My name is Anna, and I come from Myanmar. I have four siblings – three brothers and one sister. I stay with my family. I want to share how I have been after arriving here and how I came to be with ElShaddai Centre.
I was 16 years old when I came to Malaysia and had just finished secondary school in Myanmar. My dream was to become a great doctor and help children to be educated. Unfortunately, I couldn’t continue my studies because I had to come here for our safety. Even though I knew I could not become what I wanted to be, I didn’t want to give up my studies. So, I tried to get my parents’ permission, contacted many people and even went to the Myanmar embassy to try to continue my studies. At the same time, I work at the restaurant as a waitress with my father to earn money to pay back the agent for our transportation fare to come here.
After looking around for a year, we found one of our community schools in KL and immediately sent my three younger brothers there. In the following year, my sister’s colleague told me there was a school in Klang where I could study.
Thankfully, I was able to study in the Literacy class in 2018. I was very happy that I finally got a chance to continue my studies. I attended school in the morning and worked in the evening. I’m grateful to all my teachers who taught me in the literacy class. They were very good and very caring. However, I only studied there for ten months because my mother was sick, and I needed to work to support my family. When one of my teachers heard about it, she called me and asked me whether I wanted to consider teaching KG. She further told me that if I were to teach at preschool, I would improve my proficiency in English further. Then I agreed to take up this offer.
I started as an assistant KG teacher at the end of 2018. On the first day as a teacher, I was very shy and even regretted my decision. I felt that day was a very long day. However, all the teachers were very nice to me and understanding, encouraging me to make me happy. With the support of all the teachers, I could enjoy teaching.
I taught from 2019 to 2020. Then, in 2021, I was asked to help in the school office as an administrator. Now, I work in the office in the morning and teach in the afternoon at the Year 1 class.
I appreciate ElShaddai Centre, which gave me the opportunity to become a teacher and even train me, although I felt that I didn’t deserve it. It has made my future brighter. Whenever I’m in ElShaddai Centre, I always feel loved by everyone and have peace in my heart. People at ElShaddai Centre treat me like a family member and always help me whenever I need help. I am very grateful to all of them.
Now, I enjoy being with children, and I think teaching is not about how qualified you are in your academic education, but it is about how much you want to teach. Teaching must come from the heart. For me, everything becomes easier when I teach from the heart.
