Breaking the cycle of poverty

The intergenerational cycle of poverty is created by a tangled web of complex social issues.ZoomIn

A lack of access to basic needs, such as food, water, shelter and healthcare, creates a high-riskPovertyTrap_TheHolisticModel environment in which children are prone to illness and malnourishment. These children are also often forced to spend their days on the street, begging or working to support themselves and their families. Therefore, children who are born into poverty are more likely to grow into adults who are unable to provide for their own children’s basic needs – thus, perpetuating the intergenerational cycle of poverty.

Many families living in poverty entrust their children into the care of institutions, believing it will lead to a path out of poverty. However, institutionalisation can have long-term and sometimes irreversible effects on a child’s development. Decades of international research has proven that growing up in an institution can often lead to attachment disorders, mental illness, growth and speech delays, and difficulties forming relationships in adulthood. They are at significantly greater risk of becoming sex workers, ending up with a criminal record and of committing suicide than their peers. We know that the single most important resource children need to grow up well is the stable, emotional bond of family.

To untangle the complex web of social issues and enable families to escape the intergenerational cycle of poverty, it is necessary to address the root cause of the issues and provide holistic, systemic and sustainable solutions.



CCT’s Holistic Family-Based Care (HFBC) Model ensures that children remain living with their biological family, or where that’s not possible, are cared for in family-based care such as kinship care, foster care or local adoption. CCT also assists institutionalised children to be safely reintegrated back into their families or into foster care.

CCT’s HFBC Model prevents child-family separation and achieves wider care reform by focusing on five key objectives:

[1] Family Preservation; [2] Reintegration; [3] family-based Alternative Care; [4] Transformation of RCIs; and [5] Advocacy. Want to learn more?


ICT2Embedding ICT Literacy programs into the national high school curriculum, as well as offering opportunities for further and more advanced ICT skill development, will ensure that children are learning the crucial skills they will need to keep up with the rest of the world and break free from the cycle of poverty.

CCT’s ICT Education program will achieve its vision of a technologically literate, productive and critically thinking workforce for Cambodia by focusing on three key objectives:

[1] Curriculum and Content; [2] Teacher Training; and [3] Alignment and Integration. Want to learn more?