School For Life 2022 Celebrations

After of two years of only zoom video of the ceremony, Founder Victoria finally returned to Cambodia to attend the School for Life Scholarship ceremony in person.   With high spirits, Victoria got to witness the arrival of the bikes, setting up of the tentage for the ceremony and follow the teachers on their home visits to deeply understand how the children's family situation is. 
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As Victoria gave out the scholarship and took photographs with the awardees, the act of gifting dreams to these children brought great happiness. The vibrant performance by the children and the earnest speech of the parents all culminated in a dream come true for the children, parents and the community. ​

These were made possible not only by the kind donation from you, but also the hard work by the teachers, who tirelessly visited every eligible child. Teacher Kimsong shared of his home visits for the selectin of the scholarship awardees, “I am sad because my students are poor.”

Some of these students have no parents; some have parents who have gone far away for work and others have ailing parents. Hence, these students live with their grandmother or grandfather.  Despite their difficult situation, these students have a common wish which is to go to school.

This is exactly what PeopleStories aims to do: to provide an opportunity for deserving children to receive quality education. PeopleStories goes beyond just providing school fees and books. We gifted bicycles, extra classes for Math, Physics, Khmer and Chemistry. With these aspects taken care of, the willing students have a fighting chance to go as far as they strive for.

‘I love going to school because I can learn many things. I like learning Khmer because it is a very easy subject for me to learn,” said a new scholarship student earnestly.  His home has no door nor flooring.  Everything he has can be seen in a glance. His mother has passed away from Aids and his ailing father is suffering from Aids. Sadly, he is also infected with Aids from birth.  Yet, he remains hopeful and has the wish of becoming a teacher one day. These students love their village and aspire to improve the housing and transport of their village. 

The returning scholarship awardees are, too, assessed to ensure that they are deserving of another year of scholarship. After receiving the benefits of the scholarships, they have developed the good habit of attending both school and extra classes regularly.  When they met with difficulties in their studies, they looked to their teachers and parents for inspiration. They kept in mind the words of the parents, “Change life, have to study hard’.

‘Education is the great equalizer of our time. It gives hope to the hopeless and creates chances for those without.’ These words of Kofi Annan resonate with our purpose. Despite Cambodia’s 20% average school dropout rate, through our scholarship program, PeopleStories maintains its average dropout rate at less than 5% since 2017.

Want to create chances for those without?  Please donate at: 
https://ps-schoolforlife2022.raisely.com

Story written by: volunteer Bok Hoon Ong