PEPY Team Profile: Hangchhay Ao

My name is Hangchhay Ao and I am a graduate student of IT in Cambodia. I have been working for PEPY as an IT officer since my second year of university, so it’s been two years and half so far. Before I started working with PEPY, I didn’t have any work experience and I often heard people say that you will be required to gain experience in order to find a good job.

When I am working I feel that I am improving beyond my level of study at school because I can put into practice what I learned from school. Also sometimes when I have a problem I can ask my co-workers to help me and if they have problem with their computer I help them too! So the workplace also can be a ‘school’ for us to practice and learn from other people who have different experiences.

PEPY is an organization which has a focus on education and encourages youth to try to achieve their dreams, I feel that I have always been supported by PEPY both now and when I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree. What I also like is that I have an opportunity to study English both at school and work. This is because there are several foreigners who come to volunteer. Working with them is a good opportunity for me to learn about their culture and practice English.

Through my job I have attended training sessions on subjects including Health, Child Protection and Finance, which have been very interesting and useful for me and my colleagues. Last month I was pleased to hold a Media Training session myself, here I shared information with my colleagues in Chanleas Dai. We talked about how to make a video slideshow using pictures and some useful information about software for their job.

As I have an interest in education, working at an educational organization is a good way for me feel that I am helping Cambodian people, especially children. My goal is to get a scholarship to study abroad because I want to learn more about Information Technology that I haven’t learnt in my country. I also want to know about the culture and the way of life in another country. After that I can teach what I know to Cambodian students as I also hope that all Cambodian people will get quality educated and become good resources for the country.