I had been looking forward to this event for a while. A few months before the event, I was already counting the days. Knowing that we would welcome so many people at school, including local partners, donors from abroad, NGO members, Excellencies, especially the ones from Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training, Ministry of Tourism and from the French Embassy, it was both exciting and a little bit stressing… We really wanted to show the best of our school! A few days before the ceremony, we all worked hard together for it and I think we succeeded.
This day was very special to me because I have worked at Sala Baï since its very beginning in 2002. I had the opportunity to see again many people who have helped the school for the last 14 years. I received from them a lot of congratulations regarding all the work done here year after year. I was very proud of it, not for me but for the school and everything that has been accomplished. When I started working at Sala Baï in 2002, I could not expect that this day would happen, that we would have our land, that we would own our school and would not be dependent on a land owner anymore… You know, at the very beginning, we were running the school on a day-to-day basis, and if we had dreamt about this, we could have never imagined that it could come true! Being able to live it and share this moment with all the Sala Baï students and my colleagues was a great satisfaction!
For the future, I wish a lot of other successes to Sala Baï and I carry other dreams for it. When I still see so many poor young Cambodians with no perspectives for their future, I would like the school to keep developing, to welcome even more students and offer even more trainings. I’m sure that those dreams will also become true one day and this is why I would like to continue to work here: in order to see Sala Baï new successes!