Empowering Cambodian girls for the future with 3D technology

It all began with a life-changing chance encounter. In 2004, French journalist Tina Kieffer travelled to Cambodia and met a little orphan girl, Chandara, whom she decided to adopt. Moved by the plight of Cambodia's most vulnerable young girls, she decided to act and founded the NGO Toutes à l'école ("All Girls to School") in 2005, convinced that educating girls is a powerful lever for change. In Cambodia, access to education remains a real challenge for girls from disadvantaged backgrounds, especially in rural areas, standing in the way of higher education and, more broadly, their career prospects. Giving them the means to go to school, learn, understand and create is essential to their future. The following year, she opened the Happy Chandara campus near Phnom Penh, named after her daughter, with a clear ambition: to offer every student a free, high-quality education in Khmer, English and French, empowering them with the knowledge, confidence and opportunities they need to become educated, independent women who can shape their own future.

From kindergarten to their first job, with an impressive 100% success rate at the Cambodian Baccalaureate exam along the way, 1,300 girls of all ages receive comprehensive, all-round support - education, healthy meals, and medical care - within a true living community. In a country particularly exposed to climate change, students are also introduced to environmental issues from an early age, notably through hands-on permaculture workshops on an eco-certified agroecological farm that grows the fruit and vegetables used in campus meals.

It was in keeping with this educational mission that the Toutes Innovantes ! ("All Girls Innovating!") project came to life, with one clear goal: to give young girls hands-on access to science and technology through 3D, and help guide them toward tomorrow's scientific and technical careers.

La Fondation Dassault Systèmes is helping Toutes à l'école write a new chapter for the Happy Chandara campus, bringing 3D technology into the heart of the classroom. The project has two main objectives: modernizing the school's infrastructure through the opening of a FabLab and the integration of digital technology into teaching; and sparking scientific vocations, by providing students with mentoring, training and access to international competitions. It also involves gradually adapting the school curriculum, providing ongoing training for teaching staff, and organizing science events.

In just under three months, this ambitious partnership brought a FabLab to life on the Happy Chandara campus. The first FabLab ever installed in a Cambodian school, and only the fifth in the country, it is a unique space for innovation and experimentation where students can learn and build skills differently, test their ideas, and bring them to life. Equipped with 3D printers, a CNC machine, a laser cutter, and around twenty workstations running 3D design software, the FabLab lets students discover 3D design and printing. Here, they can create teaching materials, develop robotics projects, or design and make very tangible objects such as wind turbines, drones, robotic arms, and even laboratory equipment. Beyond the technology itself, this new space offers a more hands-on, creative and engaging way of learning, where every student can experiment, collaborate, and nurture her curiosity, self-confidence and scientific ambition.

Alongside its financial support for equipment, La Fondation Dassault Systèmes is also contributing through skill-based volunteering. Working with teams from IMT Mines Alès, its volunteers help train teachers, share their expertise in 3D technologies, and introduce students to their professions. These exchanges are invaluable, helping young girls better understand the opportunities that science and technology can offer, and imagine career paths they might never have considered otherwise.

The FabLab was inaugurated on February 11, 2026, on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, a fitting symbol for a project that places girls' confidence and ambition at the heart of its mission. By taking ownership of 3D technologies, students build essential digital skills, spark their creativity, and learn to turn an idea into something real.

Beyond the opening of the FabLab, a new stage is already taking shape: an advanced "Girls 3D Makers" certifying program will guide 40 high school girls through the design of 3D kits covering various themes from renewable energy, health and assistive technologies, or advanced robotics to heritage and culture, among others. The students will design, simulate and build these 3D kits in pairs with engineering students from the IMT Mines Alès school and volunteer mentors from La Fondation Dassault Systèmes. These initiatives help root 3D technology more deeply in learning at the Happy Chandara campus, broadening, year after year, the horizons of the young girls who grow up there.

Adopted by all United Nations member states, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. La Fondation Dassault Systèmes supports the Toutes Innovantes ! project in meeting five of these goals: Quality Education, Gender Equality, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Reduced Inequalities, and Partnerships for the Goals.