Chumkriel Language School runs its education and community outreach programs through a body of experienced, enthusiastic and highly committed staff.

Nget Sothy (Mr Thy) is the Founder and Director of CLS. He grew up one of nine children of farming parents in remote Preytrang Village, Kampot Province, with little access to education. This experience gave him an appreciation of how lack of education was holding back many children growing up in rural areas of Cambodia.

After training as a Teacher, he moved to Kampot to pursue his career. There, in 2005, he took the first steps to establish CLS, a school to supplement the education provided to rural children, with an initial focus on teaching English. CLS has grown much since then into the wider-ranging educational and community outreach organisation it is today.

Thy is married with two children.

Chhun Ratanak is the eldest of four children who grew up in Svay Torng Village, Kampot Province. His father sold pots and his mother cared for the children until she passed away. He is married and joined CLS in 2021 following his marriage.

Ratanak is the Evening School Manager and is committed to his role for several reasons. He wants to see children of the community get a good education to secure their futures. He is keen to pass on what he has learnt at university and from other sources to the younger generation. And he loves continuing to learn himself from his co-workers and to share knowledge with them.

He finds CLS an enjoyable workplace for the guidance he gets from Thy and other teachers, and he appreciates having clear and sound job criteria. He believes further teacher training and English language instruction will assist his professional development and his work.

In 2022 Ratanak was selected for and completed the Professional English Network Program, an eight week professional development course sponsored by the US Embassy. And in 2023 he spent four weeks in the United States on an exchange program developing skills in English language teachers from 24 different countries.

Da Tith is one of four children from a farming family. He grew up in Duoug Village, Stoeng Keo Commune.

Tith commenced employment as Computing Teacher with CLS in 2021.  He loves working as a part of the CLS team and is motivated by its commitment to educating and supporting the children of poorer families and its concern also for the welfare of the families themselves.

Him Kheang is one of five children and grew up in Outouch Village, Kampot Province. He joined CLS in 2017 and, with his experience in driving trucks, was immediately commissioned to drive the CLS truck which buses salt field children to and from school six days a week.

Kheang also runs a building program as part of CLS’s Community Outreach. This program builds simple houses and toilets for the poorest families in Chumkriel and neighbouring areas.

Kheang is motivated to work for CLS because of his own commitment to assisting disadvantaged families and educating their children, offering them better opportunities in life.

Kheang is married with two children.

Keo Phoas is the youngest of five children, raised in a poor farming family in Takeo province, an hour and a half north of Kampot. Her only brother, who was sponsored through university by a Christian organisation, supported Phoas to study at university when she finished school.

Phoas is the Administration & Finance Officer of CLS where she has worked since 2013. In joining CLS she was motivated to helping the poorest in the community by improving the education of their children so they would enjoy better opportunities on leaving school.

Phoas is married and has one child.

Kimhoun is one of seven children from a farming family in Themy Village, Themy Commune, north of Kampot.

On finishing school, Kimhoun spent three years working in a restaurant. During this time she also volunteered with CLS. Then in 2014 she took a full-time job with CLS as a Librarian and Teacher.

She loves working with children and is particularly keen to help them develop an interest in books and to improve their reading skills.

Kimhoun is married and has one child.

Sing Thavy grew up near Kampot on a farm worked by her parents. She joined CLS in 2013 as a Teacher and is now Manager of the Learning Centre and one of its key Teachers.

In 2022 Thavy was selected for and completed the Professional English Network Program, an eight week professional development course sponsored by the US Embassy. And in 2023 she is completing a Pedagogy course which will lead to teacher registration by the government.

Thavy loves working with children, sharing with them her knowledge and experience to make a real difference in their lives and those of their families and the community of which they are a part.

Thavy has appreciated the opportunities her work has afforded her to improve her English and her teaching abilities through Workshops and through training by experienced teachers who have volunteered with CLS over the years.

Vet Phen is one of seven children from a farm worked by her parents outside Kampot. She joined CLS as a Teacher in 2018. In joining CLS, Penh was impressed by the fact it’s a non-profit organisation committed to the education of children from poor backgrounds and to the general welfare of their families.

Phen teaches at a small school operated by CLS in the salt fields, teaches English at Evening School, and also helps with administration at the Learning Centre. In 2023 she is completing a Pedagogy course which will lead to teacher registration by the government.

She is keen on the opportunity teaching affords to share her knowledge with the children from this particularly disadvantaged environment, and to develop over time her own teaching skills and experience.

Penh is married to Phorn Pisey and they have one child.

Phorn Pisey grew up in Boeng Ta Pream Village, one of five children whose parents were fishermen. Sadly his only brother passed away following a road accident.

Pisey attended primary school in Boeng Ta Pream and secondary school in Ang Village. He then went to Phrarichsom Phea High School and completed schooling to Grade 12.

On leaving school, Pisey worked first in a hotel in Sihanoukville and then in a clothing factory. He joined CLS in October 2022 where he drives the salt field truck, does maintenance work around the school, and assists with the shelter building program.

Pisey enjoys his role at CLS and loves working with and for the children. He is married to Phorn Vet and they have one daughter.

Hul Saophorn is the only child of a family from Chumkriel Village. When she graduated from high school her parents could not afford to send her to university, so CLS supported her studies with a scholarship.

While studying, Saophorn volunteered with CLS and later became a full-time teacher at the Learning Centre where she now runs the Health & Hygiene Program and also teaches English.

In 2022 Saophorn was selected for and completed an eight week professional development course sponsored by the US Embassy. And in 2023 she is completing a Pedagogy course which will lead to teacher registration by the government.

Saophorn is grateful for the experience she gains working with CLS, improving her knowledge and teaching skills, and for the better lifestyle she enjoys as a result of the education she has received.

Saophorn is married and has two children.

Nhet Sanny grew up in a family of five which included her grandmother, mother, father, and a younger brother. Her parents were salt field workers, and the family lived in Svay Village to the north of Chumkriel.

Sanny attended the CLS Learning Centre in 2011 and went to Evening School classes for eight years. On finishing Grade 12, she won a scholarship to study Banking and Finance at university in Kampot.

Sanny completed this four year course in 2021, and in June 2022 joined CLS as a teacher. She is excited to be teaching and is keen to share her knowledge with her students. 

Suon Chantha is one of three children from Samrong Village near Chumkriel. Her father lost both his legs to a land mine, and her mother worked hard as a farmer supporting her husband and children. It was a difficult life with little money, food or clothing, no clean water, and tough living conditions.

CLS assisted the family with renovations to their simple home and provided Chantha with a scholarship to study English at Evening School and, when she left school, a second scholarship to study to become a teacher. On completing these studies, she commenced teaching at Angprey State School and also joined the CLS Evening School at Angprey, teaching English.

Chantha loves teaching, seeing it affording the children of Angprey the opportunity to learn English close to their homes, so they are safe and happy, and are given a better opportunity in life. She enjoys sharing her knowledge with the children who come to learn, and loves working with the Director and staff of CLS.

She finds CLS staff to be a friendly and committed team who share challenges and find solutions. They train together to improve their teaching abilities, and always seek to advance the organisation and its role of educating the children of poor rural and salt field communities.

Chantha is married and has two children.

Loem Sitha is an only child, raised by his mother in a small shelter in Chumkriel. She suffered from a chronic health condition and could work only intermittently in the salt fields, so life was always a struggle.

CLS gave Sitha a scholarship which supported him through 12 years of schooling. On leaving school, he took a job at a Kampot guesthouse, working 84 hours a week to support both himself and his mother. When CLS offered to build them a new home, his mother said she’d rather see the money spent on sending Sitha to university, so CLS sponsored him through a 4-year university course in English.

On completing university, Sitha joined CLS as a part-time Teacher at the Evening School. He loves working with the children, sharing with them his  knowledge and experience to make a difference in their lives and those of their families and the community. He appreciates the opportunities his work affords him to improve his English and his teaching abilities through workshops and through sharing knowledge with other teachers and with volunteers.

Sitha is married and has one child.

Hong Sophalla is one of two children raised in Chumkriel Village by a single mother who works in the salt fields. 

Sophalla joined CLS in 2019 as a Teacher at Evening School. She is very happy in the job, loving to share her knowledge and experience with the children she teaches.

Chan Davy grew up in Chumkriel Village, the eldest of four children. Her parents were both teachers.

She attended the CLS Learning Centre and completed primary and secondary schooling at Chumkriel government school. She then attended high school at Uddom Vichea private school in Kampot.

On completing grade 12 in 2017, Davy spent four years studying at the Regional Polytechnic Institute in Kampot.

Davy joined CLS in 2022 as an Evening School teacher. She is excited to be working with students and is keen to share her knowledge with them.

Ek Khim grew up in a family of ten children. She is responsible for the Soup Kitchen, preparing meals each day for the salt field children. She also tends the vegetable garden.

Kim is married and has three children. Her husband works in the salt fields.

Ek Khin comes from a family of ten children and helps Khim in the Soup Kitchen and the vegetable garden. She is married to a salt field worker and they have three children.