How We Work to Remove Barriers of Education – Volume 2, Episode 2: EGBOK Mission
Check out the latest episode of the Circle of Sisterhood vlog! This month’s episode starts us off back in 2011, when Circle of Sisterhood provided a grant award to the EGBOK Mission of Cambodia. With your help we have be fortunate to grate five separate awards to EGBOK Mission with the last grant being gifted in 2016. Learn more about how we are helping to uplift girls through education!
About EGBOK Mission
EGBOK Mission enables underprivileged young adults in Cambodia to be self-supporting by providing education, training, and employment opportunities in the hospitality industry utilizing a comprehensive approach with an emphasis on life skills development.
Through our first grant to EGBOK in 2011 ($2,000) we provided a scholarship for an underprivileged young woman, Oeurn Sokea, in Cambodia. She received the highest level of vocational education possible and Sokea is now able to support herself as a hospitality professional within the growing tourism industry of the country.
Our second grant to EGBOK Mission in 2012 ($4,000) secured education and training scholarships for two young women from one of the world’s most at-risk populations. It enabled them to receive the highest level of training and support available in their country, allowing them to support themselves through employment in the hospitality industry. Has Sreyna and Po Sawat, the two young women we supported through this grant, successfully completed their EGBOK training program and have secured internships at hotels in Angkor.
EGBOK received a third grant ($5,000) in October 2013. This grant funded education and training scholarships for three young women in Cambodia. EGBOK Mission changes the discourse of economic futures and has resulted in breaking local poverty cycles in Cambodia. Female alumni are now averaging annual salaries that are nearly three times greater than what the average Cambodian family earns in one year. These young women are now supporting their families— siblings, parents and/or grandparents, and some are starting their own families. Investing in women means investing in the future of their families, therefore creating a broader impact.
We continued our support of EGBOK’s compelling work in 2014 with a $5,000 grant, which supported the education and training of three young women. EGBOK’s strong stewardship of our grant dollars, along with the results-driven outcomes of their programs, fueled our decision to maintain our relationship through the awarding of their fourth grant.
In November 2016, EGBOK received a $10,000 grant toward overall women’s programming expenses to achieve a wider impact with Circle of Sisterhood funds. This grant will cover all shared and individual start-up living supplies, school supplies, and student development activities for 29 female students as well as one year of rental fees for EGBOK’s women’s communal living center. The funds will enable delivery of comprehensive education, training, awareness raising, housing and customized support and empowerment to the next generation of female hospitality leaders.
EGBOK Mission, later renamed SPOONS Cambodia Organization, was established in 2009 as a registered non-profit in the United States. EGBOK Mission transitioned to become SPOONS Cambodia Organization and is now entirely run by Cambodians.