This little girl, at a similar age to you and me, comes from an underprivileged background in Cambodia. She knows by heart that education is the only way to bring herself out of poverty – yet she chooses to escape from schooling. ‘Why?’ you ask. Every day, this girl needs to put a USD5 dollar note in the exercise book for her teacher, who is supposed to be offering compulsory free education. Otherwise, the teacher will kick her out of the classroom or fail all her tests. She doesn't want to support such an unethical act; more importantly, she can't afford to do so. If she bribes the teacher, she may need to sacrifice her lunch and suffer from hunger. Unfortunately, this little girl is not alone – there are millions of them.

'What should I do, sister?' the little girl asked.

That was a question I didn't know how to answer. Because of this little girl whom I met during my stay in an AIDS orphanage in Cambodia, I started 'Speak Up!' – an online English learning program for Cambodia's underprivileged children.

Speak Up! aims to empower underprivileged children in Cambodia by providing equal educational opportunities. With a higher English proficiency, these children would be able to secure more job opportunities and a better living, hence breaking the cycle of cross-generational poverty in the long run. Our program also encourages students to be the representatives of their community and share their stories, reconnecting this marginalized group of youth in Cambodia with the world. It realizes our mission – Let The Unheard Be Heard.

Speak Up! was launched in 3 Cambodian orphanages in August 2022. Targeting 8 to 18 years old students, we design the curriculum and offer to teach on our online platform with pre-recorded learning videos. It is a 20-week program with ten modules ranging from understanding yourself and learning about Cambodia to developing a global vision. Students have five lessons each week in an interactive setting. To make the learning more fun, each student is paired up with a Hong Kong Pen Friend Buddy to practice English in daily life conversations. With 48 children as our first batch of students, we are going to sustain the project and expand to more orphanages.

'Knowledge changes fate' – while you may find it a cliché in Hong Kong, it is indeed the only way for many underprivileged children to change their destiny and the destiny of the next generation.