Founder & Executive Director

I would like to express my respect and welcome all of our generous visitors coming from other countries around the world that have helped the CBAVC projects. As the Founder and Executive Director of CBAVC, I would like to provide my personal background.

I was born in 1982 in Chikreng district outside of Siem Reap town. I have nine siblings and I am the third child in family. My family was very poor and they were farmers. I have lived through a very difficult life through prolonged civil war after the strict control of Pol Pot and the Communist Regime in the poorest part of the country. This period of Cambodia’s history was truly a horrific experience for myself, my family, and my country. Even today, many of my childhood memories are too painful to remember.

When I was 6 years old I began going to school and I was able to attend primary school for 6 years. Unfortunately, they could not afford to support me with study materials, clothes and enough food to eat. I spent all of my time working in the paddy fields and when I returned in the evening I would often cry because I had not enough food to eat.

Anyway, I still liked my studies and I often used my finger as a pencil to write in the sand or used a scrap of paper as my notebook. It made me remember some of the words I had studied at school before. I liked studying and praying because my parents were Buddhists. When I grew up a little, I asked my parents if I could leave the family and go to the pagoda. They allowed me to go. I became a pagoda boy at the age of 16 years old and I lived with monks in the temple to study Buddhist philosophies.

I became a monk when I was a boy at the age of 17 years old and I then attended Buddhist secondary school and completed junior Buddhist high school in 2005. I often practiced English conversation with teachers and classmates at school which made me very interested in education. I continued to undertake bachelor and master’s degrees and now I have degrees in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), a bachelors degree in Project Management, and an MBA in General Management from Build Bright University.

I became a monk for 18 years and I disrobed in 2019. A childhood dominated by prolonged civil war and extreme poverty had a profound effect on my future. It inspired me to create CBAVC so that I can work towards giving some of the most destitute members of society, such as orphans, vulnerable children, and disabled people the same opportunities that I eventually benefited from. I want to provide them with a loving home so that they can flourish into their adulthood.

Finally, I am forever grateful to all people around the world that have helped with this project. The CBAVC that exists today is a result of hard work and the dedication of myself, other monks, members of CBAVC staff, volunteers, and many other generous people from all over the world. Without their invaluable help, CBAVC would not be able to transform the lives of so many orphans, vulnerable children, and disabled people.

I am looking forward to welcoming you to our association’s work and I wish you good luck and success for everything you do.

Yours sincerely,

San Van