My name is Sopheus and I live in Koun Klong village, Prey Touch commune, Moung Ruessei
district, Battambang province. I have four siblings and I am the second child in my family. I
recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree at a university in Battambang province through a
scholarship. My father is a security guard and my mom is a housewife. My brother is an English
teacher at an NGO. My younger sister is getting a scholarship and studying in the first year at a
university in Battambang. My youngest sister is studying in grade 12. When I was young, my
siblings and I were facing a lot of difficulties because my family was very poor. My parents
didn’t get any high education or skills. They were working as farmers with a very small size rice
field which they got from my grandparents. My parents could not provide enough food, clothes,
shelter, and money for going to school for all the children. It was very difficult for me and my
siblings for going to school because we had a lot of problems. The school was very far from our
house, we had to walk on the muddy road to our school for almost an hour. We also didn’t have
nice clothes and money for buying things to eat, so we didn’t feel comfortable to go to school at
all. However, my parents worked very hard and they were always trying to encourage all the
children to go to school for education. They believed that only education could change the lives
of their children to be better. That’s why I and my siblings could get an opportunity to get an
education like today.

I have been teaching in TASSEL for a month but I have known about TASSEL since 2016.
Before joining in TASSEL, I found out a lot about TASSEL. I listened to TASSEL’s
presentation at my university, I asked my friends who are working in TASSEL about how
TASSEL helps the students and support the poor, and I asked some students how TASSEL helps
them too. Finally, I knew that TASSEL is doing the right things such as providing free education
to children from poor families in rural areas, support poor families, give rice, medicine, and
clothes to poor people. Then I decided to join TASSEL because I can help the children from poor
families who have the same conditions as when I was young. I commit to working as hard as
possible to support poor children and poor families in rural areas to be in a better situation.
Within a month I knew more clearly about how great TASSEL is. TASSEL has a great vision
and mission to develop the community in the rural area by providing free education to the
children and many other projects with the help of many Cambodian teachers. All the teachers at
TASSEL are very kind, they are full of love and understanding. They sacrifice their time, power,
happiness, and many things with TASSEL to develop the poor community. They believe that
providing education and supporting the people who are in need is really helpful for them to come
out of ignorance. It is a way to make the world become peaceful. I would like to wish to have
more people to contribute with TASSEL to help develop the communities in rural areas, to
support the poor people, and to make our world become peaceful.