Chanthea and Davin's Story

Interviews with Davin & Chantea

I am ten years old. My name is Davin. Before I came to live in orphanage, my life was a struggle. I had no money, and could not afford an education. My mom was sick. When I was small, I caused a lot of trouble and made her worried. I took medicine for her, and help her to sell stuff, but I did not get the money. I also helped my grandma to sell things. 

When my father was about to die, I took care of him. I had no time to go to school – I took care of him. I bought food for him to eat. He asked me to buy him the food.

When I helped my grandma selling, things  I always used the money to buy medicine for dad. We didn’t have a clean water to drink. And there was no mattress for sleep. We didn’t even have bed to sleep on. We slept on wooden floor.  There were no toys. We only looked after dad, and called doctor to inject him and give him medicine.

When I went to school, my mom always cooked food for us. But food wasn’t delicious like the food in orphanage. The rice didn’t taste good like it does here, and we didn’t have enough clothes. Our clothes were old. We didn’t have soap. We lacked shampoo, and body soap. We didn’t have money to buy shoes.

When my dad was sick, I was hopeless. My uncle helped me to give me money for study. I didn’t have a bike to ride to school.

When I thought about it, I was hopeless, and I didn’t want to eat. I was small, and I made my parents disappointed.  She encouraged me. She brought me to dad and mom and my sister. When my dad was about to die, he asked my sister to buy a snack for him to eat. After he ate, he took a drink of water, and then he died.

I love my sister. She washed my clothes. She cooked the food, washed plates, and bought snacks for me to eat. She brought me to school. My mom worried for two of us that we might have an accident on the way to school.

I always washed Davin’s clothes. I bathed him. When he cried at night, I always comforted him to play with things around him. When I bathed him, I brushed to clean his body and to shampoo him. There was not enough shampoo. After took the bath, I always combed his hair. I dressed him. I always took care of my brother for my mom. 

I like it when my brother plays with me. When he was a small boy, he played a lot. When he wanted things, I bought them for him. When he hungry, I fed him.

When I came to live in the orphanage, I met Jesus. I am so excited that I can come and live in the orphanage. Living here, we have delicious food, we have enough clothes, we have shoes, shampoo, soap – unlike when I was at home – it was a hard life. Living here, have a suitable place for living. We have blankets and pillows. This house is also different from our first home. Here we have mattress for sleeping. There is a fan, when the weather gets hot. I am happy to live here. I have brothers and sister who live here. I feel warm when I have mom and dad taking care of me everyday. When I do wrong, they always correct me. We have enough school supplies. We always go what we need for our studies. We have money to go to school. We have enough everything for school.

Living here, I am thankful to the Lord for knowing Him. I thank dad for helping me to know the Lord, for teaching me the Bible, and praising the Lord. The Lord has provided pillows, mattresses, fans – a suitable place to live – and we have enough supplies for school and money to pay for school. Mom broings us to school. Mom takes care of us. When I do wrong, mom corrects me. She taught me to wash the clothes. At night time, she tells us to do our home work. We have TV to watch.

Interview with Seng You, orphan home director

Hello. My name is That Seng You. I am in charge of the children in this orphanage. I am excited that the Lord has called me to serve Him with Asia’s Hope. As their guardian, I am happy that the Lord has used me to be responsible for the orphan children; they are a gift from the Lord.

I would like to report about how I select the children come to live here. To choose the children to live here, we find the children who are struggling. Some children, their parents ran away from them. Their parents abandoned them to go to work in Thailand or abandoned them without leaving any information. Some left the children with grandma or some left children by themselves and then the parents ran away. These children were having a hard time because there was no one to take care of them. They could not experience love from parents. They couldn’t go to school. They had no food, no clothes. When they got sick, they had no one to take them to see the doctor, no medicine to drink.  

For example, Chanthea and Davin, when their father was lying in bed, sick with AIDS, they did not have time to go to school because they spent most of their time taking care of their father who laid on the bed. They served him with cool or hot water, or helped to buy food for father, taking care of him when he was unable to do things for himself. So they did not have enough time to go to school. 

The also had a hard time after their father died – their mom also was sick in bed. They had a hard time because after their father died, their family had difficulty with finances. Their father had sold the rice field and house to pay for his medical expenses. When he spent all the money on medical care, his wife and children were had time.

But after he died, he left nothing for his family. His wife had no money to provide for the children to go to school. No money to buy food, clothes. Especially, the responsible fell on Chanthea. It was a heavy duty. She needed to sell fruit and snacks in order to get money to support her family, pay for school and for food for basic daily living. 

At the same time, they were having a hard time because they didn’t have place to live. They slept here and there with grandma and with others. They really didn’t have a place, because their parents had AIDS.

When I went down to pick them up, I saw that they did not go to school because they had nothing. So, I brought them to come to live the orphanage, to give them opportunity to go to school, to provide them enough food. We thank the Lord for Asia’s Hope taking responsibility to provide for their needs and to make a difference in their lives; to provide theme with food, clothes, and give them opportunity to go to school; to provide them with medicines and vaccinations. Most of all, we see that Asia’s Hope has plans to provide for them to go for college. It is a very important help which the Cambodian people need. 

I would like to talk about Chanthea once again. When she was living with her family, she responded as if she was the head of a household. She cooked. She took care of her mother who was sick. She sold snacks to earn money to support the family. Her duty was so heavy like a head-of-household. But when she came to live in the orphanage, she wasn’t responsible for that heavy duty any more. Because in the orphanage, we have enough staff to take care of her. We don’t need for her go to sell snacks to earn money to pay for school because we get full support from Asia’s Hope. That includes providing her with clothes, food and school. Moreover, when she is sick, we have money to bring her to see the doctor.

Chanthea, her life is completely changed, unlike when she was living with her parents. She is happy that she can forget the pressure of duty that used to have while she was living with her family. Most of all, we thank to the Lord for He has chosen her to know Him. She has gone from hopeless to hopeful, because she knows that the Lord with continue to provide her need. Most of all, she has hope that when she believes in the Lord, she will be saved when she passes away from this world. And she has hope that while she is living Asia’s Hope will continue to provide for her until she graduate from college.