Cambodian Community Dream Organization, Inc.

Dream Journal – March 2024

Celebrating Women in March

CCDO has continued to champion women and their positive role in society. We are proud to have 50% of our fabulous team as women and are happy to see girls thrive in our schools and all our programs.  

Village Women Entrepreneurs

Soroptimist International has entrusted CCDO with more generous funds to continue the Women’s Empowerment Project giving marginalized women Life Skills to improve their lives and help their families. We are reaching new participants with important workshops on Health, Family Planning, Nutrition, Domestic Violence, and How to Start a Small Business.

Throughout the initial 2-year program, we have empowered and uplifted 2,649 striving local women, with a special focus on those who have long been overlooked and marginalized - the housewives without a source of income. We firmly believe that every woman deserves the chance to thrive and provide for her family, which is why we have conducted 180 comprehensive training and consulting sessions in small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) development. We are providing ongoing mentorship and support to these local women and girls who dream of establishing their small businesses.



Out of the 2,431 women and girls we have reached, an astounding 1,411 have taken the leap and started their small businesses right in their neighborhoods. These hard-working women have become entrepreneurs, igniting a wave of positive change as they sell handicrafts, food and snacks, mobile groceries, or mobile soft drink shops. They have also embraced a role as middlemen, expertly sourcing and supplying goods from their local areas to the wider town. Isn't this inspiring?



CCDO Women STEM Graduates Impact

CCDO is proud of our two young women computer teachers. Both Kimly Rob and Mariny Potatah have recently graduated with their IT Technology degrees. They are passionate about teaching computer skills to grades 4-6 students in our modern rural computer labs. 

Kimly says, “I am so delighted to be one of the computer teachers and share all my knowledge to the rural community since it is very necessary for the students nowadays. Both female and male students can have the opportunity and be motivated to learn more about new technology and later use all these skills to help find a better job.”

Mariny says, “Teaching means a lot to me. Is when I meet my students, share knowledge and discover new ways to engage them in my class. I feel like I am a sister or a mother who is always teaching, encouraging, helping and supporting them along the way to be successful. I am always giving students a reason to want to come to school each day, and having them leave just as excited as when they arrived.”

Soum Miet

Introducing another inspiring young woman: Suom Miet. She was a brilliant CCDO scholar graduating with a degree in Environmental Science. She now works for HALO Trust Cambodia, a renowned organization that takes care of deactivating the many landmines in Cambodia left behind after the war.

She is passionate about the environment and wants to see a green and sustainable earth. She attributes her success in part to the CCDO sponsorship from High School through University that enabled her to complete her dream. She was very inspiring at the last gathering of our current and past scholarship students. 

“After I completed my bachelor's degree in environmental science, I never thought about how mine clearance is relevant to the environment until I started to work at the HALO Trust Cambodia. I am happy to work in this sector. Contamination from the conflict brings more risk to people's safety and the environment. Working between mine clearance and the environment is a means of addressing the problem and thinking about what we can do to help the environment while we clear the land.

Women play a role in the development of the country, and the number of women who work in this particular sector is not very high in Cambodia and the world. I am one of them who works to make a positive change. Keep people safe and increase sustainability. Bring safety to the land. More green for the earth where we live.”

Scholarship Boys Looking for 2 Dream Makers

While we look out for girls and equal opportunities in their education we don't forget the boys that also need encouragement and support. Due to the villages proximity to the big city of Siem Reap we find that families often encourage boys to drop out of school and start harsh work on construction crews doing menial work building roads etc. 

Currently, we have two smart boys in their final year of high school who are looking for their dream makers to help them go to university. They have both grown up together and attended Tapang school.

Chea Rithy’s mother was single and adopted him when he was 1 year old. When his birth mother got a new husband and gave up Rithy in change for 30 USD. When his adopted mom first saw Rithy, she felt so touched and wanted to help him so much she decided to spend all the money she got to save him. Currently, she sells sticky rice and she earns so little she can only afford daily food. She cannot afford any money for his schooling. He is always top of his class and has big dreams to continue his education.

Cheat Chak had a rough start in life. His father left when he was 7 days old and immigrated to Thailand, his mother left when he was 7 years old and moved away with her new family. As is often the case he was left with his grandmother to raise him. She died a year ago and he has been living with his poor aunt who cannot afford to pay for extra high school classes or has any way to cover university fees. Chak is an excellent student with good grades. Founder Jenni Lipa has personally met both boys and would like to see them reach for the stars and go to university.



The cost is $750 per year per student for the next 4 years. This covers tuition and living expenses plus regular support and check ins from our Scholarship Coordinator. Think of honoring your mother or grandmother when helping one of these students.



Donors

Our fabulous longtime supporters, Beth & Kevin Hoffman are honoring 4 of their friends’ birthdays by donating wells and latrines in their names. Do you have a special birthday coming up to honor a friend or family member? They also included an additional donation to help with our education program.

We gratefully received a much needed anonymous $5,000 donation from a longtime supporter just as we were looking at the estimate for much needed repair of 5 preschool buildings that were becoming unsafe. The repairs were not in our annual budget and the donation was a godsend that appeared fortuitously at the right moment.