Hello, I am Sopheakdei MEY. I am from Cambodia and I am an English Teacher in rural Cambodia. I am running an association called Our Village Education Association.

Our Village Education Association (OVEA) is a non-profit, non-governmental and an education-focused organization. It was established in 2012 and run by a group of students from Kukrun Village in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

We are committed to breaking the cycle of poverty by providing compassionate care and access to education to the poorest and most vulnerable in Cambodia – especially children and disadvantaged young poor kids in rural Cambodia.

We believe that at the root of all suffering is ignorance, and that loving care and a good education can provide a way out of poverty. Reflecting this philosophy, at the core of all OVEA’s programs is a commitment to compassionate care and continuing education.

Through the first program, we have educated many hundred children, young adults, students to get education in foreign language. We bring hope and encouragement to the life of hundreds of young students, and families in rural villages in Siem Reap.
Take a moment and let us share with you the important developments in our programs and in the lives of those we serve. By doing so, we hope you will develop a better sense of the programs. You will see how OVEA is changing the lives of some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged populations in Cambodia. We have a further hope that by developing this understanding, we will engage your interest and perhaps your commitment to offer help and support.

Thanks for visiting our website!

Enjoy your visit!

Por qué estoy en Couchsurfing

I want to find people who want to help in education sector. They can come to stay and work as English teacher to teach small kids in rural Cambodia.

About Our Village Education Association (OVEA)

OVEA is an education focused organization committed to alleviating poverty, ignorance and hardship through creating equal access to education for the underprivileged in our community.

After emerging from Cold War, Cambodia has tried hard to build its human resource both physical and mental potentials, and some places in the country has been developed so far, but some areas still face challenges such as in Siem Reap Province. Siem Reap seems to be a richest province in Cambodia because of tourism, but it turns to be different from what we expect. “Siem Reap province is a paradox. It is the home to Angkor Wat – a UNESCO World Heritage site drawing millions of tourists from around the world. It also borders Tonle Sap, one of the largest freshwater lakes in Asia, and the most important source of freshwater fish in Cambodia. Thus, the Province contributes greatly to the nation’s wealth and income. Yet, Siem Reap is one of the poorest province in terms of the proportion of the population falling below the poverty line.” - The World Bank

OVEA was initiated in 2nd February 2012 support for educational development programs in Siem Reap and is motivated by the group of dynamic youth called Youth Experience Sharing Group, villagers, students.

When many people hear the name “Siem Reap” they picture the capital town with its hotels and tourist attractions, but starting just kilometers from the last hotel lies one of the poorest provinces in Cambodia. Deforestation, soil exhaustion from mono-cultural farming practices, a lack of knowledge of modern farming techniques and technology, and a second year of near-drought conditions have rendered Siem Reap province dangerously under productive. Inflation coupled with increased imports of food products from neighboring Thailand has left many people from rural Siem Reap province in the same conditions as they were five years ago, others have felt their quality of life degrade further. These problems are only compounded by the irony that at the province’s centre is Siem Reap, a tourist city that shows rapid growth but has been ineffective at spreading profits out into the countryside. This poverty has not only left the people of rural Siem Reap province struggling to get by, but has also left the education system lacking both structures and on-going support for teacher development. One of the keys to breaking the cycle of poverty is support for schools and education.

Education plays a vital role in developing human beings’ knowledge, critical thinking, and judgment of the say. Lack of education will cause of poverty both themselves and their families and social disorder. They will live with poverty until the end of the day because they do not have any thought to let them think of making any careers or finding a proper paid job. Moreover, they will provide this kind of cause to their offspring and when they build up a family they will live difficultly with shortage of happiness. Furthermore, their society is full with uneducated people. It will be a great cycle between poverty and education. We can say “I am poor because I do not get enough education and I do not education because I am poor”.

Developing a country needs human resource and human resource is needed to build up and develop through education, but there is no education how we can develop the country. Education is priority sector which Cambodia government set up for its national policy. Educating foreign language also can help young generation to build up their knowledge and earning a good future living through getting good paid job. Some families cannot afford their children to foreign language school because they have to pay for school fee. So, providing foreign education to young and adult students in Kukrun village is the great help among other help. We cannot give fish for them to live forever, but we teach them to catch the fish by themselves in order to survive on earth. When they have knowledge they can go wherever they want without facing poverty because they are uneducated people.

Both local and international individuals in general already recognize the power of education in building up human beings’ knowledge and capacity during they are young. Over two decades of development, Most Cambodian families are still poor because they did not get both informal and formal education. To change this movement, education needed to take place in Kukrun Village and provide both Khmer and foreign languages to young students. Within this, language educators also needed to help educate young students. Children of the poor families must take into consideration to get education as others in the society. In short, both formal and informal education must be provided to young students of Kukrun Village in helping changing that society to be better.
Consequently, there is a growing consensus of increasing of young kids dropping out of school should be considered. Education will absolutely be able to change human beings’ lives. Both parents and individuals think that it they want their children to live better than this they have to provide good education to theirs, but they are poor so they cannot do so. Poverty is the root of ignorance and ignorance is the root of poverty. However, this cycle can be cut off by helping from the others by provide good education. Good education can help human beings living better. This project will help the young generation of Kurun Village to live better in the future.

There are a number of associations and organizations that focus on this kind of issue, but Kurun village is a place that no one is focused on, Kurun kids still lack of access to both formation and informal foreign language education.
The proposed project’s purpose thus rests on improving the future young children lives through providing both format and informal foreign education that can help them to find a proper job after they graduate from high school and university. Within the low income of the family, Kurun children will absolutely not be able to access to foreign language education. Moreover, there is no any foreign language center in the village or nearby which Kurun children access to get foreign language education. We know how importance it is to help young generation through providing them good education and knowledge. The project will aim to open the informal class for those children at first, but after we get from any donors the project intends build a school for them called Foreign Language School.
This project can share the happiness with those children by helping them to get to know foreign language, and learn to live together, learn to be, and learn to do. Cambodia is going to integrate into one community one destiny in 2015 with other ten countries. Cambodian people are needed to know foreign language and be able to speak for communication in the region and workplace. This will give a broader comparative picture in terms of identifying the need of the young children for the future in Cambodia after 2015.

Since then OVEA has been running teaching programs for students in and out of the village. The programs are organized into two separate parts: the first one is English teaching, the other one is Khmer teaching. Nowadays, we have more than 100 students studying in our association.

OVEA strongly believes that rural-area students could obtain well education from our association both English and Khmer. For poor students to have a chance to receive equality in education, the association is scheduled to offer scholarships to them.

Through its projects, OVEA aims to meet the direct needs of the individuals and communities we work with. We believe that it is our responsibility to ensure that the beneficiaries of our projects have access to the information which can guide them into a future of awareness – from health and lifestyle to social responsibilities and rights.

Vision:

We envisage a fair and equitable society built on compassion and loving-kindness and offering education for all.

Mission:

Our mission is to improve the lives of those most in need by providing compassionate care and educational opportunities, especially to poor and vulnerable children and to disadvantaged young students.

Strategic Goal:
Our strategic goal is to develop a successful model of change that offers society’s most disadvantaged people a significantly improved living standard and lives for a better future and then to replicate it to bring a transformational change to society.

Values:
We provide our services with a sense of compassion, respect, and loving-kindness.
We run our organization with integrity, professionalism, and accountability.

Objectives:
Foreign language education which are important to human beings, nowadays, become the critical thought among the other issues in Cambodia in which foreign language education will help young Cambodian children to find a proper job after the integration of ASEAN. Providing a foreign language education has many important following objectives that Kurun village children will be able:
1. To help them to seek the proper paid job after they graduate high school.
2. To help them to earn a better living.
3. To be a vital human resource for helping Cambodian government to develop the country.
4. To help them to avoid unwholesome deeds cause from ignorance.
5. Developing Siem Reap province and provide an education, material school and scholarship to rural area student
6. Encourage rural area student all go to school, old student help young students and parents will be appreciated in sending their children to school
7. Provide information, assistance and counseling for the young students in seeking study opportunities and jobs.

Intereses

Currently there are 7 people including high school student are working at Our Village Education Association
There are also a number of foreign volunteers assisting OVEA on a short and long-term basis.
1. Mr. MEY Sopheakdei

Biography: Mr. MEY Sopheakdei is the co-founder and executive director of Our Village
Education Association. He received his BA in Teaching English to Speakers of
Other Language from Pannasastra University of Cambodia (PUC) and He
received his BA in International Relations from University of Cambodia (UC) in
2014.

2. Mr. MEY Seynga

Biography: Mr. MEY Seynga is the co-founder and deputy director of OVEA. He received
his BA in Foreign Language Teaching from University of Norton (NU)

3. Mr. Pov Ponluk
Position: Mr. Pov Ponluk is a Program Director of English School of OVEA. He is currently studying his
BA in English Literature from Build Bright University (BBU).

4. Phea Hom
Position: Teacher of English and Accountant. She is currently studying in grade 11 at Sasar Sdom
High School.

5. Vouer Savourn
Position: Teacher of English. She is currently studying in grade 11 at Sasar Sdom High School.
6. Vey Thea
Position: Teacher of English. She is currently studying in grade 11 at Sasar Sdom High School.
7. Som Visal
Position: Teacher of English. She is currently studying in grade 11 at Sasar Sdom High School.

• fish
• literature
• education
• dining
• running
• modeling
• technology
• drawing
• cycling
• fishing
• teaching
• international relations
• languages
• tourism
• lakes

Música, películas y libros

Our Programs
OVEA currently runs five projects:
1. One English Class Building School Project in Kukrun Village
2. One English Class Building School Project in Kukreang Village
3. One English Class Building School Project in Sasar Sdom Village
4. One English Class Building School Project in Mukben Village
5. One English Class Building School Project in Srok Svay Village
In Siem Reap, a major tourist center and home to the world heritage site, Angkor Wat, jobs in the tourist sector help many Khmer families lift themselves out of poverty.
OVEA opens the door to the poorer sectors of the community by providing them with the opportunity of gaining the valuable skill of learning a foreign language. Poor children are given free classes in English. These skills empower disadvantaged and vulnerable people to find good work in this burgeoning tourist city. The hope here is that the very poor can receive education without compromising their families’ food budgets.
Language skills are necessary for tourism-related employment, whether in hotels, restaurants, travel agencies or transportation services. For children from poor backgrounds, it can be particularly difficult, if not impossible, to afford language classes that usually range between $5 – over $10 per month. OVEA seeks to make such opportunities available, at little to no cost, to all those who seek it by running a foreign language school in rural Siem Reap.
With volunteer support, together with Khmer teachers, the OVEA provides General English classes for over 200 students for each school.

Conversation Classes are also offered where the young people can talk, informally, to foreign volunteers. In this more relaxed way they can improve their Conversational skills outside the more formal setting of a classroom. It is good fun!

Initiatives are underway to extend the curriculum to include a more vocationally focused program for students and those already in work in the hospitality industry. Volunteers can make a significant contribution to these work-related courses, in the future.

The OVEA needs your help now

It’s easy to help – you can fund the purchase of chairs for a classroom, buy a laptop for a khmer teacher, or contribute to the school building fund.

Enseña, aprende, comparte

You can come to stay and teach English to village kids.

Qué puedo ofrecer a los anfitriones

The visitors can realize the villagers' lives through staying in the village family.
We are finding donation to facilitate our language school and run a

Help us to change our kid lives through provide them knowledge to live in the future,

Países que he visitado

Cambodia