My New Life in ACE!

Dear Friends,

My name is Vuthy, 19 years old. I come from a poor family at Svay Rieng province, Cambodia. My family and I have gone through so many difficulties in life. My father left us and the homeland to do army at Cambodia-Thailand border since I was five years old. He then didn’t return back since he found a new girlfriend. I lived with my mother and sister in our small house. My mother worked so hard to earn money to support me and my sister to study every day. She managed everything in our family. I wanted to help her but I couldn’t do it. My sister had to give up on her studies in grade 6th to help my mum earning money for our family. She didn’t want to give up school, she loved studying and she’s one of the smart students in her classes. She worked very hard as a garment worker in the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. My family is a farmer so I must also help grandfather in the farm since he’s old. I tried to study very hard because my school was about 25 kilometer from my house. After I had finished high school I didn’t know “Where I wanted to go? What I wanted to do? What I can do?”
Luckily, my cousin Synoeun had told me about Attitude Center for Education and she also suggested me to apply for a scholarship at the center. I started to apply for the scholarship and I did pass the interview and obtained a scholarship for my study at a university. Before I was granted the scholarship I had to participate in the Attitude Forum and also leadership training in ACE. Because of those trainings I was able to improve my inner self. I had become another person with so much confidence in myself. I was able to improve my communication and problems solving skill as well as net working.

On March, 1st 2010 I was so excited! I moved to live in the Attitude Center for Education (ACE)! It was the first day in my life that I moved to stay in a dorm! On the first day I wanted to cry as soon as I put my feet in ACE. ACE supports me so much with my scholarship dormitory and studying at university! It provides me with many opportunities to get to know other NGOs, participated in many trainings and I can also make any discussions with other scholarship students who are staying in ACE where required. In ACE I can also use computer get a free access to the Internet, Email and a lot of others things. Before coming to ACE I had no idea at all about computers. I had never seen one before; I didn’t even realize that computers existed! But they do exist!! Hence when I saw them at ACE I didn’t know how to turn them on? What can I do with them? Eventually my computer skills have been improved so much. Teacher Sokchea SAING has been very helpful to me as well as to other scholarship students. He always gives me many great advices. One of his philosophies that I will always keep in mind is “The Cambodian people must be transformed before we can transform Cambodia into a better country!” Hence we must help people in Cambodia by providing them many relevant trainings such as Leadership, to help them initiating net working, build up self-confidence, to believe in themselves that everything is possible if we put our heart and soul into it. I have passed my knowledge and have shared many of my experiences to a lot of other students especially from slum areas. I give them many advices and opinions on “Life Plan” and how to success in studying? I feel proud of myself because of many things I have done to help other underprivileged students.

Nowadays, I’m volunteering in ACE, Rudi Boa and Saing Sy Center which are the main projects of Cambodian Kids Foundation. Of course, I’m excited when I can be of any helps to a lot of other students but I would never forget my studying. I’m studying Information Technology and English. I love my subjects very much! I’m also one of the leaders in the study club at my university, even though I’m busy with my studying I’m very happy to spare my busy time to help others achieving their dreams.

In my free time I like reading books and net surfing on computer to help improve my knowledge in the area of my studies and also in my English communication skills. I want to be the best student in my class! And also to fulfill my dream in the future so I don’t mind of studying very hard right now!

Finally, I would like to thank you “Sharron” and “Your family” for your amazing generosity in having been supporting me to study at university! If it wasn’t because of YOUR support then I wouldn’t be standing where I am right now! And I wouldn’t be able to achieve what I’ve achieved so far in life!! To acknowledge your support I will try to study harder and will share my knowledge and what I’ve learnt from university to other students especially those underprivileged students who never have a chance to go to school. THANK YOU!!

Love

Vuthy

Welcome the Newest Student to ACE

Hello everybody! I am very happy to introduce myself to you all. My name is Sotheara Suon and I am 20 years old. I was born in Kandal province, Keinsvay district. I am an oldest child in a family of five sons and a daughter. Currently I’m studying at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) majoring in Khmer literature.

While I was studying at high school I always had a wish of passing all my examinations with a (C) grade as it’s very venerable if you’re studying in the countryside and could obtain that grade. As a result, my dream became true! It was not just only me feeling satisfying but so did my whole family as well as my friends! I was really proud of my achievement!

I moved to Phnom Penh in 2008 after I had finished my exam. Initially when I arrived to Phnom Penh for the first time in my life, I knew nothing about my way around in the city. I did not know anyone nor did I have any relatives or friends to stay with. I felt very upset and was very stressful as everything was new to me. Luckily, life in the city has taught me many new things that I had never knew before when I was staying in my home town. Everything is absolutely different from the countryside such as: many roads, lifestyle, the way city people thinking and the list would just go on and on. As days pass by, I become increasingly understandable the way life in the city work. In Phnom Penh, I do not only learn from my university but also from other events that are happening to me and society. My knowledge is mounting up step by step. I then later learn to appreciate those hardships I had encountered during those times because they were my best teachers I would never have a chance to learn from any schools or universities and I would not have learnt to appreciate my life much had I not encountered those issues. Additionally I was very lucky enough to befriend with many good people. They assisted me whenever I faced any issues. They encouraged me to stand up when I lose fate in myself; they encouraged me to become a stronger person whenever I fell down. My friends usually brought knowledge with them to share with me. We had joined many workshops that provide information on current issues happening in our society.

Fortunately, one day I was offered a scholarship to study Khmer Literature at RUPP, again it was a great news for me especially my parents! However along with this happy news, I was still struggling to adapt to a new environment in the city and I also knew that I had to encounter many other financial difficulties such as paying bills for: accommodation, water, electricity and especially foods. Sometimes I dreamed of obtaining another scholarship for accommodation from another university or NGO however it was only a dream. And I thought that dreams do not exist….

One day, one of my friends whose name Phearith, gave me an opportunity to participate in a 2 days course called “Attitude Forum” which was conducted by Mr. Sokchea SAING. After completing the course I was very surprised of how much knowledge I gained from the course! I was pretty much interested in the course, the way him conducting the course as well as administering the class! I was not only impressed with his lesson but also including his teaching skill! He is a very dynamic teacher who I have never and ever met in my whole life! And because of the course I was able to make more good friends such as Savy, Synoeun and so on. They are very interesting people; they shared their ideas with me and my friends. They told me about the Attitude Centre for Education and recommended me to apply for the scholarship there. As it is a centre which provides many opportunities for underprivileged students from slum areas as well as countryside to be able to have a place to stay, to attend university and especially to facilitate personal growth in youth. As a result, after I filled out the form and answered the four questions which basically related to my Background, Attitude and my Vision, it took me almost four months later to hear exciting news from ACE! However I didn’t mind those months I had to wait for the result of my application, as it was one of those contented news which you wouldn’t mind waiting for!

Staying at ACE has given me so many prospects in life. I have learnt so many things from other scholarship students; we have shared various ideas with each other. We have made good memories together. We help each other, cook and have meals together; all the 15 of us. ACE is much better than other places which I have been. It empowers us to be able to join in various trainings which are conducted by Mr. Sokchea, to have fate in ourselves, to look up high and reach our goals, to become brilliant potential leaders and most prominently the provision of opportunities for us to contribute in helping developing our community and overall Cambodia!

In conclusion, I would like to express my gratitude to all the members of Cambodian Kids Foundation who continue spending your precious time and energy in supporting all the underprivileged students in Cambodia thus for us to be educated and have a bright and the best future! Your support means so much for us! Also I would like to thank teacher Sokchea who has given me the best opportunity to stay at ACE, without you I probably wouldn’t have met more good people and wouldn’t believe that our DREAMS do exist if we are strongly committed! Finally I’m very appreciative for everybody in ACE who has welcomed me with full compassion and has volunteered to assist and has shown so much support to me. THANK YOU ALL!!

Best regards



Sotheara Suon