A Generation of Change: Chhavy’s story (Correction Included)

Like most of our employees in Cambodia, Chhavy is a daughter of the post-genocide era in Phnom Penh. She graduated from DDD earlier this year and now works to improve the future of some of Cambodia’s least fortunate children, and she dreams about starting her own business.

Correction: Chhavy’s father did not serve as an officer in the army under the Khmer Rouge. During that time he worked as a peasant, and after the fall of the Khmer Rouge he joined the Cambodian People’s Armed Forces (CPARF). The CPARF were the armed forces of the People’s Republic of Kampuchea, established primarily in response to the security threat that the CGKD forces, including the Khmer Rouge, presented.

***

Like most of our employees in Cambodia, Chhavy is a daughter of the post-genocide era in Phnom Penh. She graduated from DDD earlier this year and now works to improve the future of some of Cambodia’s least fortunate children, and she dreams about starting her own business.

Chhon Chhavy was born in 1981, two years after the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia had fallen. She was the first of five children. Her parents lived in Kandal province and, like most other Cambodian families, they suffered under the Khmer Rouge, but they survived and avoided being split up or separated into different work camps.

After the Khmer Rouge years, Chhavy’s father joined the Cambodian People’s Armed Forces (CPARF). “When I was a child, I didn’t know about my father’s job. When you are a child, you don’t understand about those things. I would just always be happy to see him when he came back after being away for so long.” says Chhavy. As an adult, she has asked her father about life during the Khmer Rouge and the following decades. He says it was a difficult time and that he never wants General Pol Pot to come back. “No one in Cambodia wants that time to come back.”

Chhavy worked for DDD as a data-entry operator for five years and just recently graduated to a job outside DDD. She now works as a librarian at Hagar International, an NGO that rehabilitates female victims of trafficking in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Afghanistan. She notes that although her daily work is very different, DDD and Hagar International are similar organizations: They are both helping marginalized Cambodians to build better lives.

At Hagar, more than one hundred children use the library and attend the impromptu English and IT classes Chhavy teaches. She says her new job is gratifying because she can help point the children in the direction of a better future. “I didn’t know about this problem in Cambodia before I came to Hagar. Sometimes the parents sell their daughters because they are so poor. I want Cambodia to get rid of this problem.”

Chhavy also has entrepreneurial dreams: She wants to use her experience from DDD to make money so that she can start a small business with her brother.

Thanks in part to Chhavy’s financial support; all of her siblings have been able to study in university. Her brother has become a veterinarian. “In my province, everyone has animals everywhere that are not taken properly care of. When the animals die, the farmers sell the meat in the market and people get sick. I want to provide medicine for the animals, so that people don’t get sick.” explains Chhavy. Right now she is gaining work experience at Hagar and talking to people who have their own businesses so that she can learn from them, before she moves on to realize her dream for herself and her family.

“I think my parents are good parents. They made sure all their children got an education so that we can get good jobs. I want all the children in my country to be able to get an education. And I want peace in Cambodia.”