Cambodia has much poverty and huge environmental challenges. But it also has highly engaged young people that want to put their efforts into the sustainable development of their country. Chikara Cambodia’s mission is to support that sustainable future. Education and awareness raising are essential in this.
Our mission
It is not that long ago that the Khmer Rouge was active in Cambodia. Under their rule in the 1970s, about 25% of the population died. This included a large proportion of the highly educated population as they were not seen as fitting in the desired agricultural society. The country was plunged into poverty.
This explains why almost half the population today is below 25 years of age and why the country severely lags behind in terms of education. Unfortunately, poverty is making it hard to catch up in terms of education. Many young people need to get jobs quickly and do not have the money to study and develop their talents.
Chikara Cambodia wants to help make the country stronger and more sustainable. We believe that education for young people is needed for this. Not only does a study help young people earn more money for their communities, but it also enables them to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to address the challenges facing the country.
This is why we give study grants to disadvantaged talented young Cambodians. We also give courses and counselling on the environment, English and professional skills. This helps them develop into the leaders of tomorrow.
Anyone wishing to fight poverty should also take the environment into account. If not, the country will be worse off in the long term. This is why Chikara Cambodia and its students concentrate on one of the country’s major environmental problems: the enormous amount of plastic waste on the streets and in nature.
Many people in the country are unaware of how harmful this waste is. Raising awareness is thus an important part of our mission. In doing so, we concentrate on the communities in the Siem Reap region. Our students give environmental workshops at school there and encourage the children to collect the plastic waste.
Our impact
Since 2019 Chikara Cambodia has given grants to 14 students. Five of them have now earned their degrees.
At the end of 2024, our students had given 25 workshops to primary schools in Siem Reap. The workshops were about the environment, hygiene and plastic waste.
Chikara Cambodia collects thousands of plastic bottles every year. These bottles would otherwise end up in Cambodia’s landscape.
A sustainable Cambodia requires well-educated young leaders. This is why we support talented young people living in disadvantaged circumstances in Cambodia to study or receive vocational training. They receive a grant from us and counselling while studying. They are also given training in the areas of the environment, leadership, sales & marketing, English and other professional skills. They also build work experience in our environmental projects. They thus become tomorrow’s ‘environmental leaders’.
The students that we support go through a careful selection process. We do this with the Friendship Association for Cambodian Child Hope (FACCH) and the Prasat Bakong High School. This is a Cambodian NGO that, like Chikara Cambodia, works for the education of disadvantaged children and young people. The process is as follows.
Our students
Since 2019 Chikara Cambodia has given grants to 14 students. Five of them have now earned their diplomas and have found good jobs. They will continue working with our environmental projects as alumni. We hope that many more students will follow. You can help by giving a donation to our study fund.
Our projects
Chikara Cambodia works in Prasat Bakong, a poor area of the Cambodian province of Siem Reap. We run a number of projects here under the heading Educate for a Cleaner World. We do this along with our students, local partners and volunteers, and often with interns from the Netherlands. We all work on making Cambodia more sustainable.
One of the environmental challenges that Cambodia faces is the huge amount of plastic waste. We want to reduce that mountain of waste with our students. One way we are doing this is by starting the ‘Soap in return for plastic waste’ project in 2022. This project is not only about the environment, but also about hygiene in disadvantaged communities where there is often no money for soap.
The idea behind our ‘Soap in return for plastic waste’ project is simple and effective. The project involves our students giving workshops at primary schools about the importance of a clean environment, plastic recycling and hygiene. The students hand out ecologically friendly soap that they have helped produce. They also encourage the pupils to hand in plastic waste in return for new soap. In turn, we have that plastic recycled and turned into learning materials for the schools. This closes the plastic loop.
We work with the Eco-Soap Bank (ESB), a local non-profit organisation, in this project. We work with them to make the soap for the schools. We also work with Panha Sabay, a social enterprise that recycles collected plastic to make educational materials. We show the teachers how to use these materials and how they can promote environmental education in ‘Teach the Teacher’ training. We have established sustainable partnerships with various schools, where we regularly exchange rice sacks filled with plastic waste from nature for soap balls that we place by the sinks. This results in the removal of hundreds of rice sacks filled with plastic waste from the environment on a structural basis
Help us increase our impact
Not only do we reach the primary school children in the workshops, we also reach their families and communities. The children tell others about this and set a good example by clearing up rubbish. In this way, we collaborate with 45 schools and have now raised awareness among around 40,000 people about the importance of a clean environment. Will you help us reach even more people in Cambodia? Donate to our environmental project.
In order to do our work well, we had the ‘Chikara Innovation Centre for a cleaner world’ built in 2024. This is a sustainable building made of bamboo. Here:
The building is in Siem Reap on the grounds of our partner Trailblazer Cambodia Organization (TCO). This makes it even easier to work with them. A local architect and contractor designed and built the building, and interns from the Windesheim University of Applied Sciences helped in the design and construction process. We are very proud of our new accommodation. You are very welcome here!
Join Chikara Cambodia as a partner, volunteer or donor.
