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