My name is Sophea Try and I was born in 1994. I live in Austok village, Kompong Preang
commune, Sangker district, and Battambang province. I have three siblings and I am the third
child in my family. My father’s name is Try Nov and he is 50 years old. My mother’s name is
Sin Sim and she is 57 years old. My parents are famers. My older sisters’ names are Davy and
Vancy. Davy is the first child in the family, and she is 31 years old. Vancy is the second child in
the family, and she is 28 years old. When my sisters were in high school, they decided to quit
school because my family was poor. My sisters were really smart, and they always got good
grades. They helped my parents to do farm work, and earned some money to support the whole
family. They did not really want to drop out but they had to. If they had not quit school, they
would have gotten a good job. After they quit, they worked as construction workers for a
Chinese company to build bridges. My younger brother’s name is Sophornn Try. he is 25 years
old and he is the fourth child. He works for a company which is located in Battambang.

 
When I was young, I had a lot of tough times in my family. When I was five years old my
father had to go to work in Phnom Penh to support my family. While my father was gone, my
mother got sick because she had to work double to feed four children. Due to poverty, many of
my neighbors hated my family. I did not have a lot of friends because I was so poor and many
of my classmates disliked me. I still did not have many friends in high school because most of
my classmates were rich. After I passed grade 12 exam, I went to Battambang to continue to
university. It was a big challenge for my parents because I needed a lot of money for my school
fees. So my parents started to work double in order to earn money to support my family. My
father and sisters sometime went fishing and sold what they caught at the market to earn some
more money. In 2015 when I was in year three, Teacher Joji and a few other TASSEL teachers
went to my university to recruit. After I passed the interview, I was just an intern which meant a
part-time job. Even though I was a part-time teacher, I worked all day because I really love
teaching. After three months being an intern, I got promoted by Teacher Joji to be a full-time
teacher. I was really happy because my dream was to be a full-time teacher. I have been
working with TASSEL for almost four years. 

Before I joined, I thought TASSEL was like other normal organizations. After I joined for a few
months, I realized that TASSEL was so different from what I had thought. TASSEL is more
than a school; it is a family. I started working with TASSEL in 2015 and I was so touched by
the students in Jeepan. Even though they were so poor, they had good hearts. TASSEL is not
only about teaching but also about caring and sharing. TASSEL is really a miracle because we
have foreigners and TASSEL Cambodian teachers who are committed to help the poor.
TASSEL also provides rice, medicine, clothes and sponsorship to many poor families. When I
did family visits, I felt very fortunate to be one of the TASSEL teachers. After the foreigners
teach the children through Vsee, they also come to Cambodia to help the poor more. They
sacrificed their time, energy and money to come to see the children. The students who come to
TASSEL are so fortunate, even though they have a tough time in their families but at least

TASSEL is going to take care of them. I do believe that TASSEL will change Cambodia to be a
better country.