"My name is Uon Seila. After repatriation from the refugee camp in Thailand, I was working with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. I met with Brian Maher when I went to receive a recommendation letter for visa application to join a Christian camp in Malaysia. He invited me to join a meeting to discuss about doing a youth leadership camp in Sihanoukville, the provincial city near the sea. The demographic data showed that Cambodia had more young people than older people after the Killing Fields. Brian said, “Are you interested in working with young people?” “Yes, of course,” I said. “Don’t you see that even the name of the organization which I serve, contains the word “Youth?” 

Brian and I have both have been working with young people since 1995, before the start of the Evangelical Fellowship of Cambodia (EFC). Later on, this youth ministry became of one the ministries (called commissions) under the umbrella of the EFC. I became the Co-director of the Youth Commission and then in 2005, I became the Director of Kingdom Equipped Youth of the Evangelical Fellowship of Cambodia (EFC-KEY). 

After the restructure of the EFC in 2011, I became the Director of Develop Our Village Economy (DOVE). In December 2017, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The management team gave me medical leave for one year, so I could go to France for surgery and recovery. After a year, the board decided to choose a new director and created the Founder position at DOVE, which I accepted. I still come to the DOVE office two days per week to help with translating the leadership training curriculum and representing DOVE to the pastors and Christian community that we are serving. I also help train Christian writers in Cambodia and have written a manual for Christian Marriage in collaboration with other pastors, to meet the needs of Christian community in Cambodia."