With a passion for coffee, Leap Sopheakun quit her job, rented a shop and started her own business, Amazinglies Cafe. The business was her dream, but the 34-year-old faced many challenges and obstacles. She was trading without a carefully developed business plan, and when the Covid-19 crisis hit, it almost ruined her business. Thanks to financial support, training and networking, Sopheakun was able to weather the storm, and today the cafe has two successful branches. The support came from the Wellbeing Advancement Organization (WELL), which helps women entrepreneurs who run micro and small businesses under its four core values: health,…
Author: Raksmey Hong
Sitting at a sidewalk dining table under an umbrella, a 64-year old woman from Kampong Cham’s Srei Santhor district ate only a few spoons of porridge before covering her face with a mask. She wore a sad expression as she contemplated a package of rice and dried fish. Soun Yoy was concerned about her 19-year-old grandson’s health. He had been admitted to Calmette hospital six days prior, but was showing no signs of recovery. Her grandson, who is in his first year in university, had been in severe pain since his arrival. While the elderly woman was concerned about her…
Three Cambodian students won gold awards in the grade 12 math competition at the Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiads (SASMO). A total of 33,679 candidates from 28 countries competed in the tough contest. Lim Chhingy, was the highest ranked among the three. “Of the grade 12 students, I was the top Cambodian, and placed 81st out of 94 students at the regional and global level,” said Chhingy. The overall winner was a student from the Philippines. Based on the large number of students participating, SASMO decided that just 40 per cent of the contestants would medal, with the group…
Hin Ruos is a man from a simple farming family in Kandal who happens to suffer from a disability, but he never let that hold him back and today he’s reached a level of success in business that many only dream of achieving. After getting into the real estate business, he earned his first big commission on a land sale and he reinvested the money until finally he was able to purchase more than 100 ha of land in Kampong Tralach district of Kampong Chhnang province after he noticed that it was covered with tree stumps that had been left…
Mental disabilities are not diseases that can be completely cured by medication or an operation. People who suffer from them require special education to learn how to be independent and specialised vocational training. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), private educators and state schools provide special education to children and adolescents, which mostly focus on fine and gross motor skills, along with a basic general education. Kampuchea Sela Handicap (KSH), a small Cambodian NGO, takes care of young adults with intellectual disabilities such as autism, Down’s syndrome or cerebral palsy. “Whether they have Down’s syndrome, severe autism or mental retardation, these young people…
Cambodians between the ages of 18 and 65 tend to use the classic red love heart emoji the most on social media, according to a new report by Meta, which was released on the occasion of World Emoji Day, marked on July 17. ‘ The report used data from Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram to produce its findings. The red heart emoji is the most popular and the second most used is a face with tears of joy. “Facebook users in Cambodia between the ages of 45 and 65 prefer to use hands performing a sampeh, or thank you, rather than…
Among the many exciting displays at the Technical and Vocational Training (TVET) event in mid June, the launch of a drone swarm which shifted its formation into text and images drew the most attention. It was the first such spectacle in Cambodia held at the Koh Pich Convention and Exhibition Centre. One hundred drones soared above the rapt audience, glittering in red, blue and green, and formed the letters TVET to rapturous applause, before landing. Then they stunned the crowd by changing formation to spell NPIC, then 2022. Finally, they ended the display by forming up into the iconic national…
Sitting on his cyclo – bicycle powered rickshaws with a passenger seat in front of the driver – and wearing a white plastic rain parka, Chheng Sam Ol was guessing that once it started raining there’d be no more customers for him to drive that day. This meant that for the whole of Sunday, July 10 he had earned a total of just 6,000 riel from two clients. “Today I only got 6,000 riel after I served only two customers from morning until evening. Every day there are some customers going to and from the market but I haven’t made…
Cheam Ban picked up two empty sacks and climbed aboard her son’s motorcycle. They were preparing to head to a forest rich in lush green long leaves on Kulen Mountain. Thanks to the rough mountain road conditions, they spent almost an hour driving 4km to the foot of the 2km trail that would lead them to the forest. Once their hike was complete, they began to fill their sacks with khun mear leaves. Khun mear (Ancistrocladus tectorius) leaves are a non-timber forest product that the residents of Khnang Phnom commune’s Thmey Village of Siem Reap province’s Svay Leu district weave…
Groups of older men and women taking a stroll together just before sun-up have long been a common early morning sight in Phnom Penh, but now the capital is seeing an increase in the number of solo joggers taking to the streets for exercise at that hour as well. On most mornings, if you were in the neighbourhood of Bele Bridge in Russey Keo commune and you headed to the public park nearby there and watched by the dim light of the street lamps you’d see at least one jogger with hair as white as his t-shirt slowly but steadily…