We are an award-winning NGO in Phnom Penh. Our education, healthcare, and football programmes help break the cycle of poverty for Cambodia’s most marginalized youth.

ISF Cambodia is an NGO in Cambodia that believes every child has the right to education, healthcare and play. Unfortunately, the most disadvantaged children in Cambodia are robbed of these rights. We exist to give them back.

One in three Cambodian children will never finish primary school, meaning most face a life without prospects, opportunities or hope. Our Education Programme focuses on children in the slums of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh whose extreme poverty means they have never gone to school or have had to drop out. We provide them with a quality education and a real future, while working closely in their communities to lift entire families out of poverty.

ISF has grown from providing basic education opportunities to 18 children in 2006 to almost 700 in 2017. Through the services extended to the families of the children ISF works with, which include adult literacy and women’s empowerment initiatives, almost an additional 2,000 people are supported.

Alongside the Education Programme, ISF runs a pioneering grassroots Football Programme that provides 3,800 severely disadvantaged boys, girls and young adults of all abilities – including deaf and hearing-impaired players, players with intellectual disabilities and, since 2017, wheelchair users – with the opportunity to enjoy their youth and participate in sport.

The Football Programme consists of weekly training, leagues, tournaments and festivals that are run throughout the year. However, the Football Programme is about even more than the joy of sport. It provides children with necessary knowledge and life skills to help them grow into happy and healthy adults. ISF and its coaches use training sessions as an important vehicle for social change and utilise football coaches as positive role models for young players.

In 2016, we opened the ISF Sports Ground, a purpose-built football field in Phnom Penh. This has secured the future of the programme, enabling us to grow to meet the needs of local communities.