and the school doesn’t have enough classrooms to support them. Although it is a ‘good problem to have’, director Kimchoeun has to work with the teachers to appeal to potential donors and sponsors. This is one of the ways to uplift his school ‘s ability to help the many children.
Director Kimchoeun believes that the responsibility of quality education is shared amongst teachers, families and of course the students. He further shared a sounding advice for the students, “Children, our lives in rural villages may be difficult but your hardwork in studying is important, as education is your gateway to a better future. Your love for education is also your love for your family, your community and Cambodia!”
With those inspiring words from director Kimchoeun, let’s join forces and give those rural schools a better chance to fight for a brighter future. Take a step, give a helping hand, you can support Ta Ey’s school directly via https://bit.ly/Donate_PS2024. Story written by: Volunteer Mariana Pana
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Sometimes it’s hard to imagine what life is like in other parts of the world and what day to day experiences are like, especially children in poverty stricken areas. For PeopleStories scholarship student, Sin, he was very candid about what he likes to do, what he thinks about, how he solves problems, and so much more. Sin started his journey with PeopleStories in 2020 when he was a Grade 7 student at Roluos Secondary School. Now at 16, Sin studies at Hun Sen Prasat Bakong High School in Siem Reap province, Grade 10.
“I enjoy mathematics the most. All of the math exercises have many different ways to solve them but there is always just one right answer. I like that!” He continues, “Math is easy for me and I don’t need to think too much about it or give a lot of reasons for my answer, I just need to do the formulas.” For all of us, we can recall lifelong memories from our school days. That is something universal. Sin is no different and he is grateful for the friendships and memories he is making during this time in his life. He shared a little about his good friendship, “My best friend and I understand each other so well. I am a very quiet person and don’t always make friends easily.” Sin is glad to have someone he can confide in when family life or school life get difficult, “My friend doesn’t judge me and is always by my side when I feel down or am having a problem. It’s rare to find this kind of friendship so I am so lucky to have my friend in my life.”
Feedback is always helpful and from a student’s perspective he shared this for his teachers, “My advice for my teachers is to please help review the old lessons before starting the new lessons. This is helpful because not every student in class has recall or review time before class.” Sin’s thoughtfulness for everyone is remarkable and he concluded by saying, “Reviewing lessons will also help students engage with teachers better.”
Sin is well on his way to a bright future, which he does think about. He shared what he’d like to do when he graduates Grade 12, “My goal is to graduate high school with a B grade average and I know it won’t be easy so I have plans.” Sin’s problem solving is very inspiring and he continued about his plan, “I have started to review lessons in the morning, as my routine. I use the time to practice more exercises and I can also take extra classes.” He summed up his hopes and goals by expressing gratitude, “By my family’s status, I couldn’t afford to pay for extra classes but I am so grateful to Peoplestories for helping me.” Education is the key to success in all parts of life. PeopleStories is bringing education to the underserved children in the rural villages of Cambodia. After following a day in Sin’s life, and his vision for his own future, I think we can see that we are making a difference. There are many other children just like Sin that have big dreams! Help up bring education to rural Cambodia today: https://bit.ly/Donate_PS2024 Story written by: Volunteer Kathy Aunkst Pisey Vei, a 30-year-old teacher from Siem Reap, Cambodia, radiates a passion for education that's infectious. As we spoke with her for an interview with PeopleStories Charity, her dedication to her students shines through.
But teaching isn't without its challenges, Pisey admits. "Time management can be tough, especially with so much to cover in a limited timeframe. And sometimes, getting students to open up and share their opinions can be a challenge, but it's crucial for their development." When asked about unique teaching methods in Cambodian schools, Pisey lights up with pride. "One tradition we have is singing the national anthem together every morning, which unites all of us. And our classes start promptly at 7:00, teaching them the importance of punctuality."
Despite his love for teaching, Kimsong faces challenges. "Some students struggle with math, making it difficult to explain concepts," he admits. "And the workload can be overwhelming, leading to stress.”
Besides providing education it's important that teachers focus on this aspect, it's not only about educating the subject but a lot of other factors come into play when being a teacher. When asked about unique teaching methods in Cambodian schools, Kimsong shares, "We start at 7:00 am sharp. Before that, we gather to raise the flag and sing the national anthem. It fosters a sense of unity and pride among students." As for advice to his students, Kimsong's message is clear: "Study hard and stay committed to completing your education. It's the key to unlocking your future." Through Kimsong's and Pisey’s story, it's evident that teaching is not just a profession but a calling—a commitment to shaping young minds and empowering the next generation in Cambodia, one lesson at a time. Story written by: Caroline van ‘t Hoff January 7th, 1979 marked the end of the Cambodian genocide and the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge forces. Despite 45 years of rebuilding the country, Cambodia remains facing many development challenges and one of them is the inequality of girls and women. UNESCO reported that, “88% of girls in Cambodia made their transition from primary to lower secondary school, but only 1 in 5 of those girls graduated from upper secondary school.” We further learned from the Children of the Mekong that, “Only 37% of Cambodian women reach upper secondary school.”
PeopleStories STEM for Girls program is to help talented young girls to pursue their high school education in STEM. As STEM education is almost non-existed in the rural villages, our program supports girls living and studying in a quality STEM high school in the capital city of Phnom Penh. This also means that the selected girls will have to relocate from their rural villages and live in Phnom Penh. Since 2020, we have successfully supported 3 young talented girls (Pokim, Kongnov and Sreymey) to complete their STEM high school education and 2 other girls (Solin and Tangyi) are on their journey as we speak. We often wonder why these girls are keen to be part of STEM for Girls?
She shared, “I have many dreams! Before I moved to PP, my horizon was limited. After seeing so many new things, my thinking has changed and my new dream is to be a Fashion Designer.” There is no doubt that Tangyi is enjoying her exciting experiences with her STEM high education and living in a big city has given her plenty of opportunities to broaden her horizons. How about challenges? We wonder what kind of difficulties she is facing living in the big city? Tangyi spoke emotionally, “When I moved to Phnom Penh, I was missing home so much! The biggest difficulty I face is living alone without my parents and family!”
Tangyi was deep in thought and then shared, “I really value this scholarship and will use it to gain not only knowledge but reach my dream! My advice for other young girls in the village is you need to try to be patient. Please learn more. When you learn you gain a lot of knowledge. When you have knowledge, you can pursue your dreams and change your life.”
Let’s wish Tangyi all the best with her STEM education. We truly look forward to hearing more about her journey. If you are passionate about gender equality and wanted to do something to give girls greater equal opportunities, please support our STEM for Girls scholarship: https://bit.ly/Donate_PS2024 Story written by: Volunteer Victoria Miloschewsky Critical thinking is defined as the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, and/or evaluating information gathered from observations, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. At PeopleStories, there is a strong belief in this critical life skill. PS Mobile Digital School recently launched a Critical Thinking learning course for our children! We are very excited to dive into the details of this course and learn more about it.
Coming into a project that is working in unique circumstances, such as poverty and low literacy levels, can make the design of online learning courses difficult at times. Andreas explained, “Our approach involves repeated content presentation through various means like videos, audios, text, and images to reinforce key learnings.” Language barriers exist as well, as Andreas continues, “Translating courses from English to Khmer definitely presents design challenges. Recently we found that text animations in videos work well with English fonts but don’t display correctly when translated into Khmer fonts. Thanks to our fantastic team of translators, this issue was resolved.” Recently, at Chea Smonn Secondary School, there was a “Test & Learn” session with 30 children, using Andres’s very first designed digital learning unit. Andreas received feedback on that learning unit and beamed with joy, saying, “When I first saw a video of the Test & Learn session it made me incredibly happy. It is amazing to see children working through the unit and trying to figure out the answers to the “brainteasers.”
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. 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."
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…
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.
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 Story written by: Volunteer Oliver Miloschewsky  December is often referred to as the month of giving, and no one knows that better than the PeopleStories team. The team's work in the rural villages of Cambodia is only possible because of the generous donations of our supporters. Every contribution, big or small, has a significant impact on the lives of the children we support together. Charles is one of the many PeopleStories donors who has been with us since 2017, supporting the School for Life scholarship program. Charles is a strong believer in education, and he and his friend, Victoria, the founder of PeopleStories, discussed her work in rural Cambodia.
Describing the family house as a terraced house with a front doorstep that opened to the street, I caught a glimpse of Charles’ sense of humor when he shared, “It used to amuse me but every Sunday morning all the ladies spent 30 minutes washing their front doorstep as they were so proud of them!” By the time Charles was 7, he and his immediate family moved out of that terraced house and found a house of their own on the other side of Nottingham. This is where Charles would go through his school years and at age 11 he entered his grammar school education. By 16, Charles was Head Boy of the school of 2,000 students. He didn’t stop there as he also represented his school as captain of the rugby team for 5 years.
The child Charles has sponsored just graduated from Year 12 because of his generosity! He beamed, saying, “When I read the news of my sponsor child’s graduation I was soooooo proud of her and quite emotional. Being able to support someone from early in their life is advantageous. It maximises the influence as they go through life.”
Giving Charles the opportunity to share a message to his newly graduated sponsor child, he humbly shared, “I would like her to know that I am so proud of what she has achieved. I appreciate all the effort and determination that she has put into graduating. I am happy to further sponsor her if she decides to progress further in education or vocational training of some kind.” If we don’t have you on “Team Charles” yet, let me tell you more! Going forward Charles has made a commitment to sponsor 2 children!! I had to know what moved Charles to commit to this kind of amazing support, and he said, “I was thinking of further charitable contributions but for me sponsorship gives me a sense of personal contribution to something that is tangible to someone I can relate to in a way I believe it.” Thank you so much, Charles, for sharing your story with us and what it’s like to sponsor a child with PeopleStories! It is people like Charles that help make our mission to bring education to the children of Cambodia possible. Every charitable journey is different. Every single donation makes a difference. You can make a difference! Let’s change lives together: https://bit.ly/PS_Donate2023 Written By: Volunteer Kathy Aunkst Making an impact takes effort and time, and we don’t often have an opportunity to witness the ripple effects until years after. Today, this is not the case! Come and join us to congratulate 15 of our deserving children who have just tossed their graduation hats in the air! These children come from different walks of life with some being orphans at a young age or their families are living below the poverty line. However, one thing connects them together and that is the thirst for education and their dreams to a brighter future. Our founder Victoria caught up with these fresh graduates recently in the village which brings so much joy. While chatting with 17-year-old Sreymey who has been on PeopleStories scholarship since 2019, she shared, “My favourite subject at school is Biology, the reason is because I love to do Biology exercises and having discussions with my friends. Everytime I study this subject I always think about my health, it makes me feel connected. I can apply a lot of lessons into my daily life.”
Vic was also curious about Sreymey’s high school years, especially being away from home as a young girl and Sreymey explained, “High School memories with friends and all the activities we did together. I could finish High School in Phnom Penh because of the scholarship from PeopleStories, I am so grateful to get this scholarship and receive all the care from the PeopleStories family. I am also feeling proud that I can go through all the hard times and continued my journey until I finished it without thinking to stop in the middle of the way” We are so proud to witness the personal growth of Sreymey and her hard work plus determination to a brighter future is inspiring. What about her proudest moment? Sreymey echoed, “My proudest achievement is getting the scholarship in grade nine. This first year scholarship is the most important point. PeopleStories noticed me and offered me more opportunities, especially the STEM4GIRLS scholarship which let me go to PP and continue High School.”
Not everyday we get to change someone’s life but we can always help to make those positive changes to the many deserving children. Our sincere invitation to you to join our purposeful journey and support a child’s education.
With less than $1 a day, you can also help a child like Sreymey to pursue their dreams and to a brighter future. Make a donation today: https://bit.ly/PS_Donate2023 Story written by volunteer: Josie Lyttle
In 2017, our founder Victoria Miloschewsky embarked on her journey of living a purpose-driven life and she shares, “In the past 7 years, I have invested plenty of time, effort and expertise in helping deserving children in rural Cambodia access quality education. Along this journey, I have the opportunity to lead a team of 32 culturally diverse volunteers from around the world to live a purpose-driven life. My perception of great leadership – whether in personal or business settings – has transformed significantly.”
When it comes to leadership, Victoria is no stranger as she was in leadership roles for over 2 decades leading small and big teams in the corporate world. She also specialises in building leadership capabilities, enhancing organisational culture and bringing in greater inclusiveness to workplaces. Her expertise in leadership, culture and diversity has earned her a number of industry awards. Victoria shares, “An idea for a new dimension of leadership development is born! I am so excited to invite leaders to embark on an ultimate leadership experience – PeopleStories HORIZONS!”
Join us to elevate your leadership and self-growth to new heights with an exclusive six-day Horizons Ultimate Leadership Experience in the heart of rural Cambodia. Immerse yourself in a transformative experience designed for leaders from diverse backgrounds, where we focus on navigating your unique leadership journey through a purposeful Dharma leadership approach based on ancient wisdom.
Horizons goes beyond traditional leadership development courses by placing a strong emphasis on your leadership narrative and legacy within a rapidly changing global context. You will delve into the rich tapestry of Cambodia's culture, listening to firsthand accounts of adversity and inspiration from individuals who have overcome challenges. This unique approach fosters empathy and understanding outside your current context, broadening your perspectives in ways that traditional leadership programs cannot match. As part of our commitment to making a positive impact, your investment will contribute to the PeopleStories School for Life scholarship program. For every participating leader, five children in rural Cambodia will be supported with their scholarships for 2024. By participating, you invest in your own growth and in the education and development of Cambodian youth, leaving a tangible and meaningful mark on the communities we touch. PeopleStories Horizons is a Cambodian informed approach created by Victoria in collaboration with Damien O’Malley, Founder of OMC Group. There are plenty of incredible thought leaders, speakers, facilitators, and experts getting ready to meet you in Cambodia! Join us in 2024 in Cambodia and redefine your leadership legacy while making a lasting impact on both you and the world around you. Register today and to secure your place on this extraordinary expedition. More details about Horizons: https://bit.ly/PS_Horizons |
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