Sovannarith Sea

Hello, my name’s Sea Sovannarith. I am 34 years old. I was born in a very poor family in the countryside with seven siblings. I remember some unforgettable stories which happened to me in my childhood. I experienced a lot of difficulties in studying and living. Following the encouragement of our relatives, my friends and I would travel about two hours to go to school every day. I would remind myself of my grandparents’ words that only education can help me to get a good job one day. I went to school by boat because I lived on the riverside of the river Tonle Sap. Whenever it rained on the way home, I had to sit on the boat with my wet uniform on until I got home. Most of my friends eventually dropped out because they needed to find food to support their families. I remember, my sister and I worked every day, earning only $3 per day. There are so many unfortunate things that I can’t even begin to describe everything here.

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In 2018, I joined TASSEL as a teacher. I was asked to teach in Jeepan. You might be wondering, why am I still with TASSEL? There are so many reasons that I want to talk about, but the main reason is that I felt very shocked and ashamed when I saw so many foreigners coming to help Khmer people. Since I experienced the difficulty of living here, I want to help change my country by teaching English. This is my second year with TASSEL and I know that I can help so many poor students in the countryside. I don’t want the next generation to be as poor as I was. TASSEL gives me a great chance to join and help out others in my community. TASSEL teaches me how to transform my heart to be loving, and how to share our happiness with others who don’t even have enough to eat or to study. I hope that, through TASSEL, I can do more for poor children in the countryside. I would like to thank the foreigner teachers who give the poor children great hope and warmth to have a better future one day.