Ratanakiri, Cambodia – In a quiet corner of a bustling school, 18-year-old Vanna, originally from indigenous community of Kroeung, has become an emotional anchor for his peers. Vanna recalls when his journey as a peer educator began two years ago, "The first time a friend came to me, I felt scared but also excited."
Today, that initial fear has blossomed into a calm confidence. As a peer educator, Vanna provides basic first aid and offers counseling for students facing emotional difficulties. He also encourages students toward reliable resources, such as the UNFPA-supported Youth Health App (ISO / Android), a tool designed to deliver youth-friendly health information.
Vanna’s transformation into a trusted peer counselor was driven by capacity-building training supported by UNFPA in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports through Child Helpline Cambodia as the implementing partner. Before the training, he wasn’t very confident about his ability to support or provide first aid. Vanna says, "I would say my confidence was around 10 or 20%." Through the training, he learned proper first aid procedures, the importance of confidentiality, and how to effectively communicate with and encourage his peers. "After the training," he says with a proud smile, "my confidence increased to 90%."
Vanna now applies these skills to support his peers. He shares the story of a student who was a high achiever but began struggling with low performance, which led to teasing from other students. Vanna stepped in, offering counsel and empowering the student to focus on their own well-being, rather than the taunts of others.
The face-to-face support marks a significant shift in the school's culture. “Some students used to just post their sad feelings on Facebook [as a way to cope],” Vanna observes. “Now, they come to talk to me.”
In Cambodia, where youth constitute 32% of the population, they present the nation’s great asset. Yet, many adolescents and youth, particularly in remote areas like Ratanakiri, have limited access to essential knowledge and youth-friendly health services about sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR), life skills, and gender equality. Particularly, in Ratanakiri, a remote province where the futures of many young people are curtailed by high rates of early marriage and teenage pregnancy, access to reliable information and services empowers young people to make control of their lives. Funded by the Australian Government's Towards Universal Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the Indo-Pacific (TUSIP) initiative through UNFPA, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and other partners, CSE provides young people with the critical information they need to make informed choices for their better futures.
To address the critical gap, UNFPA has been supporting the provision of quality youth-friendly health services, including school health rooms and peer educator initiatives. In 2024 alone, 189 youth peer educators, aged 14-17 years old, were trained through UNFPA-supported capacity-building sessions that focus on first aid administration, emotional support provision, and effective peer communication on various topics including sexual and reproductive health, STIs/HIV, gender-based violence, child early and forced marriage and teenage pregnancy, comprehensive sexuality education, and mental health first aid.
This experience has not only transformed the lives of the students Vanna helps; it has reshaped his own future. The communication skills and the trust he has built have given him a new sense of purpose. When asked about his future, his ambitions are clear: he wants to become a businessman, travel abroad, and, above all, be someone who helps his community.
For a youth peer educator in a region where difficult paths are often predetermined, Vanna is forging a new path—for himself, and for every student who seeks his guidance and support.
