CAMBODIA EDUCATION ASSISTANCE FUND INC aka CEAF

We first met Kesor when she came to Phnom Penh with her friend who was already being sponsored by CEAF. Both girls were attending a secondary school in the village where they lived. It was our fifth trip to Cambodia—checking on those CEAF was sponsoring making sure everything was going according to plan. As we talked to Kesor, she sat quietly in her chair, not volunteering any information beyond briefly answering the questions asked her. We did learn that she lived alone with her mother having recently lost her father in an auto accident just a few months before. We further learned that they were extremely poor. Her mother sold fried bananas along the roadside to make perhaps fifty cents per day.

Kesor was hoping we could provide some funds for her to take private English and Khmer classes such as CEAF was doing for her friend. The cost would be about fifteen dollars a month. We gave our overseer in Cambodia enough money for two months of lessons and assured her we would try to find a sponsor for her.

We were able to find a sponsor for Kesor just a few weeks upon returning to the USA. They are a retired couple living in Goodyear, Arizona. They have provided the funds for the extra lessons in English and her Khmer lessons that she had asked for. Kesor will finish secondary school in July 2011 and is studying hard to pass the exams given at the end of her school year. Passing these exams will make her eligible to attend a university in Phnom Penh, but this is not the end of the story.

In December 2010 we again returned to Phnom Penh to interview our sponsorees as well as prospective sponsorees. It was decided to visit Kesor’s homeland to see first-hand, where she lived and under what conditions. What we found only convinced us more that we must help this girl with her education so that she in turn, can help her mother and their overall living conditions. Kesor and her mother live in a dirt-floor small one-room house with no water supply nor toilet. Water has to be carried from her friend’s house across the street. Her only source of light for studying at night is one small fluorescent tube hooked to a car battery which needs charging every three days. Underneath this small light fixture sits Kesor’s little study table piled high with her textbooks and a writing tablet. The “kitchen” consists of a few pots and pans and a clay fireplace in a small area adjacent to the house.

Kesor’s mother has not been able to work for several months due to an eye infection. The family has no income and relies upon the goodness of neighbors for food.

Kesor took down from the wall, a picture of her father to show us and burst into tears as she tried to tell us about him. It was apparent that she deeply missed her father and is still grieving his death.

We talked to her about what she would like to do after finishing secondary school. She said she wanted to study something in medicine so she could help people. After some explanation about the various options in the medical field, she more clearly defined her aspirations as wanting to be a nurse.

Back in Phnom Penh, we sent some pictures taken that day to her sponsors along with a description of her living conditions. Her sponsors responded immediately saying they would send money for Kesor’s mother to come to Phnom Penh to see a doctor about her eye infection. In addition, they agreed to having electricity installed in the home, monthly monetary support for Kesor and her mother. Presently negotiations are underway with a well-driller to drill a well with a hand pump on their small piece of property. Kesor’s sponsors have also asked CEAF to investigate the price of building a toilet-bath facility.

Finally, they have agreed to continue their sponsorship allowing Kesor to enroll in a university in Phnom Penh to pursue a major in nursing.

• This is just one story of several of how we can change the life of a young girl (or boy) from an extremely poor rural background—giving them hope and a realization of their dreams. In so doing, we are lifting them and their families out of poverty into a productive rewarding life with a bright future.