Latest modern slavery fight updates - FreedomUnited.org

Women On A Mission In Cambodia

  • Published on
    June 21, 2016
  • News Source Image
  • Category:
Hero Banner

Women on a Mission.  Ratha set on the porch of her house in a floating village just west of Siem Reap.  He father was a fisherman and her mom, despite poor health, tended her home and cared for he six younger children…

She was feeling great about being home for awhile before heading back to work at a five-star hotel in Siem Reap.  As she contemplated her life and how good it was, she smiled.   “I’ll never forget the day father agreed to let me go to study at Sala Baï… Mama was so sad to see me go, but both Papa and her knew in their hearts such an opportunity was rare. It was a dream come true for our family,” she reminisced.

2016-06-20-1466430300-9467642-untitled3719.jpg 2016-06-14-1465885760-4651484-untitled3826.jpg

Ratha was one of the students at the Women On A Mission (WOAM) team that we met on our bike tour of Cambodia. She was one of the lucky students to graduate from Sala Baï’ — a hotel and restaurant school that was launched in 2002 by the French NGO ‘Agir pour le Cambodge’. Since its launch, the school has seen more than 1,300 students graduate and each student has been employed within four weeks of graduation. During their free 11-month course, the students study English, French, labour laws and technical skills for their chosen speciality. Students can study catering, tourism, front of house and the school has just launched beauty therapy. With their new skill set, each student is then able to earn around three or four times their average household monthly income, which means the lives of these young adults and their families are changed forever.

Ratha is now able to help finance the same school for her little siblings as well as buy her mother’s precious medicine. There are other stories like the one of Ratha’s journey.  They are stories of other Sala Baï students, ones that are heart-warming and sometimes heart wrenching.

Such stories should remind us that education can change lives and give people from underprivileged backgrounds a much brighter future. In Cambodia where the primary school dropout rate is nearly 40 per cent, Sala Baï is impacting the local community and making a difference.

To read the entire article about Women on a Mission, click the link below.

View Article on The Huffington Post

Subscribe

Freedom United is interested in hearing from our community and welcomes relevant, informed comments, advice, and insights that advance the conversation around our campaigns and advocacy. We value inclusivity and respect within our community. To be approved, your comments should be civil.

stop icon A few things we do not tolerate: comments that promote discrimination, prejudice, racism, or xenophobia, as well as personal attacks or profanity. We screen submissions in order to create a space where the entire Freedom United community feels safe to express and exchange thoughtful opinions.

Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

This week

Canada ombudsperson report exposes Dynasty Gold's complicity in Uyghur forced labor

The Canada Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) released its first final report this week after a complaint filed in 2022 against Vancouver company Dynasty Gold. Reuters reports that the complaint came from a coalition of 28 human rights groups including the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project and Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. It claimed that the company benefited from the use of Uyghur forced labor at a mine in China in which they held

| Tuesday March 26, 2024

Read more