Samphy Ky

Ms. Ky Samphy was born into a farming family in Kandal province, Cambodia. Many members of her family, including her husband, were killed during the Pol Pot Regime (Khmer Rouge, 1975-1979). She graduated from high school in 1968 and trained as a primary school teacher in Phnom Penh. She worked as a provincial teacher from 1969 to1971 but, because of the civil war, moved back to Phnom Penh to work for the Ministry of Education Youth and Sport. In 1975 she was separated from her family and moved from Phnom Penh to Pursath province. At the end of the Pol Pot Regime, she returned to Kandal province and worked again as a primary school teacher before being head of a primary school and then the pre-school, primary school and high school technical and personnel manager for the district office for 14 years.

In 1995, she started training to be a pre-school and primary school inspector in Phnom Penh and subsequently worked as an inspector for the government of Cambodia. In 1999, she began a new career as a Supervisor of Early Childhood and Parental Education with the international NGO Enfants et Développement (E&D). In 2001, she established her own local NGO, Krousar Yeoung Association (meaning “our family”), of which she is Executive Director. She is also Board Director of another local NGO, Chair of a network (Networking of Early Childhood Care and Development, NECCD) and a member of Group Discussion EFA (Education for All). She travels to different countries to exchange experiences about early childhood care and development.