Banda is a 12-year-old girl who joined ISF in 2014. When she first started at ISF she was studying in Grade 2 and has since progressed to Grade 5. Banda and her family moved to Phnom Penh from Kampong Cham Province shortly before she enrolled at ISF. Previously Banda had been able to attend school in her hometown for one year. However, the family’s financial difficulties forced her to drop out of school to support her family.

These same financial problems were the reason Banda’s father moved to the city in search of a better life with his two daughters. Banda’s father works as a moto taxi driver. Her older sister is also an ISF student in state school in Grade 8. Banda’s mother still lives in Kampong Cham Province with Banda’s older brother. Her mother works as a seasonal farm worker; picking cashew nuts, rice farming on other people’s land or collecting fire wood. Her brother is in school in the province, studying in Grade 7. Banda said that if she had a magic wand, she would get her family together in one big house.

Banda’s favourite subject at school is English: “I started studying a few weeks after I came to ISF. First I learned numbers and letters. The first word I learned was monkey. I like learning the names of animals, but crocodile is a very difficult word.” She studies one hour a day, five days a week. When she is at home, she tries to teach her father some English. Smiling she said, “I teach him the days of the week, the 12 months and also family names like grandmother and father. Sometimes it is difficult for me, so I can ask my older sister for help.”

“I always feel excited to speak English when visitors come to ISF or I see foreigners near my home”, Banda continued. “English is easy to learn and I always feel excited when the next hour is English class. In class we get to make conversations with each other to practice, I really like it.” Not surprisingly, Banda wants to become an English teacher when she grows up.

*Names of students under 18 are changed.