What Happened in Semester 1?

When a school semester comes to an end there is the feeling of accomplishment and the feeling of looking ahead to what can be improved.  Our scholarship children at PeopleStories recently completed School Semester 1 and for the first time in PeopleStories history, a semester analysis was performed to get a sense of oru children’s achievements, potential problems and risk of children dropping out of school.   

A recent report in the Phnom Penh Post stresses the need for change and improvement to education in the rural areas of Cambodia.   It has been 5 years since we started our core program School for Life to help the deserving children complete school.  In that time, we have gone from 21 scholarships in 2017 to 150 scholarships this year.  It has been amazing to see this program grow in such a short amount of time

PeopleStories Founder, Victoria, shared with much excitement, “I am over the moon that we are able to help more and more children who are in great need.  I often think about these children we care so much for and want to find ways to help them better.”  

Victoria had an “ah-ha” moment and thought, in addition to being more in touch with how the children are doing in school, we need to look at their life more holistically and in particular understand their family situation at home.  She shared, “Building on my little ‘ah-ha moment’ with our team, we expanded the performance review of semester 1 and to supplement this with home visits.”  

​When looking at the children’s school performance there are bound to be some surprises.  Victoria compares it to standing in front of the mirror (*gasp*) and seeing things you like to see but there are always some aspects that make you go ‘oops!’. ​

Victoria proudly shared, “31 of our scholarship children have achieved their ‘Top 10’ positions in their rather large class (average 50 students).  This truly proves that many of our deserving children can go the extra mile!”  

Unfortunately, 7 of our children have dropped out of school and 1 of them is now an under-aged mother and a widow, too.  Victoria said with a shaken voice, “My heart goes out to these children as their life journey may become more challenging as soon as they leave school.”

Teacher Sarith led our local team to conduct more than 50 home visits in a 2-week period.  Sarith reflected on the experiences and shared, “I believe these home visits are very important to our children.  Knowing someone out there cares about their future makes a huge difference.  These visits also help us to detect if the children are likely dropping out of school or not?”

Sarith continued, “At one of the home visits, the mother was crying so much because her daughter had run away from home.   After the visit, we further tracked down where the daughter is and was able to understand how we can help her better.”

“As I continue to witness how little these children and their families have, it is a constant reminder for me how important our work is for these children.” Sarith shared with much emotion.

It’s all too obvious how challenging life and school are for the children in Cambodia.  We’re not looking the other way and PeopleStories is committed to helping these deserving children learn how to make the necessary changes to give themselves a brighter future.  Assuring they have access to quality education is both the obstacle and the answer.  Education is the key to change.  We celebrate our successes and we learn where we can improve.  

PeopleStories continues to grow and learn and we look forward to Semester 2 with our children and would love for you to come along with us!  Please consider helping a child complete school. PeopleStories SchoolForLife 2022


Story written by: Volunteer Kathy Aunkst​