Education for 300 Urban Poor Children

“ my commitment created hope and opportunity for my education”

Raksa was born on September 23^rd, 2011, in Kdampuk village, Sena Reach Otdam commune, Preah Sdach district. Now she is 13 years old, and she is studying in grade 7^th at Krosang Char Secondary School. She lives with her parents. She has one elder sister, Kongkea and one elder brother, Panha. Raksa is the youngest child in the family. Her family is very poor and lives in a small old cottage with five family members. Raksa’s parents are illiterate person, and they can not have regular jobs and income to support the family’s living and children’s education. Thus, they always moved to work as a construction and factory worker, babysitter, and housemaid at Phnom Penh to support the family’s living and children’s education.

It was four years back, when Raksa’s parents had to struggle a lot with their 3 children to have at least two meals per day and to support the children’s study as well at that time. Raksa’s family was very poor and vulnerable in the community because her family even did not have cultivable lands. So Raksa’s parents mostly moved to find jobs as a construction and factory worker, and babysitter at Phnom Penh to earn income to support the family’s living and children’s study. Even though they both were working hard all the time, but they still could not earn stable income to provide their children enough food and school supplies as well as clothes, bag, books, pens and pencils, etc. “…sometime I went to school with my elder brother without eating food and I also did not have money to buy any snacks to eat at school as other children. At that time my parents could not provide us enough study materials and a bicycle to ride to school, so my brother and I always walked to Kamrieng primary school every day. Even though in this hard situation, but my brother and I never gave up our study at that time ” Said Raksa.

It was in May 2021, when Raksa and her elder brother, Panha were selected into school development program of Sunshine Cambodia organization. This program provided her and her brother with study materials as well as books, pens, pencils, bag, and rulers every academic year. According to this hard family's living condition, the program team bought them bicycles to ride to school, and the program also supported her family food packages such as rice, noodles, fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar and milk. All of these supports it really encouraged and made her so happy and it was a good assistance to help and improve her study and living conditions as well. The program team not only provided these materials with support to her and family, but we also always talked and encouraged Raksa’s parents to give value to education for their children’s future during home visits. Program staff mostly spend time meeting and encouraging Raksa and her brother to study hard both at school and home and never give up studying all the time. “…I am very proud of my daughter, Raksa. Now she rides her bicycle to school every day and she attends school regularly. She studies hard all the time both at school and home. She has high commitment and passion for education although my family is very poor. I also would like to say thanks to Sunshine Cambodia Organization, all staff, especially the donors who have been supporting my family and my children’s education so far...” Raksa’s mother said. “…with supporting from sponsorship program, now I have enough school supplies, and I have one bicycle to ride to my secondary school every with my brother, and my family also can provide us at least two-times meals and sometimes we have three-times meal per day. I am so happy to get all this support from the program. I will commit to study hard all the time to become a police officer in the future no matter poor my family is” Raksa said with smiling.