Girls Learning and Leading Program

Greater access to education is one proven way to ensure that young women can lift themselves and their families out of poverty and better contribute to the development of their communities and their country. Cambodia is the program’s inaugural location—a rapidly changing nation, where education is a key component of its development goals. Building on the Foundation’s two decades of on-the-ground experience in Cambodia, the program’s pilot phase runs from May to December 2019, and provides scholarships to female students, giving them access to secondary education, mentorship, and career pathways. While Cambodia has made strides in offering equal access to education for boys and girls, a substantial gender disparity remains. The literacy rate is 70.9% for adult females and 85.1% for adult males in Cambodia. Females make up more than half the population but represent a minority of university graduates. Proactive measures in combatting poverty, cultural norms, and access to schools in rural Cambodia are necessary to keep girls in secondary school. The pilot phase of the GLL Program kicks off in Cambodia in 2019 and is designed to improve retention and completion of girls’ secondary education, a critical time when young women are most likely to drop out of school to find paying jobs. Guided by Shiseido’s global corporate mission of Beauty Innovations for a Better World, the company continues to take concrete actions to drive social change in areas such as women’s empowerment—a crucial philosophy underlying the business and management of Shiseido. This year, Shiseido and The Asia Foundation will provide scholarships to 102 female students from the ages of 16 to 19 studying in grades 10 – 12 at Norodom Secondary School in rural Prey Veng province, a 2.5-hour drive from the capital, through this program. Designed as a comprehensive support system for the young female scholars, the program focuses on four key pillars: material support, soft-skills development, academic support, and mentorship.