Sam Sopheap

Date of birth:  August 25, 1991
Place of birth:  Kleung Village, Svay Chek Commune, Svay Chek District, Banteay Meanchey Province
Current address:  Kleung Village, Svay Chek Commune, Svay Chek District, Banteay Meanchey Province
Father’s name:  Nhean Saruon, 46 years old, Primary School Teacher
Mother’s name:  Ma Poarng, 45 years old, Farmer
Siblings:  4 (2 girls, 2 boys) and the fourth child
University: Pedagogy School in Battambang Province (100% scholarship), majoring in Mathematic and Physics (2 years)
 
In Her Own Words

Since my family is poor and my father has a disabled leg, he cannot do heavy work so he teaches at Roluos Primary School with very little salary which is not enough to support the family. My mother doesn’t have good education to get a good job, so she can only do farm work and a big load falls on her given that my father cannot help do heavy work.  My mother works very hard to earn money to support her children’s education because she doesn’t want the children to be ill-educated like her and have to lead a miserable life not having enough to eat. She even took loans to send and keep the children in school as far as she can. 
 
I couldn’t bear seeing my mother working so hard to support my education, so I decided to drop out at 6th grade. One day my teacher who knew about my situation told me to apply for a scholarship with Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center (CWCC). After the application, CWCC team came to visit my home and inquired many things. CWCC had many conditions for me and my family to follow before granting me the scholarship and I was accepted into the scholarship program in 2004. I had been studying hard since then until passing High School National Board Exam in August 2010.
 
Even if passing high school is considered to be a big achievement, I was not happy much because with high school education alone is not enough since the current society is very competitive and only people with high education can get a good job. Therefore, I had applied to various universities including University of Mean Chey (UMC) and after sitting in entrance exam, I won 100% scholarship (not having to pay for school fee for 4 years) at UMC in Department of Art, Social Studies and Korean Language. 
 
I was overjoyed with this result, but some time later I became hopeless again even with 100% scholarship from school because I couldn’t afford to cover other expenses such as study materials, textbooks, documents, school uniform, food, accommodation, computer course, English tuition, and some other expenses to research for all the school assignments. I asked CWCC to help find me support so that I could continue school. Luckily, Lotus Outreach agreed to continue to support me at university! I hope the support will continue until I finish year 4. I promise and commit to study hard to become a good daughter, good student, good friend, and good citizen that is useful in the society. I can’t say enough to express how happy I am to get the support from LO. 
 
Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the donors. I wish you much happiness, success, and good health.