By Wesley Samms | Grants Manager
School’s out for summer, but not for the hard-working students of Lotus Outreach’s Non-Formal Education (NFE) program! NFE has 100 young women enrolled working to escape sex-work by learning basic skills like literacy and numeracy, and we have 30 more learning advanced skills like sewing, food service and cosmetology. These young women are capable of so much, just look at our student Phannin.
Phannin is a twenty-one year old student receiving advanced skills training from the NFE program. After working at a number of Phnom Penh’s beer gardens and infamous “karaoke” brothels, she has finally found a way to build a healthy life, and your support is making that happen.
As a child, Phannin managed to stay in school until she had advanced to the 8th grade. Because her family was so poor, she was forced to begin working at beer garden restaurants in Phnom Penh at the age of 17. Waitresses at these venues are often considered as available for sale as the food items, and the restaurants are frequented by tourists and Cambodians alike. For her work she was compensated only US$35.00 per month.
By the time Phannin was making a comparably decent wage, she was being worked almost to exhaustion. At a Karaoke Bar in Takeo Province, she was placed as a supervisor and made US$100.00 per month. There she was forced to accompany customers day and night and imbibe as much alcohol as the patrons wanted. The work and constant alcohol consumption gave Phannin a chronic stomachache for which she had to quit her job and seek medical attention.
She moved in with a friend while recovering from her stomach problem, and it was then that she encountered Lotus’s NFE program. Staff from the program explained how the program allowed a flexible schedule for her to learn the most useful subjects to young, adult women like her. The opportunity was compelling, and Phannin decided to sign up!
Before attending the program she was only semi-literate and did not understand basic math like division. Now she number one in her fifteen person class.
Phannin spends her time reading borrowed books and magazines from the school’s library, and she is even planning for her future. After reading a book entitled “Getting Rich Fast,” she has cut down on spending money hanging out with friends, and now she’s saving money for the future.
“Now I’m even teaching my friends about financial management and how they can live to be healthier!” she reports.
After she finishes her skills training, Phannin wants to start a restaurant of her own where she’ll work on her own terms. Phannin is enrolled in a class at the Food & Beverage Center where she studies restaurant management and service skills. Her father works for a tourism company and says that he will help by bringing customers by her restaurant.
Please donate to support Phannin’s amazing work. Many more women are still forced into the degrading industry of sex-work. $170 pays for a girl’s education for an entire year. Please support these promising young students and entrepreneurs as they work to improve their lives and communities!
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