This Cambodian nonprofit is determined to break the poverty cycle. And it’s run entirely by local students

Siem Reap city is a patchwork quilt of neighborhoods stitched together by unruly swaths of Cambodian jungle. There’s Wat Bo, the thriving expat hub; downtown Pub Street where travelers gather for cheap beers and dancing; and the ancient temple complex of Angkor Wat, the city’s biggest tourism drawcard. But drive just 10 minutes out of the city center, and the socioeconomic inequality is stark. 

In Siem Reap province, 26 percent of residents live below the national poverty line—one of the highest rates in the country. Entire families share aluminum lean-tos, with no access to clean water, quality education, or opportunity to improve their circumstances. Luckily, Siem Reap city serves as headquarters for dozens of NGOs dedicated to everything from providing healthcare to the eradication of landmines left over from both the Vietnam War and Cambodia’s civil war, which spanned from the late 1960s to the early 1990s. 

Across the river from downtown, one such NGO is housed in a renovated guesthouse near the Wat Po Langka Buddhist pagoda. The Cambodia Rural Students Trust (CRST) was established to help young people break their poverty cycle through education. What sets CRST apart though is its structure—the organization is managed and run entirely by students.

CRST began the way many things do: “Really by chance,” co-founder Jessica Palti tells me over the phone from her home in Melbourne, Australia. Palti and her family first visited Siem Reap in 2009 to volunteer at an English language school. They returned to volunteer five more times over the next two years, and in 2011, decided to establish CRST for a more lasting impact. “We wanted to be more accountable—not just volunteer, but actually create sustainable change,” says Palti.

“It’s not just the volunteering they’re doing, it’s spending time with rural youth in Cambodia. It’s a human connection that you otherwise wouldn’t have [while traveling].”

- Jessica Palti, CRST co-founder

“We never intended to move to Cambodia,” she says. And the family hasn’t, instead  they handed over the CRST reins to the students that they sponsor. In exchange for scholarship support, healthcare, life-skills training, and a monthly stipend, students volunteer within the organization, using their training and education to run CRST.  Students are chosen for roles, whether it’s a team member or manager, by the student-run Senior Leadership Team and the roles are rotated twice a year for more hands-on experience. This exemplifies CRST’s motto: It’s a hand up, not a hand out.  

Palti and her father, Aviv Palti, mentor the students from afar and visit Cambodia several times a year.  “Students are learning skills and then mentoring and helping each other create this base so that when they graduate, they can go and get fantastic jobs,” says Palti.

Much of the current poverty cycle in Cambodia traces back to the Khmer Rouge Genocide of the 1970s, in which an estimated three million people were murdered. Those considered ‘intellectuals’ were especially targeted by the regime. “A whole generation of educated people were lost,” says Palti. 

Since its founding, CRST has sponsored over 180 students to attend the best private high school and/or university in Siem Reap. Several alums, like Doeb Chhay, have returned to help run the organization or offer classes and workshops. Chhay was one of the 22 students in CRST’s  inaugural cohort.  “My experience with CRST has been truly life-changing,” says Chhay, who graduated in 2019. “I joined CRST as a rural student who never imagined studying beyond high school.” 

Now, he’s CRST’s Executive Director and in the process of obtaining his Master’s Degree in Law. His five-year-old son studies English at a local private school.

Sponsoring students is the core mission of the organization, but CRST also run social enterprise projects within the broader Siem Reap community. One such project is ‘Project G—Empowering Girls’, a collaboration with US-based nonprofit Days for Girls International, for which CRST has sewn and distributed over 30,000 menstrual hygiene kits. ‘Project L—Light for Education’ provides solar lights to students living without reliable access to electricity so they can study after dark. And ‘Project W—WASH for Education’ provides safe drinking water to Siem Reap schools through bio-sand filtration systems, alongside improved sanitation facilities like toilets and incinerators.

Then there’s CRST’s voluntourism experiences which offer visitors a tour of the NGO’s campus before they lend a hand with one of the projects, whether it’s helping deliver monthly packages to one of the 25 local families CRST supports, packing hygiene kits, planting trees, or fixing bicycles. 

“It’s not just the volunteering they’re doing, it’s spending time with rural youth in Cambodia,” says Palti. “It’s a human connection that you otherwise wouldn’t have [while traveling].” 

CRST also partners with Intrepid Travel’s charitable arm, The Intrepid Foundation which supports CRST in its fundraising efforts, making untied donations that are left entirely up to the discretion of the organization. This means CRST can choose to use the funds on anything from building primary school classrooms in the countryside, to distributing bicycles to rural students.

“We’re doing what we can on a grassroots level to really reach the people who need it the most.”

- Jessica Palti, CRST co-founder

“Having that freedom to be able to pick and choose how we use that money is having a huge impact,” says Palti. “We can just focus on the projects.” After receiving an Impact grant from The Intrepid Foundation in 2024, CRST was able to install 36 solar panels to power their campus and reduce the environmental footprint. 

One recent challenge the Siem Reap community has faced is the territorial border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, which escalated in July last year when long-standing competing claims over border temples resulted in armed clashes. This has had a resounding impact, slowing tourism and displacing thousands of people, many of whom have sought shelter in Siem Reap. 

To help, CRST has been running humanitarian missions, distributing essential supplies and solar lights to those in need. “It’s been challenging for the team because they have family members [affected] and there’s so much unpredictability,” shares Palti. “We’re doing what we can on a grassroots level to really reach the people who need it the most.”

In addition to lending a hand to those affected by the conflict, CRST has more on the horizon. One project involves renovating the third floor of their campus, which is currently an open rooftop, to create a learning hub with a classroom for up to 80 students. Palti envisions the space being used to host rural students for empowering workshops. 

At a recent CRST alumni event in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, the fruits of the organization’s efforts were celebrated. Some former students have climbed ladders up to roles in local and international NGOs and even the Cambodian government. 

“To see all of these young students who joined us over so many years, and to see where they are now… I don’t think they can believe it. And it’s quite unbelievable for us as well,” says Palti. And Chhay agrees: “Over the years, we have witnessed remarkable transformations,” he says. “CRST transformed me from someone who received support, into someone who can now create the same impact for others.”

You can support the work of CRST via The Intrepid Foundation.

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