By U Soe Lay | Senior Program Manager
Overview
We at Thabyay Education Network’s Arohana Scholarship Fund would like to extend our gratitude to all of you who have donated to our ‘University Scholarships for Students from Burma’ project on GlobalGiving.
After the deduction of GlobalGiving administrative fees, we have now received a total of approximately US$ 66,195 in disbursements from GlobalGiving for the University Scholarships for Students from Burma project (funds are received over time in Thai Baht at different exchange rates, so USD figures can only be approximately calculated).
By the 6th May 2015, we had disbursed approximately US$ 64,582 to scholarship awards.
Selection and awards
Since the last report on 6th May, the Arohana Scholarship Fund Committee has made one further awards totalling approximately US$ 800.
The total funds now raised by the ‘University Scholarships for Students from Burma’ project have therefore supported 59 awards enabling 49 students from marginalised communities across Burma to start or continue their Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD studies at universities across Asia.
The recipients of these awards comprise 23 women and 26 men, ranging in age from 16 to 51 (average age of approximately 23, representing nine ethnic groups, studying 30 different majors at 17 different universities in 5 countries across Asia).
The award recipient was as follows:
Recipient 1:
Name: San
Age: 23
Sex: Female
Ethnicity: Kachin
Subject Studied: Public Policy, Management and Politics
University:Murdoch University Australia
Award Amount: US$ 800
Award Type: Partial scholarship
N.B. Names of award recipients have been changed to protect their identities.
San is currently studying Public Policy, Management and Politics program at City University of Hong Kong as an undergraduate student. Coming from a rural area of Myanmar where education has lost its value makes her yearn for a better tertiary education and creates her interests in culture diversity.
Studying in a new environment, Hong Kong, and interactions with professors and fellow students from different cultural norms and backgrounds give her the opportunity to explore new areas of social world. Thus, she believes that exchange program at a foreign university will bring further various benefits to her healthy study life in diverse ways. Indeed, it will be challenging for her to stabilize herself at a foreign university and country within a semester. However, the exchange program to Murdoch University, Australia, would undoubtedly be an eye opening experience and she assures that is going to be a life-changing-experience for her.
It is very competitive for Myanmar students to win scholarships for studying abroad. However, studying at City University of Hong Kong as a scholarship recipient has trained her how to value and use both educational and cultural diversities for the betterment of my community. In fact, it has made her a better exchange program candidate with a unique identity to the host institution representing not only Myanmar but also City University of Hong Kong.
Moreover, by participating in this exchange program, she believes that she would further improve better cognitive abilities in public policy, public management and politics of different countries. Moreover, through this exchange program, she would be able to better her intercultural communication skills, gain and apply different approaches to analyze issues in public affairs and the public management at the local and global levels. With these opportunities expected to gain from exchange program, she expects to expend her educational and social networks and develop her learning progress by which she can help her community in terms of public policy, management and politics.
Future Plans
The Arohana Scohlarship Fund remains committed to helping key community actors gain access to appropriate higher education to optimize their positive impact in Burma in key sectors including health care, education, community development, rights and media. The Arohana Scholarship Fund is currently waiting for further funds to be received from GlobalGiving before the Selection Committee meets to decide on further scholarship awards.
Closing Statement
We hope that this report shows clearly the potential of these scholarship recipients to become catalysts for incremental social change in Burma, and that you can appreciate the direct link between quality higher education and grassroots development in communities in Burma. We also hope that it demonstrates that even the smallest contribution of US$ 10 can make a difference in terms of keeping a Burmese scholarship student in university education.
We would like to reiterate our gratitude to all of you who have helped raise funds for this project by making donations and spreading the word. We hope that this report will inspire you to continue to support us in the future. The beneficiaries of these awards, the students, have individually expressed their gratitude to us for the support they have received. We would like to pass on their thanks to you.
If you have any questions about this report, or about our work, please do get in touch.
With our best wishes,
U Soe Lay
Senior Program Manager, Scholarships and Student Support
Thabyay Education Network
Email: usoelay@thabyay.org
Websites: www.thabyay.org
www.arohanascholarships.org
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