Tara Winkler is a systems change leader and social entrepreneur who is disrupting the international aid sector by proving that bold reform is possible. She co-founded Cambodian Children’s Trust (CCT) in 2007 to rescue 14 children from an abusive orphanage. Since then, she has led CCT through pioneering transformations that are influencing international policy.
In 2012, she closed CCT’s orphanage to reunite children with families, sparking Cambodia’s care reform movement. In 2019, she launched the Village Hive Project to tackle the root causes of poverty, family separation and end dependence on charity. In 2025, the Cambodian government adopted the Village Hive as the official national framework for social protection and is now rolling it out nationwide – cementing CCT’s model as a blueprint for systemic change.
Tara’s work has been featured on ABC’s Australian Story, 60 Minutes Australia, and international media. Her TEDx Talk, “Why we need to end the era of orphanages”, was the most tagged moment from the entire event and has been viewed over 1.2 million times. She is the author of How (NOT) to Start an Orphanage (Allen & Unwin, 2016) and is currently producing a documentary on disrupting the aid sector.
At nineteen, Tara Winkler, founded an orphanage in Cambodia, then found the courage to admit she had got it wrong, dismantle it, and build something so effective that a national government is intent on scaling it across the country. NSW Young Australian of the Year, TEDx speaker and much-loved author, Tara helps audiences rethink how they approach change. Instead of trying to solve symptoms, which prevents real change, she challenges them to change the systems underneath.
