Kimsan
KimSan is well known to many of our visitors to Cambodia thanks to her friendly outgoing spirit and her constant desire to improve herself. She comes from a very poor town close to the Thai/Cambodian border and her mother wasn’t able to send her to school because there wasn’t enough money for it. She met Savong who took her to the SOC Children’s Home where she was given a place to live so she could attend the local government school. We recognized how ambitious KimSan was and we decided to support her to stay in Siem Reap while she attended school. She is now in her second year of her Bachelor’s Degree at the University of SouthEast Asia. She recently moved out of the Happy Sunshine Organization and supports her food and living expenses by teaching at a local primary school. She would love to like to teach English literature as a career. She is a true role model for all the young women who follow in her path.
UPDATE May 8, 2019
Kimsan continues to do well, teaching English during the day and attending the University of SouthEast Asia at night. She is in her final year of her Bachelor Program.
UPDATE April 17, 2021
Kimsan has graduated from the University of SouthEast Asia and is now teaching English at the town of Poipet, near the Thai border. She is happily engaged and we wish her much success in life.
UPDATE April 12, 2024
She continues to live in Poipet near the Thai border and be a full time English teacher at the Sovanapoumi International School.
Cheat
We didn’t look for Cheat … he came looking for us! He found Duncan Stuart (from the Savong School) on the internet when he realized that there were better educational opportunities in Siem Reap which weren’t available in his small village. Duncan arranged for him to stay at the SOC Children’s Home until the Savong Foundation offered him a scholarship to stay at the Savong Student Center and attend the Future Bright International School. Cheat was at the top of his class and was the Student Manager of the Student Center for two years in a row. Two years ago, he moved down to Phnom Penh and is currently studying Marketing at the University of Cambodia. In his spare time, he works as a distributor which pays for his food and rent.
UPDATE May 8, 2019
Cheat is in his second year of his Bachelor Program, studying at the University of Cambodia. He continues to work full time as a distributor and is now a mentor for the younger Savong Foundation students.
UPDATE April 17, 2021
Cheat is finishing up his final year at the University in Cambodia and will graduate with a Marketing degree. He continues to work as a distributor and we hope that his ambition will bring him to many different countries and give him a big bank account balance!
UPDATE April 12, 2024
Cheat has achieved remarkable success by opening both an online and brick and mortar shop in Phnom Penh selling Kitchen goods, aptly named My Kitchen. Also a world traveler he has taken trips to Vietnam, China and Malaysia. Hopefully the United States is next!
Krouch
Krouch has been part of the Savong family for many years. I first met her as a happy but shy girl at the SOC Children’s Home where she lived because her parents couldn’t afford to look after her and send her to school. The Savong Foundation gave her a full scholarship to live in Siem Reap and she attends the Future Bright International School. She has matured into a confident young woman who never stops smiling! Krouch is in Grade 12 and hopes to go to university in Siem Reap to study teaching.
UPDATE May 8, 2019
Krouch was accepted into the Bachelor Program at the University of SouthEast Asia where she is studying English. She still hopes to be an English teacher one day and we are confident she will achieve all her goals.
UPDATE April 17,2021
Krouch continues to do well and is working on her second year at the University of SoutEast Asia where she is studying hospitality. Although she has struggled to find a job during these COVID times, we hope that there are plenty of opportunities when she graduates.
UPDATE April 12, 2024
Since the tourism industry came to a standstill in Siem Reap during COVID, Krouch took a position as an accountant at a real estate company where she still currently works.
Boramy
We took Boramy on as a scholarship student when she was still in high school and supported her all through university at the prestigious (and expensive) American University of Phnom Penh where she majored in Global Affairs.
After graduation, she accepted a scholarship to study in Singapore and then has recently returned to Cambodia where she accepted a government position in the Ministry of Economics and Finance.
Meng Houy
We’ve been supporting Meng Houy for over ten years, starting out in high school at the Future Bright Internation School. Motivated by having a childhood illness, she pursued her dream of getting into medical school after waiting a couple of years during COVID to take the entrance examination.
Now she is in her third year at the Health Science Institute of RCAF studying to be a physician. We are thrilled that she hopes to even go further and become a specialist.