By Wesley Samms | Grants Manager
Ms. Soar is studying to be a teacher in Steung Treng Province, but there is something special about her. This intrepid young woman is a Phnong-language teacher, and she is studying to teach the people from her homeland in her own mother tongue.
Having come from a house with bamboo walls and no door or windows, Ms. Soar knows the difficulty of being one of a rural, minority people marginalized by the broader society. As a young student, she left her remote home to study at the Orang Lower Secondary School about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) away. She did this as part of Lotus Outreach’s Phnong Education Initiative (PEI). Since then, her studies have taken her as far as the provincial capital to obtain teacher certification, so she can bring the fire of knowledge to the minds of other Phnong-speakers like herself.
A history of marginalization, combined with the kind of exploitation that usually accompanies it, has left the Phnong people largely without access to educational resources, minimal wealth, land, or infrastructure. The Cambodian public education system teaches only in Khmer, and so people who speak other languages are left by the wayside.
Ms. Soar made the journey to find her own education as a child, and since grade eight she had the dream of becoming a primary school teacher herself. With scholarship support, residence and materials provided by Lotus Outreach, she excelled in school, especially in the area of mathematics. The cost of supporting a secondary-school student with everything she needs to excel is only $250.00 per year!
It was very important that she study as hard as she did, because in order to become a teacher she had to travel to the Provincial Office of Education in the capital of the province. She had never been to a city as big as the capital before, and had never met so many different people before.
When she arrived to take her examination to become a teacher trainee, she found 160 other applicants vying for only 55 positions. Thanks to her hard work and study, she passed the examination and was able to study at the Phnong Teacher Training Center!
Now the Phnong Teacher Training Center Dormitory in Steung Treng province is her home, and Ms. Soar is studying pedagogy with 19 other daring minority students. Each one of these people dreams of bringing the power of education to their own villages. Better education means better health, better earnings, better representation in government, and
Ms. Soar has the support of her family, her immediate community, and even the license from the provincial government! Now all she needs is your support! Donating just $20 covers an entire month of teacher training for a minority student.
Thank you for supporting Lotus Outreach and the development of minority communities like this one!
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