HOW DO YOU DEFINE A HERO?

How do you define a hero?

These are a few of the children in a family of ten. One granny, one mother and eight children. The mum took in her sister’s children when their mothers ran off.
My hero is the oldest boy, who worked tirelessly scavenging for recyclables to keep the family fed. Mum was busy with the children and granny helped with the brutal scavenging work when healthy enough. So Chena took on a huge responsibility while still a boy. Plus he had seven “siblings”, all under 7 years old!
His family now lives in our World Housing community (see photo), Chena studies full time (including chemistry at our Neeson Cripps Academy, in the below photo!)
That, to me, is a real hero. He is now 14 years old and needs to catch up on his schooling. Granny is in CCF’s “Granny Program” and will never need to work again. The kids study with us.

My only wish now is that Chena could enjoy life more. He seems to still carry the memories of the burden he thought would last forever. He needs encouragement, acknowledgment of his courage and people to motivate him.
That’s one reason I am telling you: if you want to pass on a message to Chena, in Khmer or English, we will translate and make a book so he never doubts his heroism and never thinks people don’t care. Share to others who may want to leave comments (comments need to be on this page).

Thank you all: I feel very lucky to have so many motivated people supporting me.

For an extra feel-good moment, the last two photos here are a) as I found the family in 2014 and b) the night they moved into their new home.