The Cambodia Rural School Project
The Wakako Hironaka School
Noung Kim Chheang, the director of the school. (Feb. 2000)
Noung Kim Chheang was bom in the village of Robieb, the home of
the Wakako Hironaka School. He is 46 years old, with a wife and six children, all of whom have attended the school in Robieb.
He has been director of the school since 1984. Before then, he was a teacher in Robieb from 1979.
During the period of Democratic Kampuchea (1975 – 1979), when the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot controlled the country, Noung Kim Chheang worked as a forced laborer in the rice paddies of Siem Reap.
“I became a teacher because I wanted to teach the young people of Cambodia how to read and write. I prefer teaching to being a director, because I miss working with the children.”
| on the future of his students: | “I hope that my children will learn good knowledge. In the future, these children will have more opportunities than I had growing up, because they will learn more about information technology. I am very proud for our school having special equipment. Since we have computers and solar panels, the school leaders have more responsibility to take care of the property. But, my children will have brighter futures because they will have more opportunities.”
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| message to Wakako Hironaka: | “On behalf of all the teachers and students of this school, I would like to wish our donor great prosperity and happiness.” |
