Lorn Srey

Date of birth: August 8, 1988
Place of birth: Beung Sela Village, Chong Ha Commune, Ochrov District, Banteay Meanchey Province
Current address: Beung Sela Village, Chong Ha Commune, Ochrov District, Banteay Meanchey Province
Father’s name: Touch Lorn (dead) 
Mother’s name: Mang Sek, 56 years old, Farmer
Siblings: 4 (3 girls, 1 boy) and the third child in the family
University: Vanda Accounting (3 years) 
 
In Her Own Words
 
My father died when I was 2 years old, so my mother has been working very hard to support the family and 4 children’s education. However, no matter how hard she tried, she could not afford to keep all the children in school and my two elder sisters had to drop out at primary level to help my mother earn income to keep me and my younger brother in school. Now my mother is old, so she only sells some porridge near home to live on and the main income earner is my eldest sister. She does piece rate work at Poi Pet and sends money home every month. I am so proud of my eldest sister and deeply appreciate how much she has sacrificed herself for the family. 
 
When I was in primary school, I often got to school late because I didn’t have bicycle to travel the 3km distance to school and I had to do many chores such as feeding pigs, helping with making rice wine, and selling Khmer cakes. Sometimes I also fetched water for my neighbors in exchange for some small money to buy study materials. 
 
When I finished primary school, my mother could not afford to send me to lower secondary school and she told me she had no choice but taking me out from school. I did not want to drop out because I loved studying and I was always at the top of the class throughout all those times in primary school, so I cried a lot when I could no longer to go school. I then dropped out to do piece rate work with my eldest sister to earn money to treat my mother who had an intestine problem that needed operation and my younger brother who had pneumonia. I had worked with my sister for one  month when my teacher visited me and told me to come back to school and apply for a GATE scholarship with Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center (CWCC). With scholarship support, my family decided to let me go back to school. 
 
I’m very grateful for the scholarship support that enabled me to stay in school until graduating high school and now continue studying at university as well. Looking back, I still can’t believe I have come this far! I had never thought I could make it to even 9th grade! If I didn’t get scholarship from the program, I would have been doing piece rate work with my sister at the expense of my health now as I noticed that during the one month I worked there, my limbs got swollen and I had a urination problem as well due to long hours sitting. 
 
Besides providing me with necessary materials and money to support my education, the program also helped me to start to think about future goals which I had never thought about before. Once I started to think about it, I felt that I wanted to work in an office wearing nice dress and I don’t want to do hard work like my family, so I started to ask people if what degree I should do to get that kind of work. That’s how accounting came to my mind! 
 
After I graduate from university, I will be able to work to support my family back. I will set up a grocery store for my sister as this has been her dream since she was young, a dream that she cannot pursue due to family obligation as a big sister of a single headed family.