Category: Personal Stories
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Day Care Centre Makes the Difference for a Young Girl with Disabilities
Piseth* is 16 years old and lives with her grandparents and younger brother in a remote village outside Neak Loeung. Both children have physical and intellectual disabilities and require significant assistance during daily activities, including basic hygiene, which is difficult for her ageing grandparents to manage. Piseth was born with a congenital hip condition, which…
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Former Alternative Care Beneficiary Celebrates Family Reintegration
Sophae* speaks with strength in her voice that surpasses her 17 years of age, but her eyes retain a playful wit typical of girls her age. However, Sophae’s life has been far from that of a typical 17-year-old girl, yet she refuses to let her past define her. She was raised in a village on…
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Home for the Holidays
The mood is elevated at Damnok Toek Kep on the first Monday back at work after the Pchum Ben holidays. The residents and staff work together with the jovial energy that typically follows a break from work for annual holidays. The residents themselves are particularly happy to welcome back Ieang and Vet, who have just…
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NFE Centre Gives Hope to Promising Student
Cheng Im* is a 14-year-old girl living with her mother and her younger brother in Chankiri village, just outside of Poipet, in the northeastern province of Banteay Meanchey. She comes from a very modest household. Her single mother, Sreymom, works as an assistant in a beauty salon and earns a monthly wage that barely allows…
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Family Reintegration from SGH A Big Success
In the lush farmland of Kampong Thom province, about 3 hours north of Phnom Penh, children finish a lesson in the colourful 1st-grade classroom of a rural primary school. They are a bit more giddy than usual, in awe at the visitors who have just arrived to visit Chantha*, Damnok Toek’s first successful case of…
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Small Business Loan Makes Big Difference to Mother of Five
Across the train tracks in Poipet less than one kilometre from the Thai border, a pregnant woman named Botun* sells chicken skewers, mangos, and an assortment of soda from a small shop made from sheets of tin. The shop doubles as her home where she lives with her husband and three young children. Botun is…
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Drop-In Center Provides Necessary Services to Vulnerable Children
Touy Ban sits in front of artwork done by beneficiaries of the Damnok Toek Drop-In Centre (DIC). He is young and jovial, which is not what one would expect from the leader of such an intense project. The DIC was established by DT in 1999 with the support of UNICEF and the Ministry of Social Affairs…
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Two Generations of NFE Students Share Their Story
Arunny* walks around DT’s main centre with her eight-year-old son, Ponleak*, on the day of the Lifelong Learning Center inauguration. She is quite comfortable on the premises as they are familiar to her. A former Non-Formal Education (NFE) student herself, she holds the program in high regard and has her two sons attending in Grade 6…
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Rescued By Damnok Toek: A Girl’s Success Story
Bopha* is thin and frail but possesses a commanding presence. She speaks softly, yet her words carry the intensity of a young woman overcoming past trauma with an unwavering determination to succeed. She has quite literally grown up in Damnok Toek, having been rescued from homelessness, abuse, and street scavenging when she was merely 8 years old. Today, she is 22,…
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