Sophin Sophary, 21, comes from the village of Watsvay, in the province of Siem Reap. Her father was a teacher and her mother was a farmer, both living in the natal village of Sophary, in the countryside. She has 2 brothers and 3 sisters, ranging from 30 years of age to 14. Two of her siblings work, helping her parents, and the three others either go to school or university. In her free time she does her homework, teaches English to children, and cooks. It was at junior high school, when Sophary was 14 years old, that she realized how important education is. Many of her friends were good at school and they inspired Sophary to work as hard as them. One of Sophary’s wishes at the time was to learn and teach English but unfortunately her family was too poor to afford English lessons for their daughter. Thus Sophary, not wanting to give up, started reading English books at home and learnt by herself. Sophary also tried to make some extra money by planting rice and selling vegetables for her neighbors whilst helping her family farm.

            In 2005, Sophary should have entered grade 12 but her local school didn’t have the means necessary to teach grade 12 students. This prompted Sophary to move to Siem Reap when she was 19 years old, in search of a better education. Her lifestyle was exhausting when she first arrived; going to school in the morning to learn English, Japanese and computing skills and then working in a restaurant everyday from 4 to 11pm, to be able to pay her rent. Sophary is extremely happy and considers herself very fortunate to have received the scholarship from JWOC. She still works hard but finds the strength to carry on because one day she knows her situation will improve. The 2 biggest obstacles that she had to overcome was primarily poverty but also moving to Siem Reap alone when she was 19 years old was a particularly difficult period of her life. Sophary ‘fights because life is a struggle’.
           
            Sophary has engaged in the Language School project, but finds it difficult to fit it into her timetable. Therefore she has switched to Microfinance. She originally chose to teach because she wanted to help poor, unfortunate children just like JWOC helped her. Especially in rural areas, she says, the children need the most help. She would like to spread her knowledge to the children, to develop human resources in Cambodia. She thoroughly enjoyed teaching but despite her motivation found it to be too exhausting as she lives far away from Wat Thmei where she would teach. She feels like she would be a lot more productive if she partook in Microfinance.

            What Sophary prefers about Siem Reap is the ancient temples of Angkor, but nevertheless would ultimately prefer to live in the countryside. Sophary truly believes that she can contribute to the community by giving knowledge to children who haven’t had the luck to have the same opportunities as her. Her long-term goal is to create an agricultural business in which she would employ poor rural Cambodians. Sophary thinks that poor human resources, bad education and poverty are amongst some of the biggest problems that Cambodia faces today. Additionally she points out that the morbid fact that a vast majority of the educated Cambodians were killed under the Pol Pot regime. And it is specifically the lack of education on a national scale that Sophary wants to tackle.