Education Empowers A Young Girl
By Ying Bun, Writer and Translator, Dec 2007

Men in Cambodia like to use the old saying “Women cannot move far from the stove” to underestimate women who want to work outdoor and outside of the home. When there are problems such as financial crises or labor-force needs, parents will send only sons to school and keep daughters at home to do household chores.

With a strong mind and a determination to succeed, Chhun Sreymom strongly rejects the out of date proverb and the biased ideas of the traditional thinkers.

“Men and women have the same rights to education because we all want to be knowledgeable,” emphasizes Sreymom.

When asked what she would do if her parents stopped her from going to school in order to help them do some chores at home, Sreymom, who has never expected it might happen to her, pauses awhile and then responds “I will spend more time to help them after class, but I cannot quit school”.

Along with her education, Sreymom has acquired better knowledge about her rights as a girl. Once she reached the seventh grade, she gained the confidence to discuss and debate these rights with anyone who treated her unequally.

“My friends used to ask me why I dared to approach the chalk board although I could not do the exercises well. I told them ‘Even though I do not understand well, I’ll try to do it because the teacher will explain to me later’,” says Sreymom.

Interestingly, being shy is no longer in Sreymom’s mind. “I do not care whatever people say. What I have to do is to study hard,” adds Sreymom.

“Unlike some of her female friends, Sreymom always volunteers to go to the board when teacher needs someone to do exercises or to answer questions. She is one of the outstanding students. I appreciate her performance,” says 16 year-old boy Un Sambath, who is Sreymom’s classmate.

“From what I’ve seen, Sreymom does not care about any illogical ideas that slow down her learning performance. Now she is more courageous. She is a competitive learner,” recounts Sreymom’s aunt Khun Srey, 42 years old, who lives next door to Sreymom’s house.

Sreymom is the eldest child of 37 year-old farmer Chhun Chhorn, and 35 year-old housewife Lach Chin. During the rainy season, her father goes fishing along the streams for fish to provide food for the family. Sometimes there is surplus, so he can sell it. The extra income is beneficial to support his family of six. Like Sreymom, her sister and her two brothers are at school: Chhun Sreymuch, thirteen years old, is studying in the seventh grade; eight year-old Chhun Chhit and six year-old Chhun Chheav are studying in the fifth and first grades.

“Sreymom strives to study. I am happy to see her progress. I will encourage both my sons and my daughters to go to school as high as possible,” says Lach Chin, sitting on a wooden bed near her small palm leaves and tin roof house.

Sreymom never thinks of dropping out of school. Although her two closest friends have left school to work in a factory, and are now earning money for their families, Sreymom is not willing to do so.

“I encouraged them to come back to school. We can work whenever we like, but it will be too late to go back to school if we get behind on our lessons,” says Sreymom, who is more thoughtful and mature.

Being a smart learner, Sreymom generally earns number seven or eight among 60 students in her class. She enjoys riding her old bicycle to school, which is six kilometers away from home. Sometimes she goes with her friend living near her house when her bicycle is out of order. During most of her free time, Sreymom and her friend meet together at one of their houses to discuss about homework and lessons they do not understand well. Khmer literature and English are her favorite subjects.

Holding a neatly handwritten letter in English she received from her sponsor living in Singapore, Sreymom feels keen on studying the English language. She wishes she could write and speak English fluently. Now she spends two hours studying English per day.

Sreymom became a sponsored child when she was in the sixth grade. Being a sponsored child, Sreymom constantly gets school materials such as books, pens, and pencils from World Vision. Assisted by World Vision’s staff, Sreymom can contact her sponsor through letter. Once, she wrote a letter to her sponsor to tell her that she passed the secondary level and then she also got a response from her sponsor.

“My sponsor congratulates me on my achievements and encourages me to study harder. She is a teacher of History in Singapore. I will try to follow in her footsteps,” says Sreymom.

In the next two years, Sreymom will finish high school. Speaking English hesitantly, she says she would like to work as an English translator and interpreter one day.

« All Feature Stories