Mai Cheu
Mai Cheu is 12 years old and she is studying in grade 6 at The Gloria and Henry Jarecki Special Skills School, which is located in Torng Norng Lek village, O’chum commune, O’chum district and Ratanakiri province.
Mai Cheu is an ethnic minority student and she has two brothers and two sisters. She is the second child in the family. Her parents are farmers who have one hectare of farmland which growing rice and they can harvest the rice between 500-1000 kg per year. They do not grow rice for selling because they keep it for their daily consumption.
Mai Cheu said that to be as the farmers, the rice yield could not support the family enough in the whole year, so that they have to find more works such as cutting grass, picking cashew nut for their neighbors and get about 5.00US dollar a day for one worker. At the weekend she goes to the farm with her parents and helps them to do the farming.
She always goes to school every day by walking because her house locates nearby the school and after school, she always helps her mother to do housework and look after her siblings.
In the future, Mai Cheu wants to work as a teacher because she wants to have a better life and she doesn’t want to be a farmer like her parents anymore. She thinks to be a farmer must be working hard to earn the money and also not enough to support the family well. On the other hands, she can provide education to a next generation and support her family to live in a better life.
Updated: June 2018
