Common Grounds Cafe

Julie Martinez opened Common Grounds Cafe on January 16th, 2008 as part of People For Care And Learning. The vision was to create a missional enterprise that would give poor and disadvantaged individuals in Siem Reap the chance to work. Instead of giving handouts we believe in giving opportunity through providing on the job vocational training in the restaurant and hospitality industry.

Over the past 11 years we have provided training and jobs to dozens of Cambodian young people, and we have ecstatically cheered them on watching many of them go on to successful careers, some of them working in some of the top hotels and restaurants Cambodia has to offer.

In 2008, Dalath Loeut was hired as one of our initial 13 employees. He comes from a poor rural family in Battambang Province and had no prior job experience in the industry. He began working for us as a waiter and, through hard work and dedication, he worked his way up to take on more and greater responsibility. Dalath was promoted to Common Grounds manager in 2015. He now oversees all of the day-to-day activities. He is now on the other side of the spectrum, providing hope to young people with similar backgrounds to himself.