Nheab Srey Hom
Place of birth: Prey Village, Treas Commune, Svay Chek District, Banteay Meanchey Province In Her Own Words Because my family is poor and has only a small plot of farmland, I was selected to be one of the GATE scholarship recipients by the Svay Chek High School Local Education Working Group (LEWG) in 2007 when I was in the 10th grade. Before receiving the scholarship, my family faced a lot of difficulties in supporting my schooling. My parents could not afford to rent a room for me to stay near school (my home is 8km from school), buy enough study materials, pay for tuition, and buy a bicycle for me. In order be able to buy study materials for me, my father had to do seasonal work in Thailand harvesting cassava, cutting sugarcane, weeding, preparing forest land, and harvesting corn. I also worked in my free time weeding and harvesting cassava. I could earn $2.50 per day to support my studies and family. Sometimes I had to miss school to work instead. Despite all the hardship, my father always encouraged me to study hard. He said “you need to study hard to be educated and not be like me and your mother. Being uneducated like us, we can only do hard labor and earn very little to raise children up. In Thailand where I work, I see many girls like you working there too. They face all sorts of problems—Thai police chase them and some bad people deceive them. They are very vulnerable! I am willing to devote myself and endure all the hardship alone as long as you can get good education to have a good future.” When I was selected by the program to be one of the scholarship recipients of Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center (CWCC) under funding from Lotus Outreach (LO), my whole family was overjoyed and I became hopeful that I stood a chance to finish high school and someday reduce my family’s poverty. I always pay very good attention in my classes because I think education is very important for me and my family in the future. Out of 50 students in the class, I came 15th. Due to my hard work, I finally passed the national high school board exam in the academic year 2009-2010. After passing high school, I applied for scholarships at a few universities such as MeanChey University, Center for Information System Training (CIST) and University of Management and Economics in Banteay Meanchey Province. As a result, I got a 30% tuition scholarship at University of Management and Economics. My parents really wanted me to study at university, so they put together all their savings but it was not enough to pay for 70% of the school fee, my accommodation and food. Therefore, they decided to take loan from a money lender. They did all they could to make sure I enrolled while waiting for confirmation and support from LO. Without the support from LO, there is no way I can afford to hang in there and go all the way through the four year program. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Lotus Outreach and the donors for supporting my education which otherwise I could not come this far. |
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