Help Me Bring my Mother to my Graduation

Dear Everyone,

First of all, I would like to say thank you very much for taking your time to view my page. Let me take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Stapor Phoung, and am from Cambodia. I am a senior student at Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina. My major is Political Science with a Concentration in International Relations. My graduation is this May 2014. The reason why I created this page is to fundraise to help bring my beautiful mom to my graduation. I believe that it is any mother's dream to be able to see her childs special occasions such as this, and without a doubt, it is also my mom's dream. However, being from a third world country, it is a dream she could never make happen alone. Therefore, I hope to help her fulfill her dream, and I know I can achieve this with your contributions and support.

You see, a typical family has a dad as the breadwinner; however, in my family, my mom is the breadwinner. She's a midwife who helps assist pregnant women and their babies. Her income, however, is still minimal due to the fact that Cambodia is a poor and developing country in South East Asia whose economy is not doing well. As a result, most suffer from low living conditions and high unemployment rates. Our corrupted government is also a serious problem, which is currently lead by the dictator Hun Sen who has been in power for about 30 years. Because of these factors, even a valuable asset to the society like my mother only earns about $150 per month. She is the only source of income in my family. My father was an ex-army troop. Due to his limited education, however, he was not able to find a job. Therefore, he decided to stay at home to look after the children while my mother worked full time.

My family very much understands the value of a good education, and we believe it is the key to eradicate poverty. Despite some difficulties, my older sister and I committed to working very hard and using our limited resources to pursue a good education. Fortunately, some great luck came our way! In 2008, I was offered a full 2-year scholarship to attend the United World College of the Adriatic in Italy. This is an International High School that brings more than 200 students around the world together to learn, live, share, and most importantly embrace our differences in order to achieve peace through a united world.

I have learnt to appreciate and value every bit of my education and experience abroad. With this experience and my dedication, in 2010, I earned myself another full 4-year scholarship to attend Methodist University. I am currently working for the Methodist Study Abroad office. My main task in the office is to help advise and encourage American students to pursue an education abroad. In the future, I wish to pursue a career in the field of International Education, because I would love to help other students obtain study abroad opportunities as I did. This is because I strongly believe that education abroad is an important key to success. It helps broaden your horizon, make life long international connections and friendship, and more importantly it helps you strive to become an active world citizen, an inspiration, and an ambition to make the world a better place.

As you are already aware that my mom makes roughly $150 per month, I am asking you to ponder how one who survives on this little per month could possibly afford such an expensive trip to the United States? Therefore, I would like to ask for your help to make my dream and my mom's come true. Being away from home is hard enough for all of us, so I am asking you to help give her a once in a life-time chance to leave the country and watch her daughter graduate. Something that she would never be able to do without your support. It would be an opportunity to see how I live my life here, to travel outside of her comfort zone, and most importantly, the opportunity to see my achievement and be proud of what I have done.

Your contribution and support would mean SO MUCH to us, every dollar counts. My time is running out as graduation is approaching. My family and I will be forever in debt to you, and there are no words to describe our gratitude, so please, help make our dreams a reality!

Thank you again,
Lots of love,

Stapor