Help Rural Children of Cambodia Fulfill Potential

Raksa, an 11 years old girl, is living with other 4 siblings. She is the 4^th child in the family.

“I love playing football during the break-time and it has a special place in my heart as I am truly enchanted by the football. Actually, I have watched closely on the training of TFCF football team who were all male members since the team was formed. It’s unbelievable that I could join and become the team member this year, and it is really an amazing and wonderful change to me. I won’t just watch but play football on the field with others. Honestly, my parents didn’t want me to play football because I am a girl. Thank you for giving me the opportunity and thanks for TFCF social worker who persuaded my parents and let me experience the change and play soccer this year. I will definitely study hard and do my best to participate in the football training. Finally, I would like to say thank you so much for your kind support.”

- Message from Raksa, the project beneficiary

** Raksa is the fake name due to the fact that the privacy and safety of individuals is respected.

Welcome girls to be our new members!

“We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.” – said Sheryl Sandberg. While we worked in the rural areas in Cambodia, we found that girls are not encouraged to play football and they have been kept away from this sport. Most of the time, they are requested to stay home and take care of younger siblings and perform household duties after schools. At the beginning of this year, TFCF Cambodia decided to form a new team for girls and we hope to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goal Number 5 (SDG5): Gender equality. We provide them the same opportunity to join both the training and games in school. For the better caring the female members, we have moved the training day to weekends because they cannot stay late after school in the weekdays. It’s great to tell that our existing team members could also accept the new training schedule at the weekends. There are lots of challenges to lead members with different skill level, however, our new football coach, Mr. Khav, has the confident to teach and guide them in the right way and improve their football skills separately.

We also review children’s study performance and school attendance by each semester end, and let our social worker and the football coach follow up the improvement plan in both study and training in order to meet our project goal to fulfill children’s potential. We are honored to have you as a part of our team and support what we are doing. Thank you!

Wish you all the best!

With gratitude,

Wen Hung