Youth Star Cambodia would like to say a huge thanks and congratulations to our group 17 volunteers who started their placements last August 2012 and finished their service this July 31st 2013.

Mr SOR Samet, Ms. TY Sokunthy, Ms. HO Chakriya and Ms. SA Sokheang worked in Prey Veng province. Samet, Chakriya and Sokheang were placed in Kampong Trabek, and Sokhunthy in Kampong Leav. Ms. CHORN Sopheak and Mr VANN Ratana were based in Kratie province, Sopheak worked in the Sambo district and Ratana in Chang Krang.

Ratana and Samet were active in the ‘Good Men Project’ where they ran youth clubs and men only networks that ran awareness raising campaigns to prevent violence against women and girls.

All our volunteers worked on the SIPAR project to promote reading and set up education centres where children and youth could come and read.

Our volunteers were responsible for preparing the books in the libraries and reading to children in their communes. They created youth clubs to help run the centres (libraries) to encourage reading for all. Our volunteers and the youth club members then created mobile libraries and took the books out into the villages far from the CEFA (Centre of Education For All) in order to engage the most marginalised in the community. They also worked with children (grades 1 to 9) with learning difficulties and with children that are no longer at school to encourage re-entry to grades 1 to 9.

They set up youth clubs that assisted with the CEFA. They were responsible for carrying out many other projects, according to the needs of the community. The youth clubs have been responsible for setting up many campaigns. They raise awareness around issues such as sanitation, migration and domestic violence. This work will continue to be carried out by the youths in the community long after our volunteers leave.

These are just a few of the many things are volunteers have worked on in the community in collaboration with the local youth; local partners and commune council.

We cannot express our gratitude enough for the outstanding work they have accomplished in their year’s service.

We are so proud of their work and inspired by what can be achieved when youth work with their communities to make lasting change.

For more information and pictures, please visit our Facebook page.

On September 21^st Youth Star Cambodia will be hosting our eighth fundraising gala.

The fabulous night will have a 1920s theme.

Save the date!

Youth Star presents its eighth annual fundraising Gala.

The Roaring Twenties Gala will be held on Saturday September 21^st at the Intercontinental Hotel, Phnom Penh.

We have chosen a 1920s theme as this decade was a time of innovation, liberation, youth, prosperity and modernisation. We feel these characteristics embody the work of our volunteers who bring democracy, opportunity, improvement and well-being to the communities they work with.

Please keep the date free and join us at what promises to be an absolutely amazing night.

To find out more please see our Facebook Gala event page. Click here

To buy a ticket please download the invitation flyer for more details.

Click on the image below to view.

The STARS Foundation Impact Awards identify and support local organisations that achieve excellence in the provision of services to disadvantaged children and demonstrate effective management practices. Award winners receive funding, capacity building and media support from the STARS Foundation. Smaller awards allow winners to work together with STARS to promote their plans to other donors and seek to raise additional funding.

We were successful in receiving this award due to the impact that our activities are having on the lives of disadvantaged children within the communities we work.

STARS recognised Youth Star’s sustainable and innovative approach, especially the use of local volunteers in order to support disadvantaged communities and build a generation of young leaders.

STARS visited us in August 2012 and commented:

“During our visit, Youth Star Cambodia came across as a well-established organisation, with clear systems and processes in place. Your organisation demonstrated evidence that it is responding to a clear need by providing services to children and young people in disadvantaged communities and excellent career opportunities to volunteers. We felt that the way you involve the communities in the planning of your activities, as well as children and young people through child and youth clubs, was very impressive. We also very much appreciated meeting with some of your former volunteers, in order to get a sense of the confidence and skills that they gained during and following their placement. Your monitoring and evaluation systems and processes during the volunteer’s placement came across as robust and efficient.”

The STARS Foundation came back to visit us again this April and we were joined by the recipients of the 2011 Education Impact Award winners Restless Development Nepal, a youth led development organisation that carries out very similar work to Youth Star. The visit provided a great opportunity to share ideas and learn from each other and work together to promote youth volunteering.

Published on August 2012