Get Involved at PEPY: Ways to Contribute to a better future in Cambodia!
November 21, 2022
Hear From Our Transitioning Executive Director: Bong Watd’s Journey with PEPY And Future Plans
February 27, 2023
As we approach the end of 2022, we are feeling so grateful for what our team, students, and stakeholders have accomplished in our community. This year, we have reached over 1,000 youth in our programs enabling them to run development projects, initiate businesses, and connect to higher education opportunities. Some of our top highlights include:
- Holding two exhibitions for entrepreneurs in our region to showcase their products and services with over 1,400 attendees.
- Launching Public Speaking Contests in our partner high schools giving hundreds of youths in the Dream Management Project the opportunity to build their confidence and communication skills. Our top performing youth also got to compete at the national level.
- 10 youth groups in the Learning Center led rural development projects addressing environmental challenges and education gaps. They worked with local leaders, government officials, and schools to create 2 beautiful libraries. They have also led multiple awareness campaigns to reduce single use plastic in Kralanh Market and are working regularly with sellers and market organizers to change environmentally harmful practices.
- Our team members trained and ran workshops for over 10 NGOs in Cambodia and around the world to improve their programs and admin work so that all great organizations have the opportunity to succeed.
Reflecting on this past year has had us thinking; what are we looking forward to accomplishing in 2023? To get insight of what everyone is planning, we interviewed almost all of our team to learn their personal and professional goals. We hope you enjoy reading through their responses!
Bong Watd, Executive Director
Bong Watd will be completing her contract with PEPY in early 2023 and is looking forward to returning to her family in Phnom Penh! She will be spending a lot of time helping the incoming Executive Director prepare for the role and will also be working on restarting her Doursanak Training Center. After handing over her work to the new Executive Director, she plans to work on her mental health and take time to reflect on her time at PEPY. She will be working on a book, joining a Vipassana for 10 days, and will be working on a business venture to sell Khmer products.
Channra, Scholarship Officer
Channra shared, “My goal for 2023 is for all 2021 scholars to get jobs or internships opportunities and for all 2022 scholars to find work. Another thing is to see scholars earning a good GPA in their universities with the support of our Tutoring Corner and Mentorship Network.”
She is also really excited about the Scholarship Project’s new club initiative. Channra would like all the youth led clubs to operate well and create lots of great memories for the participants in the new year.
Mara, Dream Management Project Officer
Mara would like to improve Dream Talks in her partner schools in 2023. Dream Talks are when we bring inspiring speakers into Dream classes to share their lessons learned with our students. She would like to bring more recent graduates into the classroom as speakers so that the students can see the immediate benefits of completing high school.
Solin, Finance Assistant
Solin’s goal is to improve her work by completing all of her tasks on time and accurately. She is still new to the role and learning more and more each day.
She would also like to join other courses to strengthen her finance skills so she can be an asset to the team and will take every opportunity she can.
Sotheareak, Partnerships Officer
Sotheareak has just completed his three-month probation and is hoping to accomplish a lot next year. He wants to find two new funders for our Dream Management Project and for our Youth Innovators’ Space and Incubator Program.
He also will be working with our board and local partners to run our first Putt for PEPY Golf Tournament event. This is the first golf tournament that we know of that has ever been run by an NGO in Siem Reap, so we look forward to bringing a new type of event to our community.
Lastly, he would like to find corporate sponsors that promote ethical business practices and will help PEPY achieve sustainability.
Chhunnay, Dream Management Project Officer
Chhunnay would like to achieve a very high retention rate for Dream class in Varin next year. Specifically, he would like to see the retention rate at 90% or more. He would also like for all of the Dream events to exceed their targets to have more participants than the previous years.
His final goal is to coordinate with the school to pilot a reading club to support students’ literacy.
Rattana, Scholarship Coordinator
The main goal Rattana is focused on is to work with scholars until they all earn a GPA of 3.0 or better in their university. His secondary goal is to make sure that all scholars and alumni are employed next year.
Sopheaktra, Finance Officer
Sokpheaktra has a big project she is planning to complete in 2023! She will be updating and processing all the staff information and documents for the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training website.
All of her work will ensure that PEPY is up to date-and in compliance with the laws in Cambodia.
Savoeng, Outreach Program Manager
Savoeng has shared both his personal and professional goals for next year. He said, “For my personal development I am going to finish my Master’s Degree in Education and Leadership from Pannasastra University of Cambodia.” Savoeng would also like to improve his capacity in monitoring and evaluation (the practice of collecting and processing data to make important decisions about a project).
In addition, his big goal is to expand Dream to a new school so that more youths are able to access higher education.
Seha, ICT Teacher
Seha is looking forward to applying his updated curriculum in ICT class in 2023. Seha shared, “I have been researching new technology standards, and what new tools should be applied to our ICT projects. I have made changes to the curriculum based on my experience and my research to meet the education standards of SE Asia. Moreover, technology is developing every day, updated with something new and modernized, and everyone should be learning with new experiences on technology platforms.”
Srey Pov, YISI Program Manager
Srey Pov shared, “In these two years working in the YISI Program, I started to feel deeply connected to youth development and empowerment. I am a youth and I want to see other youth and myself grow in our personal, professional, and business life. My professional goal in 2023 is to continue developing my skillsets and expanding my network. With my skillsets and team, we will make YISI space a place where youth come to learn, share, grow, and have fun.
Manin, Operations and HR Manager
Manin’s first goal is to improve his skills by joining a course in operations management. “As an operations manager, I wish to be responsible for a range of important tasks and projects that depend on my capabilities and expertise. This includes specific areas of PEPY focusing on inventory and quality control. For instance, I would like to create a database system with IT students to implement the process that helps me complete tasks,” shared Manin.
He continued, “My second goal is to improve my skill in HR management and continue to develop our system. Currently, I am seeking a short course to improve on recruiting, and the best techniques on how to manage staff performance. For my family goal, I wish to bring my wife and little boy to travel abroad for a memorable trip.”
Channa, Learning Center Program Manager
Channa shared, “My 2023 goal is to improve the Learning Center’s work to make it more efficient and effective! First, I want to have better Monitoring and Evaluation systems. Moreover, I want to work with the Learning Center alumni to have them more actively involved in the PEPY Learning Center by December 2023!”
Konnitha, Finance Manager
The big goals that Konnitha would like to accomplish for 2023 are to build up the capacity of the finance team in order to accomplish the requirements of government regulations and donors, and, to create a new revised financial policy because she wants a document that clearly outlines how tasks should be implemented and to fulfill all the standards of donors and the government.
Somnang, Communications Officer
Somnang shared, “my goals in 2023 are to up my skills in video production, photography, and English writing. I want to be more creative and launch a PEPY Tik Tok.
For my personal development I want to work on my confidence to speak in public. I feel I am too shy.”
Kim Ann, Youth Empowerment Officer
Kim Ann has some fantastic personal and professional goals! She said, “By 2023, I would like to have a house built for my mother and sister back in Kralanh. For PEPY I want to 1) Reform the PEPY Alumni Association structure and guidelines aiming for a transformative and impactful association, 2) Support the PEPY Alumni Association to conduct a fundraising campaign for PEPY, 3) Build a more collaborative network with companies/employers for student’s job placement and internship.”
Thank you so much for taking the time to read our team members’ goals and plans for 2023! We hope you are looking forward to a year of personal and professional growth too. If you have any big plans, share with us in the comments so we can cheer you on next year!
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