Ever heard of the Cambodian Children's Fund (CCF)?

The CCF is an International Non-Government Organisation that provides education, family support and community development programmes to some of the country's most impoverished communities.

Recently, one of CCF's first students graduated her foundation year from Trinity College at the University of Melbourne:

A child worker who was rescued from a Phnom Penh garbage dump, Sophy Ron previously spent her days scavenging trash dumps to earn money for her parents.

"Sophy would spend seven days a week knee-deep picking through noxious trash on the dump to earn money for her parents, surviving by eating discarded food that she managed to scavenge from amid the filth."

She did not attend school until she was 11, but is now the first CCF student to secure a full scholarship to begin her degree at the University of Melbourne.

Sophy was also chosen as Valedictorian, and delivered the closing statement at the graduation ceremony for her foundation year:

Foundation years are what international students take to gain entry to undergraduate study at Australian universities and colleges.

Well done, Sophy.

Top image courtesy of Cambodian Children's Fund