“I really wanted to study. Sometimes, I went to stand outside the school, watching the people who were studying.” Thany never gave up! He finished high school with his degree, received a Bachelors degree in Business and serves FCOP today as Technical Support Manager.

I am Thany, after my parents passed away, I had no place to live because my father sold and mortgaged everything to give my mom treatments, including our home. After she died we had to pay off debt in order to get our home back so, my father went to dig for sapphires in the Pailin Province.  While he was gone we had to live with neighbors.  No one could take all three of us in, so my brothers and I had to be separated.

Every day I went to tend the neighbors animals and work the fields for them.  Not too much time had passed when I received devastating news.  My dad had been killed by a land collapse while he was mining.  After receiving that news, I didn’t want to live anymore.  But then I thought of my two brothers and knew I had to be strong for them. One day we came to Phnom Penh and began living with our aunt. Even though, she was very poor, she loved us every much. Everyday were always playing around, but we had nothing to eat, so we picked up scraps and garbage from the street or canal along the road.  Our bodies were full of lice and scabies.

I really wanted to study. Sometimes, I went to stand outside the school, watching the people who were studying. I saw the neighbor children going to school and I became really jealous of them. At that time I really cried and felt hopeless. I thought that this is my fate. I have lost everything including the opportunity to go to school, but one day, some neighbors saw us suffering and contacted FCOP to pick us up to come to live in the FCOP church/home. I was able visit my aunt and she visited us at the church/home. She was very sorry.

I was really happy, I was given a bed to sleep on, rice with soup (three times a day), clothes and running-water to take a bath in.  The staff took such good care of us, and healed the chronic itching that I was dealing with.  I was very comfortable and have opportunity going to school like others people

Now I have graduated from high school, and have a Bachelors Degree in business Administration.  I’m married and expecting my first child in June, working with FCOP where I am the Technical Support Manager.  I really thank God for preparing everything for me.  I thank FCOP for supporting me and giving me a life I never thought I would have.  I am forever grateful!