The Shine Career School is an educational career center, part of Hope for Justice’s rehabilitation program for young girls rescued from sex trafficking in Cambodia.

Most victims of trafficking stop attending school once their exploitation begins, so many of the girls we work with have missed years of education and need special opportunities to make up for it.

For this reason our staff has worked with the Cambodian Ministry of Education to approve an educational program that would enable our students to complete their first years of primary education in an accelerated manner, thus enabling them to advance to high school much quicker than a traditional setting.

On April 22nd, this new program was officially launched and a new chapter for Hope for Justice’s Shine Career School began. The students, teachers, and Hope for Justice staff welcomed representatives from the Cambodian Ministry of Education to celebrate the commencement of the Shine Career School’s education equivalency program.

The celebration ceremony began with two speeches given by our Country Director, Kathryn Moorehead, and our Career and Education Director, Elizabeth Hollingsworth, who provided an overview of Hope for Justice and the Shine Career School. Afterward, respecting the Khmer tradition, the students at the Shine Career School sang one of their favorite songs, “Yesterday Once More’’ by The Carpenters. The ceremony ended with a speech by the Minister Kouch Kou Lam Or, who thanked Hope for Justice for its contribution to the development of Cambodia.

This is an incredible milestone for providing quality care to the girls we serve in Cambodia, giving them even more opportunities to learn, advance, and pursue their own dreams.