Don Bosco Fund Helps Very Poor Children Get An Education

Posted: 11th January 2008

The Children received some material from DBC

PHNOM PENH (UCAN) -- Many poor Cambodians know a good education can get them out of poverty, but often poverty itself prevents them from getting that education.

The Don Bosco Foundation is working to change this by provide children from very poor or very large families holistic support that goes beyond financing their studies.

The Don Bosco Children's Fund, set up in 1992, supports at least 4,660 children going to public schools in 14 provinces and three cities, according to its president, Father Leo Ochoa.

The Salesian priest told UCA News recently that the project not only provides scholarships but also monitors the students' progress in school as well as their health and family environment. "We try to provide an integrated education," he said.

Father Ochoa explained that many Cambodian children are forced to drop out of school because they don't have money for school expenses or uniforms. Some have to care for their younger siblings or ailing parents. Others have to work in factories to support their families, and still others have been orphaned.

The priest said the foundation chooses children who are from very poor or very large families and has supported some current university students since their primary-school days.

One such student is Chhet Dara, 20, who said he has received support for 15 years. "I thought I could study only up to secondary school, but thanks to the Don Bosco fund I am now in my third year of university," he told UCA News.

Every month Dara goes to the Don Bosco Center to receive 40,000 riel (about US$10) and speak with the staff. "This program not only help us financially. We also receive advice and motivation to study hard," he said.

Eourn Vichara, a first-year accounting student at the National University of Management in Phnom Penh, looks forward to being able to help her family. "When I finish university, I want to have a good job to support my parents and my brothers and sisters," she told UCA News. She added that during her primary and high-school days, she received two bicycles from the Don Bosco fund, which now also supports her younger sister studying in high school.

Chy Suntheary, the fund project's team leader, told UCA News team members visit the students every month to give them money for their education and other materials. However, "we set conditions," Suntheary added. One rule, he said, is that "if they fail the same level twice, we don't sponsor them anymore."

Such conditions bring benefits beyond schooling, points out Seang Hong, 71. Her 8-year-old grandson "obeys and listens to elders and teachers," she said. The fund provides him noodles, toothpaste, sugar and laundry detergent as well as 15,000 riel every month.

Long Nov, 46, is grateful that three of her nine schoolgoing children have been supported by the Don Bosco fund for five years. "I want my children to further their studies at the Don Bosco Technical School in Phnom Penh, and to serve society to show their gratitude, she told UCA News.

The Don Bosco Foundation of Cambodia has been registered since 1992 under the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. The children's fund has an annual budget of US$500,000. Benefactors are mostly from Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and France.

Saint John Bosco, commonly known as Don Bosco, founded the Salesian society in the mid-1800s in Italy.

Article Source: UCAN