Hello! My name is Sophea. I am 30 years old. I graduated from the university in 2017. I live in Austok village, Kompong Preang commune, Sangker district, and Battambang province. I got married in 2021, and my wife’s name is Kimhun. I have three siblings and I am the third child in my family. My father’s name is Try Nov and he is 56 years old. My mother’s name is Sin Sim and she is 59 years old. My parents are farmers. My older sisters’ names are Davy and Vancy. Davy is the first child in the family, and she is 34 years old. Vancy is the second child in the family. She is 32 years old. When my two sisters were in high school, they had to quit school because my family was poor. My sisters were smart, and 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 28 years old, and he is the fourth child in the family. 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 always disliked me. I didn’t have a lot friends in high school because most of my classmates were rich. After I passed the 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 sometimes 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 of being an intern, I got promoted by Teacher Joji to 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 students. The students who come to TASSEL are so fortunate, even though they have a tough time in their families, at least TASSEL will take care of them. Through TASSEL, I believe that Cambodia will become a better country in the future. TASSEL is a sanctuary, a home, and a hope for everyone.