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> > Hope against Hope
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| Hope against Hope |
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| “The place we live is on other people’s property. We do not own farmland to make a living out of. I have nothing to give you, my dear, apart from my will to support you with education in order that you will not have to endure a life of hardship like I have. But I do not know how I will earn enough to pay your education fees as even today I can hardly make ends meet,” said 38-year-old Mrs. Boonpheng about her daughter, 12-year-old May. She expressed her concerns and worries about her daughter’s unpromising future. |
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Hope against Hope |
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May (or Namthip Ritphukiew) is a 12-year-old student of Prathom 6 (6th Grade), Baan Nong Kha (Kuruprachawittaya) Primary School in Chaiyaphum province. She lives with her father and mother in a wicker-bamboo house that is barely enough to shelter them from the sun and rain. The floor of their 20 square meter (215 sq ft) house is simply the dirt ground, built on the space provided by the Subdistrict Administration Organization for those who do not own land.
The main income for May’s family comes from her parents’ unstable general labor. The little money earned from it is spent on the family’s inadequate meals. On those unfortunate and all-too-frequent days when they do not have any work available, they must ask for a share of rice from their neighbors and pick wild mushrooms and bamboo shoots from the fields simply to have enough food to survive.
May is a good student. She likes studying and maintains good grades, particularly in English courses. The result of her studying last semester was a 3.5 grade (out of 4). She said, “I had a dream that if I had the chance to graduate from a higher education, I would become a teacher because I would like to give the knowledge that I learn to youngsters at school. Now I am not certain that it would happen. Our everyday life’s expense is already too much. I do not want my parents to endure all the hardship because of me.”
Boonpheng stated, “May is a diligent girl and loves to learn. If it is possible, I wish for her to have a chance to continue her secondary education. Regrettably, I do not have money to pay for her tuition as we live from hand to mouth. I feel sorry for my daughter but I cannot figure out how I can overcome this. I do not want her future to be difficult like mine. If she has a chance to continue studying, her life will be much better than what it is now.”
In 2009, there are more than 5,000 impoverished students like May who struggle for the chance to further their education. Their extreme poverty and lack of education places them at risk for human trafficking or of becoming incompetent child labor.
We are still in need of your support to become a powerful influence to send these children back to school and help them avoid the risks that they might encounter because of their lack of education. Your small contribution can become a big opportunity to change a child’s life.
(The EDF would like to thank our hard-working volunteers, Khun Kanjana Ngamkalong and Daniel O'Connell, for translating and proofreading the story for us.) |
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| 2010-06-06 | Featured Stories | เปิดอ่าน 5129 |
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