‘‘Life Toward Inclusive Future’’
Even though success is very difficult for all people to reach, still a farmer man can achieve his goal.
A farmer son, Mr. Pheng Saochheng was born on 02 April, 1985 in one village in Prek Roka Commune, Kandal Steung District, Kandal Province. His father is a mechanic and mother is a grocery seller. Among of six siblings in family, Saochheng is a second son who is a good child, and he has a strong ambition for his goal. He did work hard not only at home but also at school.
In 1991 when he was 6, he was sent to the primary school in the village. During studying in primary school, he met many obstacles which forced him to work very hard. His first and foremost obstacle was the family living condition. Moreover, living with many siblings, Saochheng’s family really suffered from financial problems. He said, “Besides learning, he fed pigs and sold some goods at home.”
Then, in Siem Reap secondary School in 2000, Saochheng also took his free time from studying to earning money. While people were relaxing and others were sleeping at night, he was catching shrimp with net during dry season ‘‘Chhoukkampis” at channel, five kilometers from his house. “I went to bed late and got up early to take the shrimp to sell at the market in order to get some money to support my study, but some day, my shrimp was stolen so I am so sad,” said the poor man.
Starting in grade 9, Saochheng, a black skin boy, was absolutely interested in English and he started studying it in part-time. He got up at 5am and prepared selling stuffs for his mother, and then he went to English School at 5:20am and rushed to cycle to state school after had finished English class. He arrived home at 6pm. Being a hopeful student, he said, “Knowing English is easy to find a job and communicate worldwide.”
He met a lot of obstacle; however, he never gave up learning English. He said, “One word that I have always remembered and never forgotten is Life is Struggle.”
Later, he finished grade 12 in Kampong Kantout high school. Unfortunately, after graduating high school diploma, he could not continue to study at university because of family living condition. He said with sad expression that “I feel very upset when I see my friends and others dress a school uniform.” Sitting on the chair and talking softly, he added “I felt very pity with myself as other families, which were in more difficult situation than my family was, had sent their children to pursue their bachelor’s degree at university.”
With his strong commitment and his hopefulness, Saochheng has spent nearly two years working as a waiter on purpose to have some money to resume his study. While being a waiter, he set his goal that he had to continue studying if he wanted to have a bright future in life and if he didn’t want to be a “slave”. This hard working and smart boy before going to bed always read books after he had finished preparing the chair and other things by 10pm or 11pm.
His dream of being a university student then became real. He studied in Asia Europe University in a major of Education in the field of Teaching English as Foreign Language B.ED (TEFL) and graduated in 2007. During learning in 2004-2005, he worked as a part-time sponsorship volunteer translator at world vision organization and Youth Council of Cambodia. His life started going better after guidance from colleagues and his supervisor.
Later on, he was selected as a provincial representative assistant staff of Youth Council of Cambodia (YCC) for one year. In 2007-2009, Saochheng was a Kandal Provincial Representative at YCC. At meantime, he worked as a freelance researcher in Professor Alliance for Development (PAD).
Working so hard and making good achievement in YCC, He was nominated to participate in the 2nd UNESCO Asian Youth Forum on the theme of Sustainable Community in Asia, held in Gwangju City, Republic of Korea, from 26-30 June 2008.
Luckiness was coming up with him. He applied as a contestant in Youth Leadership Challenge (YLC), and he was selected as one contestant among 16 contestants who were selected from 500 candidates through many processes and tests.
Although he had a high position in one organization, he didn’t give up studying. Right now, is undertaking Master of Business Administration (MBA) at National University of Management (NUM).
During that time, Saochheng, who is an upgraded person and wants to learn new things, left YCC and worked as a program coordinator/director assistant at Mith Samlanh/Friends based in Phnom Penh. Be experience as a poor youth, he said “I really like working with street children/youth and related group to create innovative and exciting opportunities to build their futures.”
A son of farmer family who work hard with both strong commitment and hopefulness until getting successful now a day, Saochheng, only 26, is a Monitor and Evaluation Manager of Mith Samlanh/Friends. His big achievement results from his working hard and his strive including his strong commitment and his hope.
“Struggling starts from the initiative of ourselves until we get successful,” he said.
‘‘Wrote by Vorn sokhan, Cambodia Circles’’
