About
thanks to Jeff Speigner for the photo
The Ponheary Ly Foundation is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization that promotes and works towards increasing access to formal schooling, improving school retention, and strengthening the quality of educational experience for children and youth in northern Cambodia. The organization was formed in response to a local, national, and international recognition of the low literacy rates in Cambodia and the wide gender disparity in those rates, coupled with a growing awareness of marginal school attendance in rural villages and the existence of poorly resourced government schools across the nation. In alignment with a UN human rights-based approach to education, PLF directs its work from the basic premise that access to quality education is central to the development of future leaders, the eradication of poverty and promotion of health standards, and a vital component of the successful and just rebuilding of the country’s civil society. The transformative role of education becomes especially salient in the Cambodian context where decades of war, civil conflict, and political instability have resulted in massive social, economic, and cultural devastation and widespread poverty and illness amongst families and communities. Close to half of Cambodia’s population is age 21 or younger, a statistic underscoring the importance of education for the future of this country.
The Ponheary Ly Foundation is well established as a credible and innovative organization in the multiple communities in which it works, amongst governmental bodies, and other non-profit organizations working in education and social development. PLF’s work ranges from providing localized and immediate hands-on responses to challenges facing families, communities, and schools in the realm of educational access and quality to the more systemic advocacy work of improving teacher training and strengthening educational infrastructure. Through its array of programs, the foundation currently reaches approximately 2, 500 children and youth across primary and secondary schools in Northern Cambodia.
The PLF is supported financially by private donations and on the ground by both local Cambodian volunteers and visitors from abroad. People from all walks of life and from all over the world have taught, bandaged, cooked for, played with and inspired children. They have bundled, loaded and delivered supplies to students and schools far and wide in the blazing heat and raging monsoons.
The PLF is about people showing up and paying attention. We hope if you’re ever in our neck of the woods, you’ll give us a shout.
