In Cambodia 56 per cent of the entire population are under the age of 25. Without enough waged work available in local communities to support Cambodia’s huge youth population, young people often find themselves in risky situations.
Many youth are forced to find jobs in the informal sector that involve bad working conditions and low pay, while others are lured to urban areas in search of better opportunities to support their families. In fact, about 2.5 million young Cambodians are internal migrants.
Socheet from rural Svay Rieng province was 15 when she was forced to drop out of school to support her family. Like thousands of others she moved to Phnom Penh, the country’s capital, to find work. Though what she found was long hours and low wages at a garment factory.
17-year-old Vichet also left school at 15. He migrated illegally to Thailand to work as a labourer. Now, after returning to his village, re-enrolling in school and becoming a peer educator in his local youth club, Vichet wants to be a role model for others.
“I want to tell youth and children in Cambodia to try to avoid migration, if possible. We are children. We are youth,” says Vichet. “We`re not at the age where we should be earning money. We are at the age where we’re dependent on our parents. We should focus on studies.”
ChildFund Cambodia’s youth projects are supporting young Cambodians to earn an income and create a life for themselves without relocating away from their families and homes. Over the past financial year, 50 youth groups with almost 2,000 members have been established and supported by ChildFund.
These groups are also helping to build the confidence of those like Vichet and Socheet to be the next leaders of their villages, which with the bulk of Cambodia’s population below the age of 25 will make a difference for the entire country in years to come.
In many rural communities in developing countries, children have to travel long distances to attend their nearest primary school. This is often done on foot, with children walking for many kilometres, usually from a very young age.
Not only is this exhausting on a daily basis, but for unsupervised children it can be dangerous too. This is a worrying reality for parents, who must risk the safety of their children in order to give them access to an education. In some instances, the distance which must be travelled between home and school makes it impossible for children to attend at all.
For 14-year-old Veth in Cambodia, getting to school was very difficult. Her home in a rural village is extremely isolated, situated many kilometres from the main road. To get to school Veth was forced to walk one hour there and one hour back each day.
Fortunately, in December 2013 Veth was the very happy recipient of a bicycle, purchased by a generous Australian through our Gifts for Good catalogue.
Veth says: “Before I received this bike, I had to walk or pay to ride a Tuk-Tuk to school.
“It is very far, but also it can be dangerous on the road. Sometimes I would get cut by thorns. I would sometimes see snakes on the road. And very often I would arrive at school very dirty, dusty or muddy, especially when it was raining.
Veth’s dream is to become a teacher. She knows that the best way to achieve her dream is by going to school and getting a good education. “The thing I am most afraid of is not being able to go to school. I love school,” she says. “Now I have this bicycle it helps me to get to school faster and I can travel safely.”
Not only does Veth`s new bike offer an easier journey to school, but she has also put it to good use in other ways. She explains: “I sometimes ride the bike to collect water, wash clothes and also I`ve used it to carry rice and rice seedlings to the rice field. It is very useful.”
For Veth, the gift of a bike has been life-changing: “I love riding the bicycle because it is fun. It makes me feel happy and it is good for exercise!”
Thank you to our generous Aussie supporters who together have provided more than 14,000 gifts over the past year which are making a difference in the lives of children, like young Veth, and their families all around the world!
