Cooking up a better future

Vocational skills training in Siem Reap, Cambodia, is creating opportunities for disadvantaged youths to enter the workplace and lift themselves and their families out of poverty.

“Today I am very proud of myself. I feel very special that I was given opportunity to learn cooking skills and with it I can earn money and support my family back in the village,” says Wattana, a 17 year old girl who has accomplished her dream of working in a restaurant.

Like so many other children living in poverty, Wattana had to leave school when she was in grade six. She worked to support the nine people in her family by cutting wood in a nearby forest for a meagre income.

Plan staff working in Wattana’s village informed her about the vocational training offered by Sala Bai, a French NGO with whom Plan works in order to promote job opportunities for destitute youths and children.

The proximity of the town of Siem Reap to the Angkor Wat complex has meant enormous growth in the tourism sector in recent years as hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the region every year. Despite this, job opportunities are rare for uneducated and low-skilled youths like Wattana.

To help equip them for the labour market, Plan approached Sala Bai to provide disadvantaged young people from Plan program areas with vocational training in restaurant and bar services, kitchen, housekeeping, front office and English skills.

Taking up the opportunity of the intensive 12-month training course was not easy for Wattana. Initially, her family thought it inappropriate for a girl to be away from home for a long period, especially in a large town such as Siem Reap. Fortunately, Wattana was not discouraged, and her determination meant that she successfully convinced her mother to allow her to sit the entrance examination. She passed, and received a scholarship to study cooking – her favourite subject.

Besides the skills the students learn, the school helps students find job opportunities, and continues to support former students as they look for work.

Holding a job makes Wattana a different person, and her whole family shares her success. Her younger siblings can attend school more easily, and her brother has continued to junior high school thanks to the income that Wattana manages to send home regularly.

Wattana’s mother, a widow, also finds the burden of raising her family less heavy. “I am very happy that Wattana has a job. It is unbelievable that my family condition can change,” says her mother. Her family no longer needs to struggle to make both ends meet. “I want my children to be literate, and I hope that they have jobs. Then they can better support the family’s livelihood.”