Peach

When Kampuchea House first came into contact with Peach, she was eighteen years old and languishing in Grade 3, ranked around the middle of the 50 strong class. She is a double orphan and had lived with her aunt’s family. She has great difficulty learning so it seemed senseless to leave her at primary school where she was having her self esteem diminished on a daily basis.

Peach expressed a desire to learn how to be a hairdresser and make up specialist but, without support, this desire would never reach fruition. Although all skill development seemed to be difficult for her, Peach had shown that she could remember some of the manual skills associated with hair care.

Peach moved into the Siem Reap house of Kampuchea House and was enrolled in a local hairdressing school. Although the other students learn skills in half the time of Peach, she is happy and is experiencing success, success which for so long had eluded her.

At Kampuchea House, we encourage the children to stay with us until they feel that they are capable of living independently. Peach is now nineteen years old but is still a long way off being independent. We hope she will run her own business in the future but, for now, we will find a sympathetic employer who is willing to further guide Peach in her chosen trade. When she is ready to leave, she will tell us. She will never be forced to leave, no matter how old she is.