Greetings!

My name is Sela Mao. I have happily joined the staff here at Children’s Future for about four months now as an Operations Associate in Finance and Communications. I will be the new author of newsletter stories from Cambodia. I grew up in Battambang and my family lives just ten minutes from CFI’s Learning Center.

I came to work at Children’s Future because I saw an opportunity here, an opportunity to get new experience and a chance to see how this environment is different compared to the bank where I worked before. After I have worked at Children’s Future for several months, I noticed that is very different from other organizations or orphanages here that provide only food and shelter. I’ve never seen an organization that works in this holistic way.

I was surprised and a little bit shocked when I was given the opportunity to work in communications at Children’s Future, because I was first interviewed just for accounting. It’s really a new and fantastic experience for me because it’s a dream come true. As a child I dreamed of becoming a journalist but I have never thought of myself as a person with strong writing skills. At first, I felt really afraid and thought that I could not do it. But Children’s Future gave me a great opportunity to learn from American trainers. This training built and improved my knowledge and writing skills. Although I am still a little bit nervous, I am more confident and I am learning about the style and content for writing newsletters and social media. I want to expand my vocabulary and I still spend a lot of time preparing and writing a newsletter.

I feel like it is a big responsibility to represent Children’s Future to donors and supporters. It’s so fun because I used to spend my time in the office. But with this job, I can spend some time with children and learn about all the things we do here at Children’s Future so I can share it in the newsletter. What I like to write about is how the students live, and especially how their lives look different from before and now when they join our school and programs.

I believe that all the staff are bonded together because we all are care about the children and want to see their future with well-being. For the children of today are the future of tomorrow.

-Sela Mao