Yeng Somnang

Introduction – 23rd November 2020

Yeng Somnang is sponsored by Jonno Smalley from Leicestershire, England at US$50 per month. Jonno is a friend of Neil Burns who sponsors Chea Kanha.

Somnang is a 7-year-old boy born in 2013 and lives in No Truck village with his parents. His father is a fishermen and his mother is a factory worker. He studies in grade 1 at Government school and Choice school. Somnang likes to play football in his free time and he wants to be a teacher when he grows up.

Somnang near his home. November 2020

Somnang in grade 1 English class. November 2020
Somnang is reading to his class. November 2020

Somnang with his best friend – November 2020

Somnang is learning the English alphabet both upper and lower case. He had learnt up to letter Hh when the school had to close again for 2 weeks due to a new covid outbreak. He will learn letter Ii when school reopens again.

Samnang is very happy to come back to school after a long break due to the covid pandemic – November 2021

Samnang is a smart boy as he can write all the letters of the English alphabet, even tho he couldn’t come to school for so long. Samnang and his friends who study in the same class, had to have a covid vaccine jab before they came back to school and now they all can play happily together.


One of the issues Choice has experienced teaching kids from extremely poor families is that such families don’t always understand or appreciate the benefits of getting educated. As a result they do not always make enough effort to ensure their kids attend school regularly. In some cases attendance levels drop to an unacceptable level, even sometimes stopping for several weeks or more. Choice is now applying a policy of any student not attending sufficiently without an acceptable reason, such as health issues, then they will loose their place. Choice has started replacing some of these students with ones located closer to the Choice school from slightly better off families who do want their kids educated well and who make sure their kids attend very regularly.

We will still continue to give the poorest kids the first opportunities but they will loose their place if attendance is not sufficient. Without having a high attendance the child will fall behind and likely find themselves unable to progress to a higher grade class.

Unfortunately Somnang has become one of those and we have taken the difficult decision to remove his place. Jonno has allowed us to transfer his sponsorship to another child. He now sponsors Makara Davuth.

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