Phon Chreub
University: Battambang University My name is Phon Chreub, 22 years old, and I grew up in Pou Village, Pongro Krom Commune, Jikreng District, Siem Reap Province. I’m the 5th daughter in the family of 6 children (4 girls, 2 boys). Four of the six children are still under the care of my mother who is a widow (my elder sister and brother already got married and live away from home). My mother’s name is Meas Hea. Our family is very poor. Before getting the GATE scholarship I was studying in the 9th grade at PongRo Krom Lower Secondary School in Jikreng District. My family was running short on money and my mother was very worried not knowing what to do to earn enough to support my studies. Under the circumstances, I was thinking about dropping out to work as laborer to help my mother. At the beginning of 2008, Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center (CWCC) announced at my school that they would select poor girls to be GATE scholarship recipients, so I applied. After that, the Local Education Working Group (LEWG) and GATE staff went to interview me at home and I was selected to be one of the recipients. My family and I were extremely happy about the scholarship package that I received as it provided everything I needed for my studies, and even a stipend and tuition money which helped to cut down the family expenses by a lot. Every Sunday when I was free from school, I worked as laborer planting and harvesting rice to earn some money to buy more food for the family. Regardless of all the challenges, I remained a hard working student. With the support from the donors and the small income I earned from my weekend work, I managed to graduate high school (12th grade) as I had always dream of. After finishing high school, I applied for a scholarship at the University of Battambang, majoring in Rural Development. I got a scholarship from the university with financial support of $50 per month for accommodation and other expenses. Even with this support, it is not enough to buy food, study materials, documents, and exam papers. Luckily, Lotus Outreach continues to support my expenses at university which enables me to stay in school like the others. With this support, I am very happy with my studies. I will study hard to pay my gratitude to the donors and to gain a certain skill to support myself and help my family get out of poverty. Moreover, I plan to work in an institution to help develop my country. Finally, I wish the donors much happiness, prosperity, health, and success. |
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