AP Welcomes Chantou as Part-Time Student

Fourteen-year-old Chantou.

Chantou first joined Aziza’s Place in 2007. She is the sister of Chanthy, one of the first four residents of AP. In 2008 she left the program and went to live her aunt in a province outside of Phnom Penh where she was able to attend school. The AP team was troubled to find out in August that Chantou had moved back to the city to live with her older sister and had begun working in a garment factory. As a 14 year-old, she had borrowed the birth certificate of an older female in order to obtain a job ironing and cutting fabric. She worked in a stifling hot factory for up to 12 hours a day, seven days per week. Her sister (also a garmet factory worker) did not want her young sister to work, but could not support Chantou on her meager income.

Chantou’s conditions were unacceptable and AP worked out a system to bring Chantou into the program for the full school day. Now she will attend public school and takes part in AP's supplementary classes - English, Math, Khmer and Computer Studies. AP currently does not have the capacity for another full-time resident and so at the end of the day, she returns home to live with her sister. The older sister is working with the AP team to ensure Chantou stays in school and has a safe place to live while she is not studying.