Cambodian generous benefactors donate bicycle, books and pens to poor student

Aoral district, Kampong Speu province (August 27, 2013) – Three Cambodian private generous benefactors donated a bicycle, a dozen of notebooks and pens to a school girl from a poorest family late last week.

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Suy Y poses for a photo with Mr. Bou Saroeun in front of her house.
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Mr. Bou Saroeun and his friends Mr. So Vanroeun and Mr. Mao Rithy shared their own pocket money to buy a second-hand bicycle and study materials for a drop-out schoolgirl Suy Y aiming to encourage her to go back to school when the new school in her new village opens in early October this year.

Suy Y, 15, was the third child of a landless family of nine members who moved from their temporary shelter in Krasang Khpos village, Krang Dei Vay commune of Phnom Sruoch district in Kampong Speu to settle in on her new land in June last year in Prey Thom—a new village established under the government’s Social Land Concession Project funded by Japan Social Development Fund through World Bank.

The move drove her to drop out of school while she was studying grade 5 because her new village—in Reaksmei Sameakki commune, Aoral district of the same province—located some 17 kilometers from the primary school in her old village and she didn’t have a bicycle for riding to school.

“This gift is small for us, but it’s important for her. We hope that this 35-dollar bicycle will be a driving force to encourage her to go back to school,” Mr. Saroeun said.

“We believe that education can make her life better in the future and enable her to bring changes for her community,” he said, adding that he and his friends would try to help more poor children in the area as much as possible using their own available resources.

“Thank you very much. I will continue my study,” Suy Y said. During the time she was absent from school, Suy Y sold her labor in the neighboring villages for transplanting rice and harvesting and do some other jobs to support her family.

Her farther Mr. Im Suy said that, “Although I am very poor, I must send my children to school when the new school opens in the coming months.”

LWD Executive Director Dr. Sam Inn thanked Mr. Saroeun and his friends for their generous support for poor children’s education. “No matter what the gift is big or small, in kind or in cash, this is a good model of contribution for other Cambodians. We accept all that,” he said.