2015 MWCC Essays

The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum Essay Contest winners

Kong Sokmeas

I am 13 years old and I study in the 8th grade in The Cambridge School located in Torl village, Kauk Rovieng commune, Cheung Prey district Kampong Cham Province.

“Courage” means struggling with all obstacles and always to keep trying with our strong will. It also means to face difficulties with confidence and help people when they are in dangerous situations.

There is a couple living near my house. The husband always drinks and gambles. Most of the time he does nothing to help his pregnant wife do housework or to care for her. His wife is a good woman working hard to do all housework with patience. Her husband always goes out to meet his friends to drink and gamble. Everytime he comes home drunk, he always find faults with his pregnant wife, scolding and yelling at her.

Recently her husband came home very drunk and got angry with his wife for not cooking rice for him to eat on time. He started fighting his wife violently and there was nobody who came to help her. When I saw that horrible scene it made me feel like I was in the middle of a fire, seeing this cruel man behave like this to his wife. I wanted the man to stop beating his wife, so I went straight to him and asked him, why do you beat her so cruelly? I told him that it was not the first time that he beat her while she was pregnant. Beating can cause her to miscarry the baby inside and she might also die. Her husband shouted at me angrily and forced me to stay away from his family affairs or I would be killed.

I thought about this for a few minutes and knew that if didn’t help her this time she and her baby probably would have a big problem. I found a good way to deal with this drunk man by continuing to persuade him many times to stop. I kept trying to explain to him again and again that he has a good wife who does all his housework, cooking rice for him everyday, and that she is patient. I told him that she should be encourged by him, instead of beaten.

Violence against woman is against the law. I told him that I came there not to get invloved with his family, but to stop him from beating his pregnant wife like this again. The drunk man started to calm down and get quiet for a moment.  He began talking to me with soft voice and admitted his faults. He said to me that I am a good boy to care about others and help them.

Now my neighbor understands that drinking makes him crazy, gambling and beating his wife are wrong, and violation against humans, especially women, is very wrong. He will stop all these cruel acts to his wife from now on. A few days later his wife came to me and thanked me so much for helping her.

The man told me that starting from now on he will treat me as his son. He said if I had not come to explain all this to him, his wife would have probably died.

I have shown courage by helping my neighbor to stop his violence toward his pregnant wife.

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Leung Sreytouch

My name is Leung Sreytouch. I am 14 years old and live in Torl village, Kauk Roving commune, Cheung prey district, Kampong Cham province.

Nowadays I live with my mother and my elder brother. My father passed away when I was three years old. He died ten years ago in the rice field when he was plowing the soil. After his death, my mother had to be responsible for everything all by herself, even to look after me and my brother. My mother is a farmer growing rice and vegetables. She also does extra jobs helping villagers with their work, like planting rice. She has to work very hard everyday in order to make money to support the family, especially to send me and my elder brother to school. She sometimes gets sick, but she still goes to work in the rice field.

Besides going to school my brother and I always help my mother with her work. I cook rice, wash clothes, and clean house before and after school. My brother always helps my mother while she works in the rice field. When having free time, my mother always tells me how to behave as a good person in our society. My mother has some problems with health. She has had pain in her heel since before my father’s death. Now she is getting weaker, not strong like she was before, but she still works on the farm.

Now my elder brother studies in 10th grade at Phdao Chum high school and I am in 8th grade at The Cambridge School. This is the result of my mother. She has made great efforts to keep us in school. I feel so much compassion for her. I pray to Buddha everyday to help my mother recover soon from her illness.

My mother really has lots of courage in her life to look after me and my brother. All her hard work helps me to grow in strength and push myself to study harder. I love my mother very much.