J675 Graduation House
Cambodia, Southeast Asia
In partnership with Awareness Cambodia
The Situation
In 1995 Dr Gary Hewett OAM established Awareness Cambodia to provide practical support for the children left abandoned and orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Starting out providing a place of shelter, care and support, Awareness Cambodia expanded the child development program to encompass three projects – Sunshine House, House of Progress and Graduation House – each with a focus on child empowerment through education. These programs are officially registered and recognised by the Cambodian Government and provide a seamless pathway for Cambodia’s most vulnerable from primary school education through to tertiary graduation.
Awareness Cambodia sees the children of Graduation House as the future leaders and professionals that Cambodia so desperately needs in order to rebuild as a nation. Graduation House represents the final step in the educational journey for Awareness Cambodia’s children, many of whom have been supported from a young age, allowing them to access higher education within a supportive and structured environment.
Since the project’s inception in 2008, over 100 young adults have been supported at Graduation House and gone on to graduate with degrees in various fields including civil engineering, economics, architecture, medicine, English literature and business, or vocational training and take their places in Cambodian society.
The Objectives
- Graduation House project, provides the care and support (financial, accommodation, emotional) young adults need to further their education
- Graduation House facility, purpose-built, state-of-the-art, 4-storey building located in Phnom Penh, provides young adults and underprivileged rural students with accommodation and support to live independently (but within the support structure of Awareness Cambodia) while undertaking university studies or vocational training
- Scholarship program enables academically-gifted but under-privileged provincial students to undertake tertiary studies in the fields of medicine and agriculture, the scholarship recipients reside at Graduation House
- Projects are financially supported through child sponsorship and donations
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