
Makara Sun
Hello! My name is Makara. I was born in 1998. I have three siblings. I have one brother and two sisters. I am the first born among my siblings. I am from one of the rural and poor areas of Battambang province. I grew up very poor. I lived with my family in a small house. I had to share the room with seven other family members because my house was small. I have nice parents. My mother is a housewife. She is 50 years old. She did not have the ability to finish her middle school. She dropped out from school in her 7th grade. She felt so bad that she could not have the ability to finish her education. My dad is 48 years old. He is a farmer and construction worker. He also did not have the ability to finish school. He dropped out of school in his 5th grade. I also have a nice grandmother. She is 75 years old. She had three children, but two children died in the Khmer Rouge regime because of hunger and sickness. She also lost her husband during the Khmer Rouge regime. My grandfather died of hunger. My grandmother’s parents were killed by Khmer Rouge soldiers. My grandmother has been traumatized by war and the Khmer Rouge regime. She saw many people get killed. She has PTSD from the Khmer Rouge. I love my grandmother so much because she always encourages me whenever I am down. My second sister graduated from university last year. My third sister and little brother are high school students. I have a warm and comforting family.
My life background before I joined TASSEL was horrible. I went to a primary school which is 2 kilometers from my house. I remember walking to school with my friends who lived in my village. I was not doing well at school because I was not smart, and I had to help working on the farm with my dad after school. I often got tired after I arrived home from the farm. I tried to study at night because during the day I had to help working on the farm with my dad. My average rank was from 9 to 15 out of 35 students. Despite the fact that I was not smart, I tried so hard and it was worth it that I finally got into my middle school. After I got into my middle school I also had a huge challenge. My parents could not afford to pay for tuition in my tutoring class because they had to respond for my siblings too. At that time I was 13 years old. I had to force myself to work in a brick kiln in order to get money to pay for my tuition. Working in the brick kiln was not easy. It was hot and dusty. It was also dangerous and risky too. I saw some workers and children at my age get injured because of the work incident and condition. I went to school on the weekdays, and I had to work on the weekend. I got paid only $2.50 a day. I had to save for my tuition, study materials and help my parents. My parents also tried hard to support me. I finally graduated from high school in 2017. Seeing that I was a good son plus I had the desire to study so my parents decided to send me to university. At that time they did not have money to pay for my university, but they made a decision to sell my lovely cows. My parents sold two cows to get money to pay for my university tuition. I was so sad and felt so bad that I lost my cows. I considered them as my friends. I could get into university and I chose my favorite major. I chose TESOL as my major because I wanted to become an English teacher. I really love studying at my university so much. I got a job as an English teacher at a private school near the village that I lived in. I had been working and studying at the same time. It was a great university life and memory that I had.
After my second year at university, I got to know two TASSEL teachers who studied in the same class as me. I got to know Teacher Savean and Teacher Tola. They kept on telling me how great TASSEL was at that time. I got so interested in applying for a job at TASSEL. I finally got one of my university friends to apply for TASSEL. She is Teacher Kimhun. I was so excited after I applied. In 2020 I quit my job as an English teacher from the private school near my house. I quit my job even before I passed the interview at TASSEL. I had one thing in my mind “If I could not pass the interview that time, I would apply again next time”. Applying for TASSEL is not easy! I had to take the English test and take three interviews. Two weeks later after my last interview I finally got a phone call from one of the TASSEL teachers telling me that my friend and I passed the interview. I started working at TASSEL in late 2020. I was sent to a village called Jeepang. I really love my first experience at TASSEL. I love teaching the students, doing family visits and other activities. After one year working in Jeepang village I moved to another village called Ta Toak. It is one of the rural poor areas of Battambang province. A lot of people have PTSD from the war and Khmer Rouge regime. The local children could not get English education before, but TASSEL was the new hope for children and the locals. I worked in Ta Toak for one year then I moved to another Village called Roka. There are many unfortunate people who got infected with HIV from an unprofessional local doctor who used the same needle for the injection to sick people in this village. The outbreak of HIV has affected a lot of people. There are many poor families, children and people with PTSD in this village.
TASSEL is one of the organizations which set the highest goal and priority to serve the local Cambodian poor children, villagers. TASSEL not only provides English education, but also love and emotional care for everyone. I love my job as a TASSEL teacher so much. I am so happy that I can be part of TASSEL, and I can help others and share kindness and love to thousands of people through TASSEL.
