Girls' Scholarships

Girls in poor families are often forced to drop out of school at an early age to work for long hours alone, laboring in rice fields or tending neighbors' cows. For a decade, we've funded more than 100 scholarships to keep these girls in school.

At present, we're providing scholarships for 37 seventh-twelfth grade girls.

Attending school allows them to develop lasting friendships, something that's difficult to achieve when they return home daily near sunset, exhausted from their work. And, most importantly, through education, they have the opportunity to discover a passion that's harmoniously suited to their unique gifts and talents.

Here's the process we use to create each girl's scholarship:

Every November, teachers at our middle school examine attendance records to determine which girls graduated 6th grade but haven't attended 7th grade for a month. Then the families of these girls are interviewed to determine their commitment to their daughter's education. Then, ten girls are chosen to receive a scholarship, based on the severity of their family's poverty and their desire to support their daughter's continuing education through graduation from high school. 

The scholarship for each girl is $180/year.

Here's how the scholarships work:

Each girl's family receives a stipend of $15 a month based on their daughter's acceptable attendance and grades for that month. Thus, each scholarship is $180 for one year of education.

We continue to fund each girl's education for five year--all the way through 12th grade. In the decade we've provided these scholarships, only two girls have dropped out: one to care for her terminally ill mother and the other, sadly, to work in a sweatshop garment factory in Sihanoukville.

If you want to fund one of our 32 current scholarships for 7th-12th grade girls, please click on the button below.

Note: 100% of all donations will be used to fund projects and programs for village students, alumni, teachers, and families. No funds will ever be used to fund administrative expenses or board member travel and expenses. 

You can double your donation, if you work for a company with a Matching Gift program, by applying for a matching donation from your company. We are registered with most of the organizations that manage matching gift programs for companies (e.g., benevity, Your Cause, Network for Good). 

Photo above: Board member Ken Colson with 8th grade scholarship girl Heung Mai during our January 2017 visit. When Ken first met Heung Mei in 2016, she really impressed him with her gregariousness and her command of English. When she saw Ken, she walked up to him and said, "Do you know Michael Jackson?" 

He decided right then and there that he would give her a Michael Jackson t-shirt when he returned to our school. Ken has chosen to sponsor Heung Mei's education through university. 

Heung Mai is the fourth child in her family. Her mother died when she was little. Her father works as a construction worker and so, is gone for long periods of time. He earns $2.50 per day. Her family has two cows and no land to grow rice on so their father's income is their only means of support.