Real Lives

The Lives of Children Going to School on Scholarship

Thanks to your cooperation, it’s been five successful years since funding for the Laos scholarship began. The scholarship program in Laos was established through three stages:

• an investigation and preparation stage, where investigators traveled along rough, dusty roads on a long-distance bus to conduct research;
• an introductory stage, to ensure scholarships were delivered fairly and securely to children; and
• an establishing stage, to build relations of trust between local ministries of education, the educational committees of the provinces, school teachers, and villagers; and to enhance the efficiency of the project.

The following reports, sent from the Minsai Center Laos office, tell the stories of children in Khammuane Province, and illustrate the status of these children and the role of the Darunee Scholarship Program in Laos. The scholarship program began in Khammuane and Sekong Provinces, and later expanded to include Savannakhet and Saravan Province.

Sophie Sensondhi

Sophie's parents divorced, and although she originally lived with her mother, she had to leave home to work in a remote place to provide for her family. Now, Sophie lives with her older sister, who is 20 years old, divorced, and has a two-year old child. Sophie’s sister, a second-grader at elementary school, lives with them as well. The family sees Sophie’s mother only a few times a year. When she comes home, she brings rice for the family. Sophie wants to be able to stay with her mother for a longer time.

After school, Sophie goes fishing and looks for wild vegetables so she and her family can have food for their meals. When she is lucky, she catches a small fish. She usually comes home for lunch, and eats glutinous rice. On the day we visit her home, Sophie opens her glutinous rice basket and offers to share her lunch with us. Her basket contains only a handful of rice, and some black ants. Before eating, Sophie grills the ants.

Sophie tries to get food for her family before her sister returns home from working in the fields in the mountains. Sometimes, though, she cannot go out because she has to study for school.

Before Sophie received a Darunee scholarship, she could not afford to buy a school uniform, and she thought that she would have to stop going to school. Now, though, she no longer thinks about having to quit. She has not only a uniform, but also a notebook and pen, and she studies with enthusiasm. She hopes that she will be able to continue on to junior high school, but there are no guarantees that her dream will come true.

Pan Kamzin

Pan, a fifth-grader, is happy that he was selected as a scholarship student. Since becoming one, Pan no longer asks his parents to buy school supplies. He has notebooks and pens, and the same shoes and school uniform as his classmates.

Pan hopes to go on to Narao Junior High School; however, the school is 15 kilometers from his home, so he will need a bike to go to school. Pan's older brother says that their parents are hesitant to let him go to junior high, because buying a bike and covering school costs is so expensive.

The staff of Minsai-Laos suggested that the family should apply to the graduation foundation after completing elementary school. The foundation uses funds collected from unused Darunee scholarships to help children move on to higher education after finishing elementary school.

Pan and his older brother agreed to buy a bike with the money from the foundation. Although the foundation did not provide enough money to completely cover the cost of a bike, the funds it did provide were put towards one.

Pan's older brother entered Narao Junior High. However, he could not afford to buy shoes or have his bike repaired, so he gave up going to school when he was a second grader.

Pan's older brother says, "It is really helpful that the scholarship reduced the burden on the family. We no longer have to worry about school expenses. We express our gratitude to donors of the scholarship."

Shicharam Poshikhan

Shicharam is a third-grade student. His mom had six children, but two of them died of malaria. His family owns a 0.6 hectare field, but due to flooding they could only harvest 250 kilograms of rice in the past. Last year, though, they joined an agricultural union, so they could use an irrigation system on their land. While they have to pay for the cost of irrigating their field and for electricity, the new system increased their crop to 1.3 tons of rice. They can live on that amount for half a year.

Shicharam’s father goes fishing everyday and his mother goes to the woods to look for bamboo shoots and vegetables. On the day we visit the family, the parents stay home to meet us, but this is unusual. Usually they are rarely at home.

According to Shicharam’s mother, the family used to sell their chicken to buy school supplies, before Shicharam got a Darunee scholarship, but it still did not provide enough money. But now, things have changed. For example, formerly he had only one notebook for all subjects; now, he has notebooks for every subject.

Sonfon Sbandahla

Sonfon, a fifth-grade student, would like to be a soldier. He ranks 20th in his class of 37. He is never absent from class. He is good at math. He likes to play football with his classmates after school.

To earn money for food, he helps his mom collect grass used for thatching roofs. For a full month in the year, his family goes to the woods to reap grass. Their annual income is 300,000 kip (approximately 45 dollars), which is allotted to buying rice. Since Sonfon's family owns only a 0.4 hectare field, they can harvest only 500 kilograms of rice. His father goes fishing in the rainy season.

When we were leaving after our visit, his mom said, "We could afford to let only two of our children go to school. It is a great help for the family that Sonfon could get a scholarship for three years. We work hard to let Sonfon go on to junior high. Please convey our gratitude to the donors of the scholarship."

A Message from Phonesavanh Philavanh, the representative of Minsai Center Laos (MCL)

I would like to thank you for your support. Everyday I scoot around to seek support for children in need. I want to help in any way I can.

When visiting scholarship recipients in the southern district, I cannot use a motorbike, so I usually take a bus. Once, the bus broke down, and I had to sleep outdoors. As well, in the rainy season I could not reach the destination school because of muddy roads. However, whenever I see the children who are delighted by your scholarship donation, I think that I have to work harder. I think that it would be very helpful to have a car to help support my activities, but the support of the children in need comes first.