By the time Norng Samen’s son returned to Cambodia after a harrowing
10-year journey abroad he was so unrecognisable that she had to check his scars
to make sure it was really him.
A distinctive mark on his elbow confirmed that the man
standing before her was the son she had held a funeral for years earlier.
Norng Samen had last seen Pisey when, at the age of 18, he
followed in the footsteps of so many boys from his small village in Cambodia and
migrated to Thailand in the search of better job opportunities and a better
life.
Norng Samen and Pisey (pictured above) were
unable to stay in contact. A few years after Pisey had left Cambodia,
neighbours of the family who had migrated to Thailand found a dead body in the
water and misidentified it as Pisey.
“I was told that he was dead and we had a funeral for him,” Norng Samen says of her son.
Deep scars
Pisey eventually returned to Cambodia 10 years after he had left, but a decade of exploitation and abuse in Thailand had left Pisey with more scars than the ones his mother remembers.
Pisey’s work in construction was physically demanding and poorly paid. For years he did not receive a regular income. Once, Pisey slipped while carrying heavy steel, leaving him with a permanent disability to his legs. Another time, he was stabbed in the stomach by drunk gangsters on the beach.
Yadanar has always loved reading so the
first thing she noticed at her new school was the library. There were so many
books, each of them neatly placed, side by side.
“We didn’t have a library in my old
school,” 11-year-old Yadanar (pictured above) says. “Being able to access a
library was a new experience for me.”
When Yadanar moved to the east of Yangon
city, Myanmar, earlier this year she was afraid of having to attend a new
school. Her parents had started new jobs – her father in construction and her
mother as a kitchenhand – to earn a higher income to support her and her older
sisters, but the thought of being the “new girl” at school was daunting.
Yadanar, however, had nothing to worry about.
Her peers were friendly and she made friends quickly. Plus, there was the
library.
Yadanar spent her early childhood in a poor
town west of Yangon city, where most of the residents were squatters. The
schools she attended were basic. There were no libraries, few resources and the
quality of teaching was poor.
Her new school, which ChildFund Myanmar supports through the Monastic Education Development Group in Myanmar, is free and for children from disadvantaged families. Yadanar was surprised by how different it was to her previous schools; not only were there books to read but her teacher was engaging and the lessons were active and interesting.
“I feel happy at my new school because
there are group activities,” Yadanar, who is in Grade 4, says. “For example, when
we learn science we share our knowledge with each other. That’s so exciting.
“There were no group activities in my old school.”
This project is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).
