From first shelter to first job
AVEC does not stop at rescue. We stand by each child for the long term: from the emergency of day one to the independence of a first job. Six programmes, one conviction: a child’s background should never determine their future.
Programme 1
A shelter where broken lives become free ones
26 children in our care
AVEC’s shelter, known locally as “the children’s island”, is a leafy, flower-filled place where 26 children find what life had denied them: a safe roof, three meals a day, schooling, psychological support and, above all, adults they can rely on.
Every admission follows a strict procedure in line with Cambodian law, in partnership with the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSVY) and the Battambang police. AVEC’s approach is unique: we never separate siblings. When a girl is rescued from trafficking, her sisters and brothers are taken in alongside her.
Each child’s journey unfolds in three phases: stabilisation (0 to 6 months), resocialisation (6 months to several years), then independence (up to 25). In 2025, three young people were reunited with their families, with ongoing follow-up.
Programme 2
Education as a shield against trafficking
156 schoolchildren supported in 2025
At the schools of Chrap Krasang and Sala Balat, AVEC supports 100 families, distributing exercise books, pens, uniforms and food four times a year. Three thousand kilos of rice, 1,800 bottles of sauce, 2,886 exercise books, 350 school bags, 322 shirts: these are not just numbers, they are reasons to stay in school.
In a single year, Daksosor school grew from 70 to 200 pupils. Between distributions, our teams visit the most vulnerable families. It is not just about supplies: it is patient work on attitudes, so that education becomes a priority in every household.
Programme 3
A sewing machine and a future
17 graduates in 2025
Young single mothers, women married too young, women from remote areas: the sewing centre welcomes those the system has forgotten. In 2025, 21 students enrolled, 11 of them from remote regions. A student living with a disability also completed the full course.
Within a few months, they learn pattern cutting, styling and business management. Each graduate returns to her village with a sewing machine, marketable skills and a new sense of herself. In 2025, 17 of the 21 enrolled students graduated, and each one went home with her sewing machine.
Programme 4
An open door to the world
1,454 course enrolments in 2025
In Battambang province, only 12% of rural young people have access to quality English classes. Just 8% have access to computing. The AVEC centre closes that gap: 1,120 learners of English, 334 of computing, spread across four terms.
Here, a computer screen is not a luxury. It is an open door to the world. In 2025, 12 laptops were given to university scholarship holders, donated by French donors. The centre plans to add coding classes, with one goal: training 300 young people a year by 2030.
Programme 5
Breaking the cycle of poverty through education
63% go on to university
In a village, in a family, a woman who goes to university shifts something. The scholarship programme supports students such as Chhoun Nimol (food technology), Rorn Dinan (English literature) and Sar Rosana (secondary school). Three paths that prove the cycle of poverty can be broken.
For the fourth year running, AVEC sends outstanding students to the Villars Palace Academy in Switzerland for international-standard hospitality training. In 2025, four students (three of them girls) joined the academy. 63% of children who have come through AVEC go on to university, against fewer than 5% of the rural Cambodian population.
Programme 6
It all begins here
19 children in our care
The kindergarten is the first point of contact between AVEC and needy families in the neighbourhood. Language awakening, psychomotor development, socialisation: a child who receives quality preschool education is 30% more likely to finish primary school. It all begins here.
Every programme exists thanks to sponsors and donors.