People smiling in classroom

Providing Pathways to Break the Poverty Cycle in Cambodia with PEPY Empowering Youth


In the rural and remote communities of Cambodia, young people and their families do not see many opportunities for themselves outside of construction, agriculture, or migrating to Thailand to create income. As a result, education is not valued and drop out rates are high, causing the cycle of poverty to repeat. In the wake of COVID-19, things have only become worse as many Cambodian youth are losing their jobs due to hotels and tourism agencies closing indefinitely.

PEPY Empowering Youth is a nonprofit organization run by Cambodians, for Cambodians that works with local high school teachers to provide pathways to higher education and to connect rural youth to sustainable employment opportunities. They see addressing the education gap as the most effective way to improve communities, increase safety, and break the cycle of poverty.

Project: PEPY Empowering Youth is leveraging a team of volunteers to:

  • Support the gathering or development of training materials for the Future is Bright Lab that will enable students to access the lessons and self-study various subjects and enhance their IT skills.
  • Work with staff to help us find and initiate a library software program for PEPY’s Future is Bright Lab.
  • Collaborate with PEPY’s administrative staff to help them improve their donor tracking systems through the development of a CRM tool or database.
  • Create training for PEPY’s staff focused on web development that will help them ensure youth working on their social enterprise start-ups can market effectively with e-commerce and powerful online tools.

Impact: PEPY Empowering Youth currently supports over 1,000 students per year and are looking forward to the launch of their Future is Bright Lab to continue supporting current and former students.