TESTIMONIALS
KIN SOEURN, Co-founder
My name is KIN Soeurn and I am 51 years old. After graduating from the Royal University of Phnom Penh, I moved to the Banteay Meanchey province to work as an educator in 1993. I joined the ADTJK from its creation and was part of the founders of the association, who consisted of four Khmer staff and one French advisor. Today, I am the only member of the original team still working at the Foyer.
For more than 20 years, I have worked to help Cambodian children facing difficult situations, such as hunger, loneliness and the aftermaths of the war in the Banteay Meanchey province. I want to make sure those children are well taken care and, with this in mind, work in cooperation with the government to develop and improve the education and fight against illiteracy in Cambodia.
During my time at the Foyer, we have been evolving and improving our actions year after year, aiming to develop new and better programs.
Over the years, I have taken on many positions that have allowed me to discover and understand the diversity of the association's actions. At the very beginning, I have thus been responsible for the communication and the tutoring center of the Foyer. I then took charge of the accounting and the partnership with the Samros Komar primary school, which was built in 1999 on the Foyer Lataste’s grounds. I have even been chosen to be president of the association from 1997 to 2001. In the next two decades, I have been in charge of the support to the families in the community, as well as the educational advisor of the Foyer, and the responsible for the vocational training program. My current position was defined in 2015, when the tutoring center was upgraded, and I became the full time responsible of this program.
Being the most experienced staff of our team, I have seen all the up and downs of the tutoring center. I now hope and believe that it will improve even more in the future. I will continue my work to ensure the success of our projects, in collaboration with the field coordinator and the donors, to the best of my abilities and as long as my health allows me to do so.
My name is ROEUN Syronn, I am 37 years old and a former beneficiary of the Foyer Lataste. When I was young, there was no high school in my district for those who wanted to continue their studies after the class 9, the only high school was located in the Banteay Meanchey province. Since my family was poor, she could not afford to send me to high school. This is why my older brother contacted the Foyer Lataste.
After learning about my family's situation, Mrs. Patricia Labourier accepted me as her godchild. When I joined the Foyer, in 1998, there were only 26 children at the center. We lived as one big family, eating and studying together. We loved each other like brothers and sisters, even though we came from different districts.
ROEUN SYRONN, Former Beneficiary
My name is ROEUN Syronn, I am 37 years old and a former beneficiary of the Foyer Lataste. When I was young, there was no high school in my district for those who wanted to continue their studies after the class 9, the only high school was located in the Banteay Meanchey province. Since my family was poor, she could not afford to send me to high school. This is why my older brother contacted the Foyer Lataste.
After learning about my family's situation, Mrs. Patricia Labourier accepted me as her godchild. When I joined the Foyer, in 1998, there were only 26 children at the center. We lived as one big family, eating and studying together. We loved each other like brothers and sisters, even though we came from different districts.
After finishing high school, I continued my studies for two years at the Faculty of Pedagogy in Phnom Penh, between 2001 and 2003. I then became a French-Khmer teacher in middle school. In July 2003, Mr. Denis Bouttier offered me the opportunity to participate in the work of the association, by teaching French classes to children and contributing to the administrative work. From then on, I started working part-time at the Foyer, the rest of my time being divided between my work at the public school and my studies of public law at the university.
It is therefore out of love of work and a desire to help the association that I became the administrative and pedagogical coordinator. My work at the Foyer consists mainly in facilitating the functioning of each program and the academic orientation of high school students towards professional or university training. To accomplish this, I use my professional experience, but also that of a former beneficiary of the Foyer. I am at the same time responsible for the communication with the alumni of the Foyer Lataste.
Since its creation, the Foyer has made a lot of progress:
-
Many children have successfully completed their studies and now have good jobs in the community. Some of them have even participated voluntarily in the work of the association and have taken on an important role.
-
In the field of education, we have set up a tutoring center and a the vocational and student training program. In the area of child protection, we have also implemented three foster families at the Foyer.
-
Moreover, the association has good relations with local authorities. Indeed, we have obtained, for several mandates, two MOUs with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social Action. Although some NGOs have stopped their actions in Cambodia, ADTJK continues to develop its activities, in accordance with national and international law, in particular UNICEF criteria.
ADTJK has a very close partnership with AEC-Foyer Lataste (its donor and historical partner) who has helped us from the creation of the center until today. In the future, I hope that ADTJK's programs will progress thanks to the cooperation of AEC-Foyer Lataste and the former beneficiaries of the center.
On behalf of ADTJK and the former beneficiaries of the Foyer, I would like to thank the partner NGOs, the authorities and especially AEC-Lataste who helped us ensure the successful functioning of the Foyer.