meet the maker
SORN SREYET
Mum of two. Sreyet uses the income she makes from selling products to support her home hair and nail salon. The salon is only small and in a backroad away from any mainstream traffic. She is still learning and training so she often makes no money at the salon.
Coming to Heartprint Build A Future program helps her gain confidence, practice her skills and makes her very happy. She loves that she can bring her daughter with her and that her son can join in the Community Centre programs.
She has made many new friends from the program and even came right up until having her youngest child, returning after only 4 weeks of giving birth.
SEN PHOEUY
We first met Phoeuy profiling her to receive a new home. Her family situation was desperate. She had two small children and no income. She was living under a sheet on her mum’s land.
Desperate for money the family moved to Phnom Penh but when her husband got sick they needed to move back to be near family. Inviting her into our Build A Future program brought out all of her confidence, she even began to start speaking English. Her two children also get to attend programs at the community centre.
Phoeuy has amazing skills and picks things up very quickly. She is also more than happy to share her talents with the other mums, teaching them.
NIM THYDA
Covid hit this family hard. Thyda losing her long time job as a waitress. With the bills adding up she came to Heartprint desperate and we supplied her with food relief for her family of four.
Once the world started to get back to normal we helped Thyda gain employment and her two children started in our community centre programs. Trying to catch up on the outstanding debts Thyda joined our Build A future program where she became a big sister figure to many of the women. Her big smile and friendly demeanour pulled everyone in and now she not only makes things to sell in our Fairtrade store she helps the mums to learn new skills. One day she dreams of having her own store selling her own products.
SEN SOKPHAT
Being a mum of three Sokphat had never had a job. She had no formal training and no confidence to go into the workforce. Her family has always lived in poverty and once she married it was no different. Her husband and her struggle daily living day to day off of whatever they make.
The Build A Future program is changing that. For the first time in her life Sokphat has a bank account and is being taught how to budget and save. She is also gaining confidence and her skills are increasing.
Her favourites things to make are bracelets and necklaces and she hopes one day she can make enough money to help her family’s life get better.
CHEM SREY TOCH
Toch is the older sister of a faMily of five girls. She has been a part of Heartprint since she was nine years old. Originally she was sponsored to English school and then when our community centre opened she became part of our programs.
Being part of the Youth Mentor Program meant she had to give back to the other programs. She chose to be part of the Build A Future program and came in to teach our mums how to make bracelets. She loved spending time with them all and soon became an important part of the program.
Toch is now doing a traineeship through Haven Training Restaurant and dreams of being a chef. She makes things in her spare time to help supplement her income and help her family that are struggling with pulling themselves out of poverty.
CHE SAVET
Savet recently become a mum for the third time. Her two older children joined the Community Centre programs at Heartprint when it was obvious she was struggling parenting and need some extra support. The programs are really changing things for Savet and her family. Life is getting easier.
Being part of the Build A Future program gives her a sense of belonging and she looks forward to coming every Tuesday. She really surprised herself at first, she didn’t think she would be able to make any of the products but Savet tries so hard.
Making extra income for her family is a great inspiration but the friendship she gets from the other women is something special.
LIM MAO
Mao is a lady of many talents. After working with her and her family for many years Heartprint decided to give her a chance on full-time employment. She was employed as a kitchen helper and then moved into the cook role feeding all the staff and children.
Part of her employment was to stay active in the Build A Future group and Mao continues to work with new mums in the program showing them how to make a positive change in their lives. She is a great role model but also enjoys the space of being creative and learning new skills.
She uses the extra income to support her two teenage daughters through school helping them out of the cycle of poverty.
CHEAN SVET
When Svet’s two older children started to attend the Heartprint Community Centre she was in a very different headspace to where she is now. Seeing the change in her children, she decided she wanted more out of her life too.
To her credit, she started becoming more involved in the Heartprint workshops, and at one of the formal family sit-downs she witnessed the other mums in the Build A Future program making things, which sparked her to want to join. She’d been asked to join in the past but didn’t have the confidence.
She now has a third child and loves the freedom and extra support of the Build A Future program.
YE LEAKENA
We first met Leakena when she was 15 when Heartprint built her family a new home. Although she was loved by her family Leakena was shunned from most of her community. She had never been to school and she was kept at home or very close to it.
Leakena has Down Syndrome and in Cambodia, it is believed to be bad luck for a family if a child is born with a disability. The belief is they have done something wrong in their past life and our now living their karma.
Leakena was invited into the inclusion program ran out of the Heartprint Community Centre. She has thrived within the program. Through making items to sell within the shop she is showing everyone around her and her wider community that she is capable and a worthwhile member of society making a living.