Greetings! Hope this new year is full of blessings for you and all that's yours! Todays note is written by one of GIBTK Blessings, Leakhena, she leads our homes in Cambodia. As always if led to write a note of encouragement to LeakHena I will pass it on.
"Hello everyone! My name is Leakhena. I was born on April, 4th in 1995. My birth place is in Battambang, Cambodia. I graduated in the field of banking in 2016 at Build Bright University.
I have four members in my family, my dad and two younger sisters. I am the first child in my family.
My mom passed away when I was in grade 11 in high school. I tried to finish my high school because my grandmother supported me. I remembered riding a bicycle for 14 kilometers with pumping and dusty roads for school every day. I packed rice with one egg every day. I was judged from my neighbor that I was not able to finish my high school. They told me that you should quit because you are poor and a girl. You should go to Thailand or work in the Casino as the dealer.
I remembered myself keep fighting with the voice of people around me that tried to pull me away from education. I cried every night when I was in high school. The situation of my family was down since my mom was the main financial support in my family. My dad did not really support me for school.
It is so painful because I really love school. He also told me to quit school for working in Thailand, too. However, I tried to my finish my high school because it was free so I didn't need to spend my money on school fee. I didn't buy books because I was received it from the school since I was one of the top students in class. Furthermore, after finishing my high school,
I was about to quit my University. Fortunately, GIBTK was launched in Cambodia. I was one of the girls in Marlene's Home. I am the first generation when GIBTK was launched in Cambodia. It was such a blessing that GIBTK existed in Cambodia which allowed a poor girl like me to have a chance to continue my University.
It is like a miracle to me that GIBTK landed in Battambang at the same time when I completed my high school, as my dad could only help me with living expenses, but it is not for studying. Honestly, I didn't know what I should select as my major in University, so I choose banking because I am good at mathematics.
Later on, I definitely found my real passion and my calling for working here. I first chose to work for another Organization before I came back to GIBTK. However, every time I come and see the girls in Battambang, there is a little whisper in my heart about my passion. "This is where you belong". I felt so much love when I see them. God told me to come back so I obeyed. I wanted to go there, but my heart doesn't speak the same language as my brain does. Two words made me feel so warm, "Welcome Home".
It is such a blessing for me for working here. I could not count my blessings since the day I moved in this warm and safe home. I know what home means and how it looks like however, this extraordinary home has written so many special memories in my heart.
It made me feel about it and experience the different imagination from my own aspect of the word home. It is so much more than what I have thought. It transformed my future and my family future. I never regret leaving my home for the better future. I strongly believe that education surely leads you to the better future. So I want the other girls have an opportunity of receiving this chance for a better future as I did too.
I am so thankful to GIBTK for giving me this great opportunity. It is so much more than this that I could not describe all. I just know that "Without GITBK, I didn't have a chance to write this to you". Thank you so much for spending your precious time reading this."
><((((º> BBlessed
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