Piseth’s Story

Piseth is 11 years old, and he’s been attending Hagar’s Community Learning Centre (CLC) for three years now. Piseth’s family comes from a low-income area on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Before he came to CLC, he went to a school close to his home province, but his parents ran into financial difficulty and he could no longer attend. They had five other mouths to feed and it was just too hard to sustain sending Piseth to school. That’s when a friend of Piseth’s told him about CLC. They told him about the services that CLC offered, and how they could support Piseth to get back into school.  

Piseth loves learning at CLC. He loves mathematics, and he’s good at it. He needs to be, because his dream is to become an architect. Like any child, Piseth has his dislikes, and his least favorite subject is Khmer literature.  

Friendship is an important part of Piseth’s day-to-day life at CLC, and he’s happy with his friends and how they help him to do better at school, “I have made good friends here. They always support me; they explain more to me after class. They help me to understand my homework, it’s helpful in classes that I don’t find easy,” shares Piseth.  

After school, Piseth spends time with his grandmother. He loves being around her because she knows a lot, and he always learns from her. It’s clear that Piseth values learning in all areas of his life, because he says that his favorite teacher at school is his favorite because he always gives him good advice. Because of the work that Hagar does through CLC, Piseth is empowered to keep learning, and Hagar is committed to walking the whole journey with him.