Get Real: PLF Brings Angkor High School Girl’s Dormitory into the Fold

By Lori Carlson

In Siem Reap there is a Girl’s Dormitory that is attached to Angkor High School. It was built and initially funded by the Asian Development Bank and after the first two years of operations, it was handed over to the government to support and facilitate. Of course, the government had no plan in place for actually taking over operations for the dorm and it fell to ruin in short order.

 The mission of the dormitory is to provide education, shelter, food and safety for 60 girls who are the top performing female students at each district in Siem Reap where there is no secondary school. (There are far too many of those) These residents are the best and brightest from their district and have no hope of completing high school without moving away from home. They all come from poor rural families and the only way they can come to the city to accomplish this herculean task is with a well-thought out structure of support.

PLF has been assisting the dorm for years in an ad-hoc way, mostly bringing in the essentials–food and hygiene supplies as well as offering Computer and English classes to the girls in residence. We have also awarded some University scholarships to a few girls upon graduation.

But it was impossible for us to actually fully support the dorm financially until we could control the dorm operationally. That opportunity came, when the organization that was operationally controlling the dorm lost their major funder.

PLF was able to swiftly secure sufficient funding to get the operations back up on the tracks without much interruption to life in the dormitory. Such swift action not only speaks volumes about our hard-won ability to respond quickly, but also to our bonds with supporters who will give us financial backing for something like this in short notice.

As of January 1 2016, PLF has completely taken over the project (funding and operations). PLF is currently securing an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Ministry in order to legally control operations and we are busy re-writing an execution strategy that will, for the first time, bring everything to the table that the girls in residence need to not only live in a safe and secure environment, but also to help them achieve their full academic potential.

In the past, 100% of the girls have passed the national exam for high school (Compared to 55% nationally) and many of them did quite well on those exams. Taking them to the next level of University education is a logical step for young women who have not only the academic ability to do well at University, but also the grit and determination that will see them through to graduation.

PLF already has a burgeoning population of  graduates who apply for University Scholarships. Adding potentially 10 or more students to that number will be no easy task but we are committed to securing sufficient scholarship funds before the end of the year for as many as we can.

University is cheap in Cambodia, usually $3500-$5,000 will secure a four year degree.

If you have an interest in sponsoring one of these amazing young women through college, please drop a note to [email protected].

If you can’t swing that, but can put some drops in the bucket, here it is 🙂