Children scholarship program introduced

VisionFund has introduced a program to provide scholarship for children of families who have won the organization’s annual client awards, as part of its social mission to help the poor liberate themselves from poverty. 

“The Children Scholarship Program helps sharpen our social mission to reduce poverty as education plays a critical role in assisting the poor get out of poverty,” says Bora OmSeng, Executive Director of VisionFund.

The program offers annual sponsorship worth US$100 in school materials for children until they finish high school, no matter what grade they are in at the beginning of the award.  Saving accounts are created for scholarship holders if their fees are not used up to cover the annual expense of school materials. 

Six children (four males and two females) in grades 5-10 have each started to receive the annual scholarship package, which include bicycles, uniforms, shoes,  belts for male students, school bags, notebooks, reading materials, calculators, pens, and  pencils. The children come from the families of clients in Takeo, Kompong Chhnang, Phnom Penh, Kompong Speu, Kompong Thom and Preah Vihear who won VisionFund Cambodia’s annual Client Awards in 2007.

“The Client Awards program, which kicked off last year, is designed to encourage clients to feel proud of what they have achieved through VisionFund ’s microfinance and use it more effectively and efficiently,” explains Sothany, Manager of VisionFund’s Business Development Department.

A winner is rewarded prizes including a certificate of model client, VisionFund  T-shirts, CD players and annual sponsorship for one of their children.  The winner is also invited to join special events. Last year, the seven Client Awards winners were paid to visit Siem Reap for a week with VisionFund staff on the annual retreat.

Scholarship holder Maony in Kompong Thom has become happier at school thanks to school materials provided by VisionFund’s Children Scholarship Program. 

“I’m extremely delighted. I have new proper uniforms and school materials—these things I didn’t have before,” Y Maony says smilingly. Recalling the past, she says she once felt a bit shamed when classmates suggested her uniform should be used as clothes to clean the wooden panels of a bed as it was torn and old.

“Now I feel more confident in class. I will study harder to stand out in class,” stresses Maony, whose story can serve as an example of the rest of Children Scholarship Program winners.  

“Yes. If scholarship holders repeat the class, the scholarship materials will not be provided, in order to encourage them to study harder. We try our best to ensure the child has good academic results,” Sothany says.

“We monitor the child’s performance, find reasons and give advices and suggestions if the child cannot gain favorable results,” she adds. “We hope children who are now being sponsored or will be sponsored by VisionFund become model students who are academically industrious.”

“I would like to express my appreciation… VisionFund Cambodia, who not only provides financial services, which is its core business, to rural people, but also contributes to social work especially in education. Its initiative to provide scholarship to children of its clients contributes a lot to the education sector particularly in rural communities.”

“Such a program shows that an organization does not focus only on profits, but also help reduce educational cost for their clients. This is an exemplary social action,” says Kang Daravuth, a lecturer of English in Phnom Penh.

“From my point of view, the program is very good, particularly in a rural village where residents need many things,” opines Seng Soknin, teacher of philosophy at Brasat Balang Secondary School, where scholarship holder Maony is studying, more than 30 kilometers far from Kompong Thom provincial town.