Aziza Ghori Charitable Foundation

Causes: Children & Youth, Children & Youth Services, Education, Elementary & Secondary Schools, Family Services, Human Service Organizations, Human Services, Literacy

Mission: Aziza Ghori Charitable Foundation supports Aziza's Place, a grassroots education and learning centre transforming the lives of Cambodia's most underprivileged children. The young people in our community come from the Steung Meanchey municipal dumpsite, slums and vulnerable families. It also supports new initiatives in Cambodia such as the reintegration of residential care children back into their families.

Results: As a small NGO we have managed to have a positive impact on around 50 children and their families so far. Today we actively support 31 children (some today 16y old and living with us since they were 6) and expansion of our support depends on extra incoming funds. If you see the environment these children grew up in, we can truly call our efforts a big success. Out of our 31 kids, ages ranging from 6 to 23, 20 kids are in primary school (upon arrival and in the first years we often see low grades and behavioural problems, but after a while with AP, we see a constant positive evolution in their behaviour and school results), 6 kids are in secondary school (their level of English becomes fluent over the years and school results are good), 5 kids are older than 18 (4 are going to University and 1 has started a professional career as a personal assistant; All are fluent in English and have a good connection to AP and the younger kids). As we also give broader growth classes, we have an impressive list of karate graduates at AP: over the years, 4 obtained a black belt of which 1 child (17 years) is now training with the National Karate team of Cambodia. Also, as we are among the first NGO's in Cambodia to successfully reintegrate our children into their families step-by-step (as we used to be a residential care centre), our staff is now sharing this expertise with other NGO's. We focus on families becoming independent and self-sufficient, giving them parental skills training, job search skills training, etc. Our goal is to break the cross-generational poverty cycle.

Target demographics: the poorest children &their families living/working on the garbage dump sites around Phnom Penh.

Direct beneficiaries per year: 30 families & the communities living in Steung Meanchey

Geographic areas served: Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Programs: To the children we provide: day care, free education, extra classes (English, IT, math, ...), free healthcare, 3 nutritious meals per day, transportation, psychological support, ... To the families we provide: parental skill training, job search skill training, advise, ... To the Cambodian communities: reintegration expertise to orphanages/residential care centers