We have enrolled 500 girls on to our program, in 30 different villages, in a 90 minute radius to Siem Reap. We have 2,000 library books being read, have provided access to safe drinking water to every girl on our program and have built 5 houses. We have achieved all this on just a little over $400,000. 

But there are other towns, and other girls, outside our current reach. So we’ve just conducted a research trip to Battambang to assess the rural villages there and determine whether to replicate our program. We visited 10 different communes and 9 different villages. We met with each commune chief and each village leader. And then we met families:

• we met 2 sisters, aged 12 and 14 who have both dropped out of school and are now looking for work
• we met a mum who has 10 children, and only the last 3 are still in school but she doesn’t know how long she can keep them there
• we met families living precariously on the side of the road as they had no land of their own
• we learned about sex trafficking cases from a commune chief who told us more girls in his commune are at risk as their parents have left in search of work

Girls are at high risk of being trafficked, and our program would offer a good solution to that risk.

“We operate a scholarship program, do you think that is needed in your commune?” we asked one chief. His simple reply, “REALLY REALLY needed.”

Another told us, “I will open all 4 doors and welcome you. I am waiting you.”

Please help us replicate our program in Battambang, enrolling 300 girls we know need and deserve to be in school. 

Together your donations will provide:

$25,200 = 300 bicycles, with bike locks

$16,800 = 600 school uniforms (includes 2 shirts, 2 skirts, 1 hat & 1 pair of shoes per student)

$3,780 = 300 backpacks

$1,680 = 300 pencil cases (containing pens, pencils, coloured pencils, erasers, sharpeners, rulers)

$1,966 = 3,600 exercise books (12 per student)

$26,880 = family assessments, meetings with commune chiefs, village leaders and school directors to find and enrol each girl

$40,320 = 10 Education Outreach Officers to visit these 300 girls each and every month, more often when necessary, visiting them at home with their family, and at school. 

$16,800 = an experienced Australian social worker with Team Leader experience

$6,720 = a year’s rent

$1,680 = a year’s utilities

$1,120 = 1 tuk tuk

$12,600 = 6 motorbikes, plus insurance

$10,080 = fuel for 6 bikes for a year, to reach remote villages

$7,000 = furniture and stationery to set up office

$11,550 = 11 computers and cameras

$4,667 = 2,000 library books

THANK YOU

www.freetoshine.org