Tauranga lawyer Denise Arnold has been named as a finalist in the 2015 Next Woman of the Year Awards for her work with the Cambodia Charitable Trust.

Denise, who founded the trust in 2007 to improve the lives of at-risk children in Cambodia through education, is one of five finalists in the education category and one of 30 finalists overall.

Tauranga lawyer Denise Arnold is a finalist in the 2015 Next Woman of the Year Awards. Photo: Supplied.

The winners of each of the six categories, and a supreme winner, will be announced at an awards dinner on October 8.

'I am thrilled and greatly humbled to be a finalist in these prestigious awards,” says Denise.

'I am extremely passionate about my work with the trust and it is fantastic to receive this recognition.

'But it goes without saying that I could not have done it without an amazing team of people behind me both in New Zealand and Cambodia.”

A co-director of Tauranga law firm Lyon O'Neale Arnold, Denise founded the trust after visiting Cambodia and seeing the suffering of children there.

Her vision, in forming the trust, was to save children from poverty, trafficking and slavery, through education and community development.

Having suffered badly at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, the communities Denise works with are poor, powerless and struggling to survive, with children often targeted by child labour traffickers.

By removing barriers to education and developing the capacity of teachers to deliver a quality education, she is targeting the most at-risk children, particularly girls, and providing their families with an incentive to keep their children at school.

Working closely with Cambodia's Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, Denise has designed an innovative programme that empowers the local community and the teaching profession to bring about the changes needed.

In just eight years the Cambodia Charitable Trust has grown to support 6000 children in 16 schools, as well as two teacher-training colleges.

On her latest visit to Cambodia in July, Denise was accompanied by celebrity chef Nadia Lim, who became an ambassador for the trust through her desire to honour the legacy of her father who had planned to volunteer in Cambodia, but who died last year.

And, with prominent business leader Theresa Gattung as its patron, the trust has gathered an impressive portfolio of support.

Denise has also established a community-run fair trade shop in Bethlehem, selling donated clothing and fair trade products made by disabled artisans in Cambodia, with proceeds from the sales supporting schools in Cambodia.

This year she brought the film Girl Rising to New Zealand, which was screened in nine locations throughout the country and attended by more than 700 people.

Working entirely as a volunteer, Denise pays her own way to Cambodia and uses her own holidays. She has also reduced her profit share in the law firm to 60 per cent, in order to free up time to dedicate to the trust.

In her own time, and at her own cost, she also completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Development Studies in 2014 and a Masters in Development Studies in 2015.

The research project on which her Masters was based, has shaped the development work of the trust.

To find out more about the Cambodia Charitable Trust, or to sponsor a child, visit: www.cctnz.org.nz