Paht Keo | Asian Hope

Age: 20
Birthday: March 16
Sophomore
School: Asia Pacific International University
Major: Education/Psychology

Hello, my name is Paht Aaron Keo. Although I don’t really have a clear knowledge of my family’s background due to the fact that I was quite young when I came to live at Asian Hope, I will narrate my life to the best of my ability. In 1990, I was born probably in a province named Kandal, which is about two hours away from the capital city of Cambodia. As long as I can remember, my family was not as poor as it later became. My family owned a two-piece-land property. We were quite happy with our life, until the death of my mother when I was about five years of age.

After the death of my beloved mother, my poor father turned to alcohol and gambling for comfort, but the whole time he made sure his children had something to eat. Never once did he lay a hand on us kids while drunk. He was a loving father. It happened that when we were barely surviving on small property, my father decided to sell it and move somewhere else to start afresh. At the time, gold was still used as much as cash; therefore, we were paid in gold for our land. It was quite a hard task carrying all the gold around so my father wanted to trade it for paper cash instead, but he didn’t have any transportation to go into the city and my mother’s youngest brother offered to take the gold and trade it in for us. Being his wife’s brother and all, my father trusted him and that was the last we saw our money.

We had nothing. One of our kind neighbors allowed us to live on their property. We were very grateful and we built ourselves a tent, which didn’t do much against the harsh wind and heavy rain. My father strived looking for a job and most of the time we survived on food given by other people. A couple of years later, we were taken to the city to live at an orphanage. At first, my father dared not let us go because his heart would break parting with us. In the end he did, although it hurt him to see us go.

The orphanage later went through a series of changes, which I cannot explain because I’m in no position to do so. Then Asian Hope took over. Through God’s guiding hands, I and my brothers were brought safely to Asian Hope. Just hearing the name it gives me comfort; it’s like a sanctuary for me. Asian Hope does live up to its name. It has given me hope, not only in the future alone but in the next life to come. It brings back many delightful memories I’m writing this. Asian Hope has made men and women out of us all, I dare say, God fearing men and women. I owe the world to Asian Hope.

If it weren’t for God, I wouldn’t live to tell this story; in fact, none of us would. At times, when trials and tribulations are too much for me to bear I turn to God for aid. Although I fail to trust God with my feelings sometimes, I’m working on it. I want to give something back to God. I want to serve him the rest of my days. It’s not much compared to what He did for me, but I’m committed to do that. I am anxious to graduate from college so that I can go out and give something back also to Asian Hope in whatever way possible. That’s one of my long term goals.

I want to say thank you to all of you who are donating money for the cause of Asian Hope. I want you to know that Asian Hope hasn’t been letting any of your money to waste, but it’s investing in us, which means you’re helping build Cambodia. I only wish to thank you all in person and I will, in heaven. Hope to meet you all there!

God bless,

Paht

Read more about Paht in the January 2009 newsletter.

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