Organization
This Life Cambodia
This Life Cambodia (អង្គការជីវិតនៅកម្ពុជា) is a community development organization based in Siem Reap that works with Cambodian children, families and communities.[1][2] It works alongside communities to name their own challenges and design, with them, the structures and services they need, and it helps children stay with or return to their families.[1] Its programs are organized in three practice areas: Community; Children and Families; and Impact, Learning and Effectiveness.[3]
History
This Life Cambodia began in December 2007. Members of a village community approached its founder, Billy Gorter, with plans for a community center. They had already built two thatch classrooms and enrolled 200 students in extracurricular study.[2] The new organization set out to give communities and small grassroots groups in Siem Reap the training they needed to improve their children's schooling.[2][4]
It grew from a small initiative with two staff into a registered NGO. By 2014 it had 28 staff, 95 percent of them Cambodian, and four programs in three provinces.[5] The Student Assistance Program gave the poorest students scholarships to secondary school or university, with bicycles, solar lamps for studying at night and internships at the office. The Lower Secondary School Development Program helped two rural public schools lead their own development, from building work to enrollment campaigns.[5] This Life Beyond Bars worked with children held in prison with adults for petty, poverty-driven crimes, teaching them vocational skills and keeping them connected with their families. A research and consultancy program evaluated the other programs and studied education, human rights and juvenile justice in Cambodia.[5][4]
In 2013 the scholarship program supported its first Grade 12 graduates, and the first Grade 9 class at Chub Ta Trav Lower Secondary School sat its final exams. That year the board chair, Claire Coxon, reported that no child in This Life Beyond Bars had reoffended after release in the program's first two and a half years.[4] The organization won the Start Impact Award in 2015.[6]
From May 2018 to September 2020 it served as the Linking and Learning Facilitator for Voice in Cambodia, a project funded with 183,040 euros. In that role it connected 27 Voice grantees through events, communities of practice and training in filmmaking and positive parenting. Its communities of practice brought together women in Phnom Penh, LGBTI people, older people and people with disabilities in Battambang, and Indigenous people in Ratanakiri.[6]
By 2025 This Life Cambodia ran eight programs in Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Banteay Meanchey provinces.[3] In October 2024 it celebrated the recognition of Sam Ven's impact on social service in Cambodia. In November 2025 it announced a new partnership for family-based care reform in Cambodia, and in February 2026, with funding from the Martin James Foundation, it helped with an emergency response for families displaced by border tensions.[1]
Organization
This Life is registered in Cambodia as an international NGO and in Australia as a Public Benevolent Institution, with its head office in Petersham, New South Wales.[3][2] It holds Governance and Professional Practice certification from the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia and works under memoranda of understanding with several Cambodian ministries.[3][7] Its funding comes from the Australian Government, individual and corporate donors, private foundations and international development agencies.[7][2]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 This Life Cambodia, home page
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Cooperation Committee for Cambodia, NGO database: This Life Cambodia (2020)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 This Life Cambodia, About us
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 This Life Cambodia, Annual report 2013
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 EXO Foundation, This Life Cambodia (2014)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Voice, Connecting Voice(s) in Cambodia
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 This Life Cambodia, Annual reports