By Yasmina Guerda
Sarvina’s smile never leaves her face. A 23-year old activist, a model student, a very active and generous member of her community, Sarvina is one of those people that seems to have been born in a good mood.
On weekdays, Sarvina works in a bank, and at 5:30, she rushes to her university evening classes. She’s trying to get a Masters Degree in Development Management. “What I really want to learn is journalism. I want to give a voice to the girls and women of Cambodia,” she stated in hesitant yet flawless English. “ My problem is that there is no journalism degree in this country.”
This was not enough to make her drop her dream. Last year, she won a contest to become the WorldPulse Voices Of Our Future 2010 Correspondent in Cambodia. “This program is giving me all the training I need to become a good reporter, and I have never been so encouraged in my whole life! I’m still a little afraid to write stories in English, but little by little I’m getting there. Good journalism is so important for a country!”
Among the many assignments she’s had to complete through the Action Blogging Campaign program, Sarvina had to write a letter to Michelle Bachelet, UN Women Executive Director and former Chilean President. “There is a proverb in Cambodia that asserts that men are like gold, women like a fresh white piece of linen. Even if gold is put in the fire, it remains ever the same. A white piece of linen, as soon as it has one blemish, is no longer of any use to anyone. The idea that girls and women are disposable commodities still prevails in Cambodian society, aggravated by the disproportionate value placed on virginity,” she wrote in a letter that focused on the issue of sex trafficking in Cambodia. (read full letter here).
Although she appears to be a confident young woman today, she wasn’t always this way. In Cambodia, as in many other developing countries, on top of the fee that families pay for schools, parents often also have to give some extra money to the teachers for them to actually pay attention to their students. Sarvina’s parents couldn’t afford the extra cost: “Because of that, my teacher didn’t like me. She kept making me run errands for her instead of letting me sit in class. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to give up. I remember, at 12, coming home and telling my parents that I couldn’t do it anymore. But they insisted that I keep going. They really wanted me to get an education.”
Sarvina’s father is an ice deliveryman, and her mother can’t work because of her fragile health. Neither of them went to school, but they believe in the power of education. “All my life, my mother kept saying to me, ‘When you are educated, you are respected.’ I’ll never forget that.”