Executive Director

To this day, Tith looks after the day to day running of our schools. He is our chief decision maker, passionate educator, and music lover.

Tith was born in 1977, the youngest brother to four siblings, all young children during the Khmer Rouge ruling, where genocide was committed mainly on the educated class of people, including members of his own family; and where more than 1.5 million Khmer people perished.

Miraculously Tith and his siblings survived. Tith was determined that he would find a way to study, and do everything he could to support the return of education to the people of rural Cambodia.

After a long struggle financially to complete his schooling, he enrolled in a teaching degree at Build Bright University in Phnom Penh. He lived with the monks in the pagoda and took any job available to support himself during this time. This is when we came into his life, by chance.

He graduated from Build Bright University in 2009 with his Bachelor of English Literature.

On completing this degree, he returned to his beloved Tanop Village and immediately set about working with us and our group of dedicated supporters in Australia, to build the first Khmer village school where the poorest children could attend and eventually reach for the stars!

He continued his further study at the weekends and in 2022 graduated with a second degree; a PhD in Rural Development and Project Management from Build Bright University.

In the fifteen years since opening the school, his goals have not wavered, and his remarkable determination, foresight and dedication to his job, despite the immense challenges he has faced, continue to burn so brightly.

Tith and his wife Sokao have three children. SreyPitch who is studying Public Administration at the Royal University of Law and Economics in Phnom Penh, Vithya who is also in Phnom Penh studying Medicine, and their youngest son, Putirith who is still at school in year 7.

Director of Education Campus 1

Nop runs our original, and first school. He is a truly dedicated, kind and calming teacher, who has a smile which lights up any space!

Nop was one of the first of three teachers we employed when we opened the school in February 2009. He shared in Tith’s vision, and dedicated himself to being there by Tith’s side as they worked together to do all they could so that the poorest village children had access to an education.

After completing an English course at the Australian College of English (ACE) in Phnom Penh, we supported Nop financially through four years of weekend study at Build Bright University to complete a degree in English Literature. Like the other teachers, he taught at TCEC from Monday to Friday inclusively.

Nop is married to Sokha and they have two little boys Ranuth and Ranun who are now pupils at our school in Tanop Village. Another generation who are securing their future through education!

TCEC Campus 2 Preschool Director
English teacher

Channa runs our preschool. She is respected and loved by every past and present student who has been, and is in her care. Channa is seen as a role model and nurturer of learning to the youngest of our students.

She was a young girl when we first visited Tanop Village in 2006. She was unable to continue her schooling after grade seven, due to her parent’s dire economic situation. She tried her best to support them by weaving articles to sell, spending long hours at the loom under the family home, very often working late into the night.

We supported Channa's desire to go back to school and complete year 12. She attended high school each day, returning to TCEC in the late afternoon where she worked as a teacher between 4.30 pm and 7.30 pm.

After graduating from her year 12 class, we supported Channa through a four year degree at Build Bright University in Phnom Penh at weekends. She graduated with a Bachelor of Economics degree from there in 2018.