Rotary Melbourne is now hosting a new Cambodia Rural Students Trust (CRST) Cambodian student Sambun Sambath following Tangly Tan completing his university education. Sambun notes that 'I am so inspired by the vision of CRST, which is “Breaking the Poverty Cycle Through Education”. This phrase is similar to my purpose because my goal is to uplift my family out of poverty through my education and ultimately secure a good job in the future.
Following is a letter received from Sambun recently.
Hello Dr. Carol, Peter and members of the Rotary Club of Melbourne,
Greetings from Cambodia, I hope you are doing well!
I was pleased to learn that I am now being supported by you. No words can describe how excited I am right now, and here I am writing to introduce myself.
First of all, my name is Sambun. I’m from a rural area that doesn’t have an English school, and it’s far away from high school. I lived with my parents and four siblings. There are two older brothers and a younger brother. My parents are farmers, and after the harvest season, my father begins climbing the palm trees to get the palm juice for refining into palm sugar. My mother does housework and grows a little vegetable for food, and earns a little income. These jobs did not pay enough to support the whole family, so my two older brothers decided to drop out of school and looked for a job in the city. Not long enough, they both have families, so our situation was still the same.
When I was in grade 10, I thought of dropping out of school because the high school that I needed to go to was quite far, I needed to ride my bike alone to school, while most subjects required me to do extra classes, the fees are high. My friends dropped out of school to earn and support their families, and they persuaded me to stop studying since they knew that my family has financial problems. Education was not valued by some of my villagers, yet I was committed to education so that I could find the free English school. I found “SAAT SCHOOL” and “New Dream Center”, located east of the Pouk High School, and I had been studying there for 2 years. I went to the city to work during semester break, doing field plowing, rice harvesting, and catching fish and frogs to sell during my free time from school to support my extra classes.
As a result, I graduated from my high school in 2024 with an excellent grade, an “A” from my national exam, which was a really proud result for me and my parents. In addition to this good result, I was also selected to be one of the scholarship awardees from the Cambodia Rural Students Trust (CRST).
It seems like a wonderful opportunity for me since this scholarship provides education for me as a student and gives me many opportunities to study at a quality school in Siem Reap city. I also have an opportunity to study extra English and; computer classes. While studying at the university, I also have an opportunity to explore volunteer work both inside and outside the NGO. I am so inspired by the vision of CRST, which is “Breaking the Poverty Cycle Through Education”. This phrase is similar to my purpose because my goal is to uplift my family out of poverty through my education and ultimately secure a good job in the future. I hope my younger brother will follow in my footsteps and continue learning. Currently, I am studying in Intensive English for Academic Purpose (IEAP) level 2 at Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia (PUC). Everything is going well with my study; I haven’t had any problems because I am an easy-going person. I can adapt with the other students very quickly. My first impression when I walked into PUC was like a dream. I’m really glad that I am able to study there because this school has a good education system. My classmates are very kind, friendly, and able to share and explain many lessons to me. My teachers take care of every student in the class. They also encourage students to study hard to get good results.
Besides studying, I also joined volunteer work. I began my volunteering at FDC (Feeding Dreams Cambodia) school to support Community service so that I can improve my communication and English skills with new people. Moreover, I have also been participating in the Rotaract activities as the tuk-tuk driver, taking our members to join a reading campaign and install the Village Street Library (VSL). I am so delighted that I was trained by CRST alumni to be a tuk-tuk driver. With that skill, I can take the Rotaractors and contributors to do an assessment and gather the information, and have an agreement with the teachers, students, and the village chief in advance before going to install VSL and arranging the reading campaign with the students. This activity is a key to showing how reading impacts the students. Every time I joined this activity, I always saw how the students love reading books and enjoy their reading time. For us, we want everyone to get inspired and encouraged to read the book. This is the reason why we put in our Village Street Library for them.
I’ve also joined community service with CRST to fix bicycles for rural students. Doing the work is tiring, yet after seeing the smile of the bicycle’s owners, it makes me miss my childhood memories. I also joined CRST house building activities. I was so happy after the house was built and seeing the smile of the house owner that they got a better new house than before. I hope the new house can protect them from the wind or rain during the rainy season.
Last but not least, thank you for your generous support toward me. I commit to do my best with my studying and will improve myself more and more to become a good student and a good person in my society. I have a really big dream to be an English teacher who owns an English school that allows disadvantaged students to attend without paying school fees at all, and with your support, I will be able to achieve my dream. It would be great if I could learn something from you. Can I know some of the projects that your club runs? Also, I would be very happy if you could share with me what motivates you to join the Rotary. One thing that motivates me to join the Rotaract club is that I want to help youth in my community. So, I hope to learn from all of you.
I’ve attached some of my photos below this email for you. I am looking forward to receiving your warm response.
Best regards
Sambun
Sambun Sambath (He)
Community Service, General Manager
Human Resource and Operations, Team Member
Cambodia Rural Students Trust
