After her father passed away when she was 7 years old, her mother decided to left her and her younger brother to her grandmother’s guardian and that was the last time she had a chance to see her mother. At present, she lived with her 4 grandmothers aged between 65-80 years old, her younger brother and a little girl sibling who was also abandoned by her parents. All of them live in an old wooden house, which has only one small room for 7 people to stay together.

Noey never has any chances to enjoy playing like other children do since she has to do every available part time jobs, such as doing the laundry, maid, working in the corn field, after school including weekends and any school holidays to earn as much money as possible to help lessen the burden of her elderly grandmothers and support 2 of her little siblings.

 

Angkana Prathompanich or “Noey” and 3 from 4 of her grandmothers, her younger brother and another little girl sibling

Her teacher told us that “Although she is an orphan, but she is a cheerful and diligent girl and, importantly, she never give up in studying. I had seen her working after school since she was in primary school especially in the weekends, she always works from 7am to 6pm so that she could get paid more”

At the present, only one of her grandmother, aged 65 years that still works in the filed to help earning money. The other 3 are too old to work and have different health and physical problem. Fortunately that the government help paying a monthly elderly allowances of 500 Baht (Around 16US$) to each of them, which they can use for the little kids’ daily allowances and save some for buying medicine and going to see the doctors.

Noey told us about the 3-year lower secondary scholarship that she has received that “ I never think that I could get any scholarships before since I understand that only talented child that could get a scholarship. But when the reacher told me that I was eligible for EDF scholarship to study from 7^th to 9^th grade, I was very glad and went back home to tell my grand mothers and they were so happy to know that I could have a great chance to continue studying. I would like to thaks for kind supporter to give me this valued opportunity. All through 3 years that I have been awarded with the scholarship, I am never absent from school. I always use it efficiently for my schooling and save the rest in the bank for furthering study in higher level.”
 
Noey’s favorite subject is drawing and she dreams to be an architect. She always think that if she could get a good job, she would have enough money to support her grandmothers and siblings. She is so glad to know from us that EDF also has a scholarship program for poor students who wish to continue studying in upper secondary school and vocational school
 
Today, there are thousands of less fortunate students, like Noey, who are looking forward to an opportunity to further their upper secondary school or vocational school which would help brighten their future and fulfill their dream of having better life through Education  in order to help themselves and their families to escape from the prolonged poverty cycle. 
 

An old small wooden house that 7 people stay together at the present