Sophal Sea co-founded NGO2 Bambooshoot in 2009 as a way to honor his sister, who helped him with his education, by providing scholarships for rural village girls to attend high school in Siem Reap. He originally used funds he obtained by being a tour guide to get the organization started. Through the program many girls from rural villages were able to get their high school education and go onto University. Some of these young women are now teachers, police officers, nurses and work in marketing, accounting and business administration.
After ten years of constant struggles for funding the girls program was phased out in 2019 until solid, long term funding could be procured. Just after that the World was struck with Covid and had schools in Cambodia closed for over two years extending the ability to reinstate the program. Plans to re-establish the NGO2 scholarships in the future is part of the overall goal of the organization as funding and potential students can be properly obtained and evaluated.
Environmental Focus. On a boat trip to Prek Toal with his family Mr Sea’s boat became disabled when the propeller got tangled in plastic. As the boat was pushed to the shore to be fixed Sophal noticed things hanging from the mangrove trees. It was plastic that was left behind when the great Tonle Sap Lake waters recede in dry season. This one event put Sophal on a journey to assist those floating villages along the Tonle Sap understand and remove plastic waste from their communities. The same vision Mr Sea had for improving things for the next generation in education still applies for all the work being done to protect the Tonle Sap for future generations.
NGO2 Bambooshoot 