Family support is the number one factor that determines if a child in Siem Reap stays in school or drops out. This is why here at PeopleStories Foundation, we constantly strive to instill the value of lifelong learning in not only the children, but their parents.
Most of the mothers of these children are homemakers. A majority of these parents had also been brought up by their own homemaker mothers, who instilled in them a strong work ethic. The need for education is not and has never been a priority. Though this mentality is hard to break, we truly believe that we are changing this slowly but surely.
Our Chief Change Maker, Victoria Keeys, had conducted a couple of Parent-Teacher workshops in Siem Reap recently. She gave a speech about the importance of education in helping the children attain a brighter future. She shared with the parents her own story, PeopleStories’ vision for the education system in Siem Reap, as well as the various scholarships available for their children.
Most importantly, Victoria shared the progress of PeopleStories’ Foundation latest initiative, Khmer4Success, which aims to help the children of Siem Reap improve their reading and writing skills in Khmer. The high illiteracy rate was a high contributor to the high school drop out rates as students often felt unworthy of an education. This hands-on learning programme currently has 123 students enrolled and we could already see within the first two weeks the increase in motivation these children had to improve their Khmer literacy skills.
At the end of Victoria’s Parent-Teacher workshops, we managed to get more than a hundred parent signatures as a form of commitment that they will support their children to complete school, instead of getting them to drop out and find work. It was truly an emotional moment. As the parents left their thumbprints on the contract, they realized how it was more than just a piece of paper. It was the start of a different journey for their families. A brighter one.
To break the cycle of poverty by advancing education for underprivileged students, families and communities in need.