The Rotary Club of Glen Waverley has entered into an agreement to sponsor a student for 12 months in Cambodia through the Cambodia Rural Students Trust. The student is Lita Seng who is a member of the Trust [through a scholarship] and is a second year tertiary student.

Her story in part, is that she grew up in a village in a rural area in the Siem Reap province. She was born into a big family that had two brothers and two sisters, and they lived in a hard situation. Her mother was selling vegetables at home and her father was a contractor. Her mother could earn a little bit from her selling and her father did not get good pay from his work. Soon, they didn’t have enough food and money to support her brothers' and sister's studies. They had to drop out of school to help them earn money through work, and only Lita could still study because she was the youngest in the family.

Unfortunately, her mother got sick and passed away when she was nearly 12 years old. At that time, her father also left her alone and all her brothers and sister lived separated. She said it was so bad with those conditions, she had to live without family and depend on herself, there was not enough food to eat and no support and it was hard to continue my studying.

Her life was not comfortable and she was so worried at times. Even though she had a bad situation, she did not want to stop studying. Therefore, she decided to ask her grandma and her aunt to live with them and luckily they both agreed for her to live with them.

Although she moved to live with them, they were also poor. Her grandma was a farmer, she planted some plants and sold them to other villagers. She did not earn much and she had a big family to support as well. A few years later Lita wanted to drop out of high school because it was so hard to support herself. Eventually, she didn’t do it and her grandma kept encouraging and supporting her to keep going with her education. Because they both saw that the power of education could change her life. She was so proud of having such a good Grandma.

She still kept fighting hard until she found the Cambodian Students Rural Trust {CSRT} scholarship in 2019. She applied for and passed the scholarship, and her grandma was very happy.

She left her hometown and stayed in Siem Reap city to continue her grade 12 schooling at Future Bright International High School provided by the CRST. Sadly, her grandma passed away in the last year of her grade 12 in 2020. As she said, it was a big pain and she lost her big supporter and her ability to smile.  Anyway, as she said, she kept finding herself when she saw her Grandma’s face smiling in the picture. It is such energy that forced her to continue her dream.

While she lost her lovely Grandma, her second family (CSRT family) still stayed by her side, supporting her, and making her feel warm, she said she started to stand again.

Before joining CRST, she had thought that she hoped one day it would become possible if she could get a chance to get a scholarship to continue her study. It became possible and she deserved it. 

It has valued a lot of her life and she is glad to reserve it. During the time in CRST she has improved a lot.  She was provided the opportunity to learn in a good private high school and she graduated the high school with distinction.

She has been more involved with social contribution works, she has joined shearing workshops, fixed bicycles, built houses, painted schools, and sports activities.

She has joined other classes as well, Thai, computer, and especially the ACE English class. Moreover, she believes she also has the chance to share her knowledge with next-generation students and be an advisor to them as well.

Nowadays, she is a year-two student at PUCSR University. Her major is Business Administration. Apart from study she has four roles as CRST Campus manager, CRST Campus Finance, Leadership Team representative, Health and Sports Coordinator.

By joining others through community work, she realizes there are many things that she needs to learn and do as much as she can to help her society and the people in her country. 

It is also inspiring and encouraging her to keep doing her best in her life, no matter how hard life is.  She believes that she has to keep continuing to improve herself and then do her best to help those more unfortunate than her.

 Lita passed on some other comments. All the opportunities that she has been given and worked for, have helped her to improve her knowledge, skills, behaviors, appearance, and ability, she has learnt from adapting to new situations from CRST and involving herself in NGO activity.

Now, she says she has become stronger and braver, she can help herself and help other people with her new energy, heart, and knowledge. She can build her leadership skills and make decisions for her own future life and work.

Lita is continuing her dream and she can support others through inspiration and empowerment. Hopefully, she says, she wants to become a businesswoman and she is committing herself to do her best to reach it.

Our financial assistance will make a difference to Lita through the good works of the Cambodia Rural Students Trust. Contact us if you wish to assist or know more.

Repairing Bicycles

Assisting in a Village

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