Mao Sophany was born on February 2nd 1986. She is from Khoh Kong Province, near the Thai border, but moved to Siem Reap in 2005. The rest of her family is still in Khok Kong Province. Her father, who had a car accident a few years ago cannot work and stays at home. Her mother has a little shop at the local market, where she sells vegetables. Sophany also has two brothers. One is 19 and the other 18. They both go to High School.

As a child Sophany used to live in a small village in the countryside. Everyday she cycled to the local school, not too far away from the village. She really enjoyed her region because there were beautiful mountains, rivers and always a nice sunshine. She had great times playing around in the water with her friends. Nevertheless, she did not have an easy childhood. Her parents were very poor and they only had one source of income to feed five people. As she was the only girl, Sophany had to help her mother a lot. She had to clean the house and often cooked for the whole family. This was very tiring. Added to that, the roads around her village were very bad, so it was difficult to cycle to school or to go on an errand.

During her free time, one of Sophany’s favorite activities is to read books. She reads both in Khmer and in English. She likes practicing her English in her Grammar Book and her Lesson Book. Another of Sophany’s hobbies is chatting on the internet with her friends. At night, she usually goes out for a walk and if she manages to motivate her friends, she goes dancing. She is fond of dancing! Apart from that, Sophany has a job as an English teacher. She teaches one class in the morning and one in the evening (both of two hours) and her students are usually between 10 and 18 years old.

Because of her experience as an English teacher, Sophany decided to get involved in JWOC’s language school. She chose this project, because she likes teaching, she likes the students and she likes helping them. Working in the field of education and helping people makes her happy.

Even though she has only been in there for two years and she prefers her homeland, Sophany really appreciates Siem Reap. She believes the temples, the culture and the modern hotels are great. They are a good opportunity for Cambodia to develop. She hopes to participate in this movement by teaching English to the poor in the villages. In Sophany’s opinion the biggest challenges for Cambodia are to reconstruct after the years of war and to get rid of theft and corruption. If she had to change something about Cambodia, she would help poor families by improving the educational system.

Sophany got her first Scholarship in August 2007. She is now in her third year at the Build Bright University. She studies General Business Management and hopes that this course will give her a good education and true skills to be able to manage her own business.
           
Indeed, opening her own business is Sophany’s dream for the future: she would love to have a shop, a restaurant or a guest house. Ideally, she would settle in Siem Reap, as tourism would allow her to make a lot of money there.