Ing Sovanly, president of the Neary Khmer Association for Health and Vocational Training, is providing free agricultural techniques training to Cambodian farmers to help them improve their standard of living. (Photo: RFA)10 August 2006
By Mao Sotheany
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Mrs. Ing Sovanly is one of the ten Cambodian women who received congratulation medal from the government of Cambodia for her help in Cambodian social development during the celebration of International Women day last 08 March 2006.
The 10 medal recipients were selected by the ministry of women affairs.
Mrs. Ing Sovanly is a 33-year-old woman who was born in Phnom Penh. During the interview, she said that since her childhood, she always like agriculture and always wanted to help explain to Cambodian farmers about natural farm production methods.
Ing Sovanly said: “After surviving the Pol Pot regime, one of my goal is to help people, I do not want to receive any honor, nor obtain any gain. My wish is to help people understand about agriculture. Later on, after I taught the farmers, the government noticed my work and selected me to receive the award and the medal…”
Currently, Mrs. Ing Sovanly lives in Phnom Penh with her husband, Yin Sobunna, a chemical professor at the pedagogy university in Takhmao. She is the third child of a family with three children, including one older brother and another older sister.
Ing Sovanly is the president of the Neary Khmer Association for Health and Vocational Training which was formed in 2004. She did not receive any financial help from any organization or foreign countries to help her form the association. She bore all expenses incurred by the association, and only received financial help from her father who now lives in Thailand. Some farmers are willing to contribute voluntarily some small amounts also.
Ing Sovanly said: “After working in the past 2 years, I have encountered a lot of difficulties from the start until now. I do not complain about the hardship which happened because our association was formed using my personal funding. In the past 2 years, I spent about $100,000 using my own funds and those provided by my father. In the past, people who came to study donate some small amount of money to help the association also.”
Nevertheless, Mrs. Ing Sovanly is proud and very happy of the activities of her association and the education it provided to more than 6,000 farmers, which have met a lot of success.
Ing Sovanly added: “Among the families who use our teaching method in their farming, there are no families who did not meet any success at all. Their financial status has also been improved although the degree of success varies depending on how they practice what they learned [from the association].”
The Neary Khmer Association for Health and Vocational Training counts 10 volunteer workers, including 4 monks, who are actively participating in the training of Cambodian farmers on the agriculture methods.
Of the education provided by her association, Ing Sovanly said: “My association has opened a liaison office in Pochentong, the teaching center is in Beung Thom, Ang Snuol district, Kandal province. The center provides training and it can actually show how the methods taught are applied…”
She said that the formation of her association is not aimed at obtaining any fees or praises from anybody. The most important thing for her is to help Cambodian farmers learn techniques for natural farming provding large crop yields.
Even though she met a lot of difficulties and obstacles, Ing Sovanly promised that she will continue her struggle to help Cambodian farmers – who amount more than 90% of the total population of Cambodia – to improve their standard of living in society.
The 10 medal recipients were selected by the ministry of women affairs.
Mrs. Ing Sovanly is a 33-year-old woman who was born in Phnom Penh. During the interview, she said that since her childhood, she always like agriculture and always wanted to help explain to Cambodian farmers about natural farm production methods.
Ing Sovanly said: “After surviving the Pol Pot regime, one of my goal is to help people, I do not want to receive any honor, nor obtain any gain. My wish is to help people understand about agriculture. Later on, after I taught the farmers, the government noticed my work and selected me to receive the award and the medal…”
Currently, Mrs. Ing Sovanly lives in Phnom Penh with her husband, Yin Sobunna, a chemical professor at the pedagogy university in Takhmao. She is the third child of a family with three children, including one older brother and another older sister.
Ing Sovanly is the president of the Neary Khmer Association for Health and Vocational Training which was formed in 2004. She did not receive any financial help from any organization or foreign countries to help her form the association. She bore all expenses incurred by the association, and only received financial help from her father who now lives in Thailand. Some farmers are willing to contribute voluntarily some small amounts also.
Ing Sovanly said: “After working in the past 2 years, I have encountered a lot of difficulties from the start until now. I do not complain about the hardship which happened because our association was formed using my personal funding. In the past 2 years, I spent about $100,000 using my own funds and those provided by my father. In the past, people who came to study donate some small amount of money to help the association also.”
Nevertheless, Mrs. Ing Sovanly is proud and very happy of the activities of her association and the education it provided to more than 6,000 farmers, which have met a lot of success.
Ing Sovanly added: “Among the families who use our teaching method in their farming, there are no families who did not meet any success at all. Their financial status has also been improved although the degree of success varies depending on how they practice what they learned [from the association].”
The Neary Khmer Association for Health and Vocational Training counts 10 volunteer workers, including 4 monks, who are actively participating in the training of Cambodian farmers on the agriculture methods.
Of the education provided by her association, Ing Sovanly said: “My association has opened a liaison office in Pochentong, the teaching center is in Beung Thom, Ang Snuol district, Kandal province. The center provides training and it can actually show how the methods taught are applied…”
She said that the formation of her association is not aimed at obtaining any fees or praises from anybody. The most important thing for her is to help Cambodian farmers learn techniques for natural farming provding large crop yields.
Even though she met a lot of difficulties and obstacles, Ing Sovanly promised that she will continue her struggle to help Cambodian farmers – who amount more than 90% of the total population of Cambodia – to improve their standard of living in society.
6 comments:
Are you a farmer yourself? Have you done anything in farming to show that you have gotten result?
Good on you. Keep your good work for the community. Yu deserve to be respected by all ordinaries people. We need more people like you in the community. You made you family to be prouded of you. I have also been prouded of you.
Are you truth khmer woman helper?
She, or her father, must be doing well enough to part with $100,000 without wanting anything in return.
I commend and thank you for what you are doing to help those unfortunate Khmer people. However, like anonymous @ 10:11 A.M. said, I have casted some doubt regarding the numbers. It did not seem to add up or realistic. Once again, thank you for your kind heart.
$100,000 by Cambodian standard is a lot. But her time, generosity, and talent spent to help others are priceless and memorable. Please accept my best regard to you and family for the job well-done.
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