Help us to make a major difference to a young person’s life and career
Lao Educational Opportunities Trust
Can you help?...
We frequently hear about students who need help. Here are just two of the current applicants who we would like to support but would need your assistance to do so.
Souk
He is from Champasak in the deep south and is the brother of an abbot in Vientiane. He is in year 3 (of 6) of a medical school and at entry was about the most outstanding student of his year..he was also offered places to study Finance and University Teacher Training. For 2 years he performed as everyone hoped, being an outstanding student. But this year he has started to fall away and is pondering his future. The reason is financial. His family cannot support him at all. He has two brothers living in Vientiane, but neither can assist. The elder brother as a monk has no access to funds and the youngest is supporting himself training as a teacher. Indeed the headman of their village has said that one of them must return to the village to help support the family and village. The Abbot said to us..with the smile that is never far from his lips..."I sleep, I cry. If you can help my brother that is good, if you can't then that too is ok".
Souk studies from 8am to 12am, then again from 1pm till 4pm. From 5pm to 1am he works as a waiter to raise money for his fees and expenses. His English is limited and he is quite simply totally exhausted.
His fees are about £200 ($300) a year for the 3 years it would take him to graduate. Without funding, a student capable of completing medical school is going to end up falling by the wayside.
Khek
Khek works and studies in Luang Prabang. He is an energetic and likeable young man with a good command of spoken English. He was born 24 years ago in a small village some 30 kilometres out of Luang Prabang. He is a member of a small sub branch (or "clan) of the Khammoune people and his first spoken language is a tribal one (which has no written form) rather than Lao. His mother died when he was a baby and much of his childhood was spent with his grandmother who lived in a neighbouring village. His father is a farmer with a small piece of land on which he grows rice, vegetables, herbs and keeps some chicken. He also earns a little money by collecting and drying river weed, which is a local delicacy when eaten with a chilli sauce. He has re-married and there are several children by that marriage. Khek's parents have no spare funds to help him with study costs, indeed he tries to support them as much as he is able.
Khek works in a Guesthouse in Luang Prabang. He works 6 days a week from 7am to 4pm. Then on Monday to Friday he studies at University from 4.30 to 8.30pm; a regime which leaves little time for relaxation or leisure. On his one free day a week he borrows a motor bike to go out to see his family and work on the farm.
Khek was admitted to the School of Fine Arts in Luang Prabang and is an accomplished painter. But after 2 years he decided that he could best develop his career in another area and went to English Language school for 2 years. He made excellent progress and in September 2009 was admitted to the Souphanaouvong University with a view to majoring in English.
Life has never been easy for Khek; he told us tales of walking 3 miles to school along the river bank, which was sometimes dangerous, and sometimes just impossible. He still ruefully recalls that "marks are deducted for absences" so that on days when the river path was unusable he would lose marks at school. Recently he suffered from malaria and was taken to hospital; but he could not receive any medication for almost 48 hours whilst friends and family found the money to pay for his treatment. He has now made a full recovery and is working and studying as normal.
Khek needs about $300 (£200) a year for fees; he earns enough to pay for all his other expenses. He will have another 4 years at University before graduation. Is there someone able to contribute some or all of that to help this young man fulfil his ambitions and enable him to make a real contribution to building a more prosperous Laos?