CESHEO, Cambodian English School for Higher Education Organization

CESHEO, Cambodian English School for Higher Education Organization, is based in Siem Reap, Cambodia near the ruins of Angkor Wat. In partnership with 143 Collective, we operate two schools and an orphanage, focusing primarily on food, shelter and education for our children in need. CESHEO operates as a safe house, where children are welcomed, clothed, fed, educated and offered a place to sleep. Children are taught English, a key skill to surviving in an economy driven by tourism. Public education is not free in Cambodia, so poor children are given very little chance to thrive. Hence the reason we are ready to do our part.  

CESHEO Director, Rady Rure, was orphaned in 1987 at the age of 5 along with his 7-year-old brother. They survived by laboring on rice farms in exchange for food and shelter. At the age of 10, an elderly man offered Rady a chance at schooling.  Rady was eager and determined to learn, never missing a day of school. His brother went without school and continued working so that he and Rady could eat. At the age of 16, Rady began teaching himself English. When he joined high school at 18, Rady was the only student out of 3,000 peers that could speak english. After a lost childhood of unimaginable hardship, Rady started CESHEO to give the poor children of his community a chance in life.  

In Rady’s words: “It just takes one person to change their lives like mine was changed by a single person, every single one of us have the capability to make this world a better place. Together we can change the world.”

Our school operates off volunteer run classes and volunteer-built infrastructure. However, with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, tourism (and the volunteers it brings to Cambodia) has disappeared. Our goal is to provide Rady the operating budget to run the schools and orphanage, allowing CESHEO to operate without relaying on the volatile economic ecosystem.