Samnieng Kong

My name is Samnieng. I was born in Kileg village, Banteay Neang commune, Mongkulborey district, Banteay MeanChey province. I got married in 2019. I have two children now , a daughter and a son. I have four siblings (three brothers and one sister). I am the oldest child in my family. My father is a landmine victim. He can’t work well. Throughout my childhood, I had to work and help my father’s work. I used to work at a construction site and a rice field when I needed some money to support my studies. I started learning English when I was in high school. It was very difficult for me because I was an adult who studied with children. Life was not easy during that time. I had to work hard to earn money by myself. There were also a lot of people in my family and my mother could not support my brothers and me very well. Sometimes I had no money to pay for my English school. I had to beg my English teacher to excuse me from paying the school fees for one or two months.

After I graduated from high school, I was so happy but I was also sad because I had no money to study at university. I tried to apply for scholarships from universities in my province, Banteay Meanchey, but I didn’t get any. I felt so hopeless with my life. Finally, one of my friends told me about scholarship programs at Dewey International University in Battambang. I passed a test at Dewey and paid only one hundred dollars per year. Dewey is where I met Teacher Noeng, Teacher Phyrom, and Teacher Sarem.

When I was at university, I wanted to work as a businessman because I thought that being rich could change my life and the lives of others . So first,  I decided to work at a private school, but I felt so sad because at private school, they only cared about rich students who had money rather than the poor ones. I was so sad when my students said they wanted to quit because they didn’t have money to pay their school fees. I was so sad that I could not help them. Every decision was made by my school director. Therefore, some of my poor students had to quit school due to financial problems. At that time, I decided to stop working at that private school and then started working for an NGO. I thought that working in the NGOs would let me help the poor, but it couldn’t help much. I was sad because this was different from my goal, which was to help the poor. During that time, Teacher Noeng talked to me about TASSEL. We talked a lot about how to help the poor, especially for those who live in rural areas. I was interested and I decided to apply for it. Teacher Joji started to interview me. He asked me a lot of questions. Most of the questions were related to my passion, goal and commitment. I could say that his questions were not easy to answer, but thankfully, I could make it because we had almost the same goal. I was so happy when I passed the interview. 

I have been working with TASSEL for more than 10 years and I am still very happy to be with TASSEL because I can help more poor people, especially the elderly. TASSEL’s specific mission is very different from what I know of other NGOs. TASSEL focuses on the quality of education. TASSEL teachers are like my brothers and sisters. TASSEL students are great. They love learning and  they always respect and listen to the teachers. I feel so happy when I teach TASSEL students. They are the best next generation for Cambodia. All the teachers are kind and they always train us how to teach before they go to class. Finally, TASSEL is the best organization where I can help poor people and change their lives. I hope all foreigners will continue to help and support us always.