top of page

Sophea Chhum

My name is Sophea and I was born in 1987 I am a single mother with a 13-year-old daughter. I have two older brothers and one younger sister. My mother is retired and she now lives with my younger sister in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. My father is unemployed since he got in a traffic accident and broke his leg. My older brothers got married and live with their own families, not far from where I live. My childhood was so memorable with both joy and sadness.

 

I was fortunate that I had a chance to go to school from an early age. I remember that I was sent to preschool when I was five years old. I loved school and I had a lot of fun there. I enjoyed going to school and I really tried hard. I always went to school except when I got really sick. I really loved my teachers and friends and I remembered the time I spent with them. However, being at home was a different experience from what I spent at school.  My mother was a midwife who worked tirelessly day and night to support not only my whole family but also my relatives. She basically did not get any help from my father. He just did not care enough about the family as much as my mother did. My mother was the only person who was responsible for everything in the family. She earned money to support the family and took care of everyone when they got sick. I always thought that my mother played an important role as both a mother and a father. I really felt warm whenever I was with her, but she usually spent her time at work. My parents did not get along well and it upset me a lot. I grew up seeing and experiencing so many hardships and felt what my mother felt. Although I encountered so many problems in my life, I never gave up and I kept on studying very hard until I finished university in 2009.

 

After I graduated, I got married to a man whom I could share my sadness and worries with. Moreover, I thought that it was the only way that I could escape from my miserable situation because we had something in common and he loved and cared about me so much. Finally, it led me to almost the end of the world when our relationship ended just after five years of marriage because of some family problems. I felt absolutely sorrowful and did not know what to do. I felt very hopeless, but I got motivation from my mother and friends that I had to accept it and try to live for my daughter. My life since childhood until then seemed awful because so many terrible things happened to my family. Right after that, I found TASSEL in 2015 and I was accepted to become an English teacher. I was sent to work in Samrang village which is in the rural area of Battambang. I worked there for one year. My main responsibility was to teach English to the children. But I also did family visits when I found out that there were some of the children had family problems. If I found out that the children did not participate well in the class, did not show up or got low grades etc., I would go to visit their houses. When I visited them, I found out that some families did not have their own lands or houses, that family members were sick, or abandoned by their parents, or their parents got divorced or worked far away from home and so on. Some did not have enough food to eat, and they forced themselves to work to help their family earn money. Working one year there, my sadness and worries gradually went away because I learned how life would be and some of the problems were related to mine. I spent most of my time at school with the children. I had a lot of fun teaching and spending time with them, and it reminded me of my childhood at school. I put myself in their places and I loved and cared for them as part of my family. Since my mother got diagnosed with kidney cancer and I also had to take care of my daughter, I moved to work in Rattinak village which is in Battambang city. However, life here is not far different from Samrang. There are a lot of people who need help, love and care. So, I continue to work hard and do what I used to do in Samrang. I know more and more children and I also can help to take care of people when they are sick.

 

I feel pleasure working here and I have a good relationship with the children, the poor families, and also Khmer and foreign teachers. My life has changed a lot since I started working with TASSEL. I feel that TASSEL is my second home and where everyone treats one another equally and as their own family. I am very thankful that I had an opportunity to join TASSEL and get involved in its programs. Now it has been 9 years here and I can tell it is such a life changing experience. I hope more foreigners will love to join and be part of our TASSEL family to help change this poor nation through education and heart transformation. 

 



Sophea Chhum
bottom of page