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  • The Dream of an Education: How Phymean Noun Built a School by Susan Hughes book cover
  • The Dream of an Education: How Phymean Noun Built a School by Susan Hughes book cover
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The Dream of an Education: How Phymean Noun Built a School

by Susan Hughes

From a childhood dream to a school for children in need

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AlbakiReads Editorial

From a childhood dream to a school for children in need

Phymean Noun’s path from a child barred from education under the Khmer Rouge to a student after the government’s overthrow informs her later work in Phnom Penh. There, meeting child laborers who lacked access to school leads her to leave a stable job and establish the People Improvement Organization in 2002. The account connects one person’s experience of denied schooling with an effort to provide education, food and housing for children facing hardship; the publisher says the organization has helped 8,000 children receive an education. The book centers on education as both a personal aspiration and a practical challenge shaped by poverty and conflict.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Young readers interested in biographies of social activists.
  • Readers seeking an account of education and childhood in Cambodia.
  • Readers interested in how a nonprofit organization supports children in need.

Themes

Access to educationChildhood under conflictPoverty and child laborCommunity support and social activism

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

As a young child, Phymean Noun dreamed of learning to read and write. But growing up during the Khmer Rouge reign of terror in Cambodia in the 1970s made that dream impossible.

Formal education was not only forbidden at that time but also could result in a death sentence. When the Khmer Rouge government was eventually overthrown, Phymean was finally able to go to school and fulfill the promise she made to herself as a young girl.

Years later, when Phymean was working in Phnom Penh, she met several unhoused and hungry child laborers who were unable to get an education because they had to work to feed their families. Like Phymean, their greatest dream was to go to school. Phymean knew she had to help. She left a stable job and salary behind to start the People Improvement Organization (PIO) in 2002, an NGO that educated, fed and also housed children in need. Since its founding, PIO has helped 8,000 children accomplish their dream of receiving an education.

The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

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