Author: EMily

By Borith RinMy name is Borith. I am the REACH Riders Club program manager, before working at REACH I worked as a tour guide, but unfortunately bec...

Classrooms full of voices, with hands waving in the air asking to be seen by the teacher, eager to learn. Courtyards with children playing and laug...

Three years ago, I was blowing the dust off my backpack and getting ready for a trip to Thailand and Cambodia after a long travel hiatus. Little did I know at that time that crossing the border into the Kingdom of Cambodia would be a game changer for me.

Working on the ground in Cambodia surrounded by a team of dedicated humanitarians fully immersed in responding to the pandemic, does not leave you much time to stop, think and reflect. During the past 2 years at REACH, there has been soaring highs, and devastating lows (as well as everything in between), and riding this metaphorical rollercoaster has made it difficult to sit back and analyse just how much has actually been achieved in the face of adversity. My reflection on the past 2 years happened after an 18 hour flight home, 10 day quarantine and a very big, deep breath. … And wow, what a 2 years it has been!

Following a week of yellow-zone lockdowns, on Friday the 17th of September, communes in Siem Reap province were placed into red-zone lockdowns. The...

Due to the significant financial losses our families suffered from countrywide redundancies; our immediate reaction was to fight the potentiality of starvation. After months of hard work, logistical challenges and everchanging restrictions, our critical emergency food distribution processes were running smoothly and effectively, and it was then time to turn our attention towards intensifying our “at home learning” strategy. Following the success of our Double Your REACH campaign, we are now very proud to share with you the 5 core areas of development that our education team have been working on behind the scenes.

Worryingly, the current threat of the Covid-19 outbreak is just one of many problems at the forefront of our families minds. Right now, a number of...

For the past year, we have been using words such as “difficult” and “challenging” in an attempt to paint a picture of our day-to-day reality, but in all honesty, these singular words undermine the enormity of what not only our families, but also our team have been going through. This whirlwind of an update is going to give you some hard hitting insights into the current conditions of Siem Reap city, the many layers of ongoing suffering, and the recent events that led to four of our staff members being removed from their families.

Currently, with lockdowns in place across the province, our approach to logistics in the weeks ahead will be challenging, but our resilient team h...

REACH's programs have been methodically designed with a solid purpose; to break long-standing, inter-generational poverty cycles. Although we talk about this goal frequently, it is imperative that we continually evaluate our programs by assessing the impact that they are having on our families. Whilst we can systematically collect data, carry out surveys, and track our findings, it is the organic offering of this information by determined mothers and fathers that tell us the most. Returning from a recent house visit, our social worker was almost in tears over the conversation she had just had with one of our resilient mothers, Lyna*. This is Lyna’s story.