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A N N U A L A C T I V I T I E S R E P O R T 2 0 1 5 | 2 1
Since 2006, the Pistorio Foundation has supported 183
students enrolled in Pour un Sourire d’Enfant (PSE) schools.
Students that have been out of school for many years are
able to enroll in a fast paced “catch up” program that
allows them to cover two academic years in one. In six
years, they can complete twelve years of education. In
addition, PSE offers dozens of onsite Professional School
and Vocational training, including in Tailoring, Baking and
Pastry Making, Gardening, Housekeeping, Childcare, Hair
Styling and Spa, Plumbing, F&B, Masonry, Hotel Manage-
ment, Accounting, and Cooking. 90 students we have
been supporting have already completed a Vocational
Diploma and our now working, earning many time more
than their parents, and able to support themselves as well
as their family of origin.
All students come from destitute families in the poorest
areas of Phnom Penh. Most are broken families with several
children in the household, living in makeshift shacks, with
no access to water, electricity nor sanitation facility in the
home, and yet struggling to pay for rent, health care, and
often facing insurmountable indebtedness to loan sharks
At the PSE center, children from the slums are able to
have breakfast and wash before joining the classroom.
The scholarship covers the following: school uniforms,
supplies, three meals in school (breakfast, lunch, and
snack), toiletries, basic health care, teacher salaries, social
workers’ salaries, and a ratio of rice given to families to
deter them from sending the child to work.
From Our Beneficiaries
Thida
Thida is in her second year of Accounting at the Business
School of PSE and once she completes her five-year program
she will have a Bachelor’s equivalent. The Business School
is one of the recent additions of Higher Education Schools
at PSE. Obtaining a degree will represent an opportunity
for Thida to change her future and her family’s life.
Currently, she shares a one room flat with her brother and
mother. In one room they cook, sleep and study, and use
a very tiny bathroom to hand wash clothes.
They benefit from a monthly ratio of rice without which they
would not be able to afford sufficient food for the family.
As a factory worker, the mother earns 130$ a month, of
which 50$ goes to pay for rent and 28$ for electricity.
Thida is an exemplary and bright student with lots of
enthusiasm and dedication.
Slums of Phnom Penh in which some of our beneficiaries’ families live
PSE Center and campus
Thida posing with her brother in front of their home. They rent a room
on the second floor where they live with their mother.
Hair Styling and Spa School