This sponsored child is busy
Ten-year-old Kongrithy Morn is a sponsored child in Ponhea Leu district, Kandal province, about 70 kilometres from Phnom Penh. He is a member of a World Vision Cambodia children’s club and has been in the sponsorship programme since 2009.
Kongrithy also has another older sister, Sakorl Morn, who is a farmer and garment worker. She is married and lives with her husband in a village nearby.
Kongrithy is a hard-working child. Every day, he and his mother get up early at 5am to clean their cow and oxen’s pen – Ley Dul has one cow and two oxen – so the family can have natural fertiliser. After that, he washes his face and hands.
At 7am, Kongrithy has breakfast. He then helps Socheata to look after her baby. When Kongrithy arrives, his sister goes to the market and buys groceries for her own small business. Once Kongrithy’s niece is asleep, he takes the opportunity to do his homework for writing and reading.
Socheata says, “My youngest brother always helps my mom and me to do chores like cooking rice and washing the soup and rice pot, chopsticks, glasses, plates and bowls every morning and afternoon.” She adds, “He looks after the cow and oxen and takes care of my daughter, too.”
At 9:30am, Kongrithy cleans up and prepares the wood and rice cooker so that he can cook rice for his family.
At 10am, Kongrithy and his mom walk to tie up the one cow and oxen with a long rope so that the animals can eat grass at the rice fields. They later retrieve their livestock at 5pm.
Kongrithy currently travels about two kilometres from his home to school, and sometimes he takes a bicycle to go to school with his friends living in his village. His mom takes him too sometimes when he is late because he had to take care the cow and oxen.
Kongrithy studies in Grade 5 at Batdoeng primary school. His school also has a secondary school, so it will be very easy for him when he completes primary school. There are 1,116 students and 24 teachers in his school.
Kongrithy says, “I am learning four subjects: Khmer literature, mathematics, social studies and science.” He adds, “I like to study Khmer literature the most because I love it.”
Mr Pov Buntha, Kongrithy’s teacher, says, “Kongrithy is a good student and he always helps his friends sweep the classroom and clean the table. He is one of the smarter students amongst the outstanding students as well.” He is ranked ninth in his class among 47 students.
In Cambodia, there are two school sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Morning sessions are from 7am until 11am, and afternoon sessions are from 1pm to 5pm. There are some schools where students can attend both sessions.
Kongrithy leaves school for home at 5:05pm. When he arrives home, he takes a break for a few minutes before he goes to bring the cow and oxen home from the rice field.
At 6pm, the young boy has dinner. Afterwards, Kongrithy takes another short rest before helping his mom collect all the groceries for the small business into their house. Then he reads books and does his homework. He watches television at 7pm.
After a long and activity-filled day, Kongrithy goes to bed at 8:15pm, before starting again at 5am.