3 significant cases, 3 stories of change

It is always a great pleasure to listen to rightsholders, especially when they are proud to share what they have gone through, while living their impactful life.

During our visit to KHEN, we have listened to 3 inspiring life stories of people with disabilities, all of whom share different stories and perspectives about their lives. The common denominator is that they are all on their paths to live a much better future in which they could not dream about before. Here are the stories:

Marn Sokhom: a woman aged 27 years has gone through numerous difficulties in life. As a woman with disabilities and born in a less privileged family and there was pressure on her. She has to support her family while trying to study at the same time. Going back and forth from province and city, she has faced discrimination, exploitation, as well as labour intensive work. She gives her very best every day, and with the support from KHEN, she has now graduated from high school and currently enrolled for a bachelor degree at the University of Battambang, majoring in Khmer Literature. In future, she wants to become an author and also open an institution to support children with disabilities.

Chin Samol: is aged 28 years, married and has a son. She encounters challenges because she is a person with a disability and illiterate, her neighbour would not believe that she can be successful in both her study and life. She dropped out of school in grade 8 because of her low standard of living, KHEN however has supported her with a monthly so that she could teach other children in primary education. While saving and trying to find other business to do as well as doing supplementing with agricultural work, she finally is able to be economically empowered, currently, she is a grocery seller in her village.

Ton Chamnan: Chamnan is only 17 years old and currently a grade 9 student at a local high school. He lives with his cousin, as his parents and his 2 younger brothers are in Thailand, working as immigrants. Even though the school is not far away from home, he has no means of transport and encounters challenges of mobility due to physical disabilities, he struggles in his education, and luckily with the help of his fellow friends, he is able to go to school every day. He dreams to further his studies so that he could get a decent job locally that can support his family without the need to migrate to neighbouring countries in search of a job. As a person with a disability, he is very grateful to attend school and gain more knowledge, he feels the support and love from his neighbours and friends, as well as the support from KHEN which supports the youth to gain more experience and also awarded him a scholarship so that he can finish high school.