Chanthy is full of energy and enthusiastic about life! She welcomes everyone with open arms and a big smile, no matter their background. She is a strong leader in her community and a gifted teacher. She is kind and caring, and her students know that they are loved and seen by her. Chanthy has a heart that delights in bringing hope to the broken places and people in her life, and she is invested in the future of Cambodia’s next generation.
Chanthy’s story began when she was born into a poor family in rural Cambodia. Her father left before she was born and her mother worked outside the home to provide for her children; but it was difficult for her mother to meet even the basic needs of their family on her income alone. At times, Chanthy’s mother would send the children out to the streets to sell small cakes to help provide money for their school fees and uniforms.
While her mother was working, Chanthy was being raised primarily by her grandmother who began taking her to church at a young age. In a country where less than 2% of the population is Christian, it is rare that a child is raised in a Christian home. Chanthy’s grandmother, and others in their village, learned about Jesus for the very first time in the 1970’s when missionaries went to Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge genocide ended - a time in the country’s history when more than 1.7 million people were persecuted and killed because of their education and religious beliefs.
It was Jesus that Chanthy called “father” for the very first time in her life. He became her best friend and took away her loneliness as a child. At the age of 13, she enrolled herself in a Bible Class at a local church where she learned more about what it means to be a Christian and follow Jesus. The next year, she received Jesus into her heart and was baptized to publicly share with her friends and family the transformation that had taken place in her heart and in her life.
Like many children living in rural Cambodia, school was not their family’s first priority. With more than 90% of the country’s impoverished families living in the countryside, daily survival is the highest priority. Throughout her childhood though, God brought many people into Chanthy’s life who supported and encouraged her in school and helped to provide the resources she needed to stay enrolled. Chanthy completed grade school and then high school - a privilege that very few in her village receive.
Chanthy’s mom always encouraged her to study hard and work hard; however, when she reached 9th grade her family was experiencing difficult times and her mother asked her, “Would you like to work at a Casino or continue your studies?” Often times Casinos or Karaoke Bars are a legal business front for brothels or sex tourism. Unfortunately, hundreds of girls are faced with this decision in Cambodia each year: work or study. Often times working means working in the sex tourism and human trafficking industry.
In order for Chanthy to continue her education at the high school level, she needed to move to an urban area in her province. She pressed on and made ends meet by rooming with 6 girls in a house about the size of a 12x12 room. Many times the girls went days without eating because they couldn’t afford both food and school. The living arrangements were tough and her Mom shared a new opportunity with her: she could move in with her relative. Unfortunately, her relative owned a Karaoke Bar that also conducted business as a brothel. At night, Chanthy would hear screams and witnessed girls being taken to rooms with older men. While she didn’t personally experience sexual abuse, she witnessed other girls living that life and was marked by it in significant ways. Despite her circumstances though, Chanthy excelled in her studies and graduated from high school. After graduating, she was able to find work at a local cafe and a new place to live while continuing her studies at the university level.
During this time, Chanthy developed a dream for working with marginalized women in her community. Growing up, she saw the struggles her mother faced and she wanted to help young women, like the ladies she saw working in the Karaoke bar, and mothers, like her own, make a better life for themselves and their families. Around the same time, her cousin, Sarith, had started an English Language School for local children and asked her to join him in his work. She was conflicted - because in honesty, she didn’t like working with kids - she loved to play and have fun with them, but teaching them was not the vision she had for her life. She wrestled for many months with her decision, but in the end, she clearly heard God speak to her: “If you want to change your community, let’s start with the children.”
Now, five years later, Chanthy is following hard after God’s calling for her life. In addition to teaching at New Hope School, she also leads in the administration office and disciples the school staff; and though not all of her co-workers are Christian, they look to Chanthy as a role model professionally, personally, and spiritually. Chanthy’s testimony also gives her the platform to continue motivating and pushing her students to finish their schooling, and she has great influence among families in her community.
Chanthy believes whole-heartedly in the hope and opportunity that education brings to her students and the future of Cambodia. She has seen for herself the power that an education has to lift someone from extreme poverty. In our first year of partnering with New Hope School, we were able to significantly raise staff salaries to bring each staff member to a living wage. We also partner by providing leadership training and development to the staff. “This new way of learning,” as Chanthy would say is giving her and the staff a better understanding of how to teach their students in the most effective way and the motivation they need to keep working hard.
We believe that God is actively redeeming and restoring the broken parts of Cambodia’s past and present. We believe that he is using Chanthy’s warm and welcoming spirit to help students find belonging and purpose. We believe that her passion for education and influence in the community will keep children in school and off the streets. We believe that many children and adults will come to know Jesus because of Chanthy’s relentless pursuit to share the Good News with everyone she knows.