05/01/2026
In 1992, a little boy in Cambodia heard a sound he’d never heard before — a woman on a dirt bike, so loud he could hear her from a kilometer away. Cambodia was slowly finding its footing again after decades of war, and a foreign face was still something rarely seen.
He watched her ride past every day. When she finally stopped and reached out her hand, his heart was pounding so hard he stepped back. He didn’t know what a handshake was.
But he decided to take it anyway.
She smiled. She hugged him. And something in him shifted.
He didn’t know what language she was speaking. He just knew he wanted to understand it.
With no money and no books, he found a monk at the pagoda willing to teach for free. He showed up every day with a wooden board and chalk — copying letters, A to Z, over and over. When class ended, he’d go home and write every word he’d learned on the walls of his grandmother’s house. So he could see them while he played marbles. So he could read them from the hammock.
By the time he was done, every wall was full.
That boy is Sary. And in 2018, he started teaching English in his garden. He later sold his motorbike and built a real school in Puok — where he now lives with his wife Malis and daughter Monika, surrounded by the students he calls his own.
He built Village Rays because he knows exactly what opens doors. And he wants every child in that classroom to have the key. 🇰🇭
We’re proud to stand behind what he’s building.
