Impact Story

My name is Chen Srey Sor; I’m 20 years old. I’m a second-year student majoring in Community Development at the National University of Battambang, and I work as a Data intern at Children’s Future International (CFI). 

I have eight siblings, and I’m the third daughter of the family. When I was ten years old, my family’s situation was terrible. We didn’t have a good place to stay; we asked for our neighbor’s land to build a small hut to stay in. We didn’t have enough food to eat due to the number of people in the family, and my parents didn’t have a job at that time. We wore the same clothes most of the time and never had shoes on. 

Fortunately, when I was six years old, we met Jenny & Andrew, the founder of CFI, who built the first CFI Center in Chrey commune and they were looking for young children to change their life through education. I was glad to see my family on their list. 

CFI brought me a new life. They provide everything I had ever dreamed of in my life, a good and safe place to live, good food to eat, and good education.  

Ten years later, when I was in grade 10, I reintegrated back to live with my family, but I did not go back to live with my parents yet due to the distance between my home and school being 15km. So, CFI rented a house in the town for me and my three brothers to stay. 

The house that CFI rented was 5km from CFI’s learning center, so I needed to ride my bicycle to eat lunch at the center and back to school every day. Sometimes I didn’t even have time to relax, which made me exhausted every day, but I was glad to do it.

The problem was not over yet. After I finished high school, I was reunited with my parents, and that’s when I wanted to quit university and start working because I faced many challenges; I lived far away from the school; my parents didn’t have money to support the family, and I didn’t have money to buy school materials, uniforms, and other expenses.  

That’s when CFI came to save me once again. After receiving a 100% scholarship from the University, CFI offered to provide me with the money for gasoline, school materials, uniforms, and other school expenses. I felt like I was born again. I’m very happy and excited to be back in school because this is my dream to finish university and get a good job. 

Not only that, but I was also accepted into CFI’s internship program, working part-time on the operations team to learn about Monitoring and Evaluation. I use the money I earn from working at CFI for my daily expenses and to support my family. 

Sreysor says, “CFI gave me a new life, I can’t imagine how my life would be right now if I didn’t have support from CFI, and I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported CFI since it started. You don’t know how much your support means to the children in Cambodia who struggle like me. It really makes a huge difference in their life, and from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU! ”

“And I can promise you that I will continue to study and finish university, and find a good job to be a role model for my family, making an impact in my community, and to children who are struggling right now that want to give up to see: if I can do it you all can do it too!” Sreysor added.