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Roy - your Tuk Tuk Driver in Angkor area

First of all, I would like to thank you for your generosity to my people; those who live in Cambodia. I am a student at Pannasastra University of Cambodia. I am very glad to receive this because what I have planned for along time is to complete University one day in the future.

I am writing to you to seek your kindness because I belong to a poor family . I have many siblings and am the first in my family to have completed high school .My father has long suffered from asthma disease. As a result, I have the added responsibility of financially assisting my family through any work that I can get . It has been a constant struggle for me to continue my education. I would be sincerely grateful if you would kindly grant me the scholarship to allow me to achieve my goals. Your generosity would permit me to go on with my studies and as a result I could assist my brothers and sisters, as well as my people,to achieve an education also . .

Let me provide you some of my background in my life from when I was young boy up to the present. My name is Phirom Kaksok, written in Cambodian Kak Sokphirom - the Nikname is Roy . I live in SaLaKonSeing Village, SvayDongKom Commune, Siem Reap District and Siem Reap Province. I have eight siblings two brothers, five sisters and I am the oldest of all. My father's name is KAK SARON. He was a photographer, very strict and cruel with his wife and children, always expecting to be obeyed without question so every body in my family is very afraid of him.
I do not think I should tell you this story but I really want to understand me more clearly. My father is an alcoholic and . everyone in my family want him to recover and stop his addiction . . For me, I struggle to understand my father and I do not know what is motivating him to be so cruel . Even though his mother {my grandmother } gave him good advice "Son you should lower drinking or stop. Your children need you to be a good father, good guide to lead the family and to be good model for them to follow." Inspite of such advice , he still drinks to excess . . He drinks alcohol like it is water . He drinks until he becomes ill ... On many occasions , when he drinks and returns home, he argues with my mother and takes it out through violence on his children. I never forget his beatings but we could not be angry with him. as he is our father whom we must respect . We hardly knew the word "happiness" in the family. Every thing got darker and darker-Like an army without leadership, so too was my family .
During that time, it was a constant struggle for me as the eldest child and for my mother. My mother is a housewife and as such she is in charge of the whole family because she has to bring up my brothers and sisters and look after her husband. She does every thing in her family although she has just given birth to another child. She must earn her living continually in order to supply food and finance to my family. She has never been relaxed and happy since from childhood up to the present, she was an orphan. Her parents died in the civil war in Kampuchea, when she was young .She has three siblings- two brothers and she is the oldest of all. You know after the war finished ,it brought poverty, amputees, displacement and ignorance into the country. Some families were broken with few left in their families.
This is the legacy of conflict in my country
I am so proud of my mother in that time .I was 12 years old.. I had to work so hard and study too. I went to school in the morning and when I was free from school in the afternoon I and my friends went to Tonle Sap lake to earn money . We went after food from Tonle Sap lake but sometimes when we walked along the road, we met a car that were collecting things from the ships and they allowed us to go with them . We earned money on average from 2 dollars to 2.50 dollars a day. We are sometime absent from school so we did not go to school regularly. Some of my friends fell behind in exams and studied the same class for 1 or 2 years and decided to abandon school.
That was not me however .
We worked as transport merchandisers for nearly five years and I decided to make money by working as a construction worker with my uncle in the Siem Reap province. While I was working, one of my neighbors came around to my house and invited me to study English with him. The school fees were worth 2.50 dollars a month. I tried to save the money from my work as a builder.
After nearly three years I could listen, write and understand what the teacher taught, but I could not speak it . I then became determined to continue with University with the National Cambodia Organization. I also took on the role of being a Tuk Tuk driver. I learnt from teachers who came from Europe as volunteer teachers. They also taught us how to improve our confidence and more, such as :

• How to handle an irate customer on the phone.
• How to book travel arrangement.
• Top 10 job interview question with Tips on how to answer.
• And things such as English for business: Coca cola- number one brand. Etc

Through these ,I learnt to improve not only my confidence ,but also how to speak and write English. Now , I am able to see a little glimmer of success in my life- but I still never forgot the misery in my past . Now I have stopped taking my past life for granted.
I am working as a Tuk Tuk driver after the school day is finished - even though I was studying at 12 grade for my final exam of high school. As I said earlier ,my parents are uneducated people.,yet through my work and my mother's efforts , all of my brothers and sisters are now studying too.

That is why I decided to be the Tuk Tuk driver - to support my family. They have borrowed money from the ACLEDA Bank Plc to buy a motor bike and Tuk Tuk for me.
I go to the area around the old market to earn money .With my knowledge of English, my ability to attract customers has improved . I feel that an Education will be my ticket to the future. Despite meeting a lot of difficulties so far in my short life,I have still tried to study until I finished my final grade of high school.

I realize education is very important to me I need qualifications to continue my study at Pannasastra University of Cambodia. Even if I can do so, but I still worry much about my University fee. If I depended on my business as a Tuk Tuk driver, it would not be enough to pay for the courses . Finally I assure you that all information I described above is true. I look forward to you considering me for a scholarship so that I can achieve something worthwhile with my life as well as my family .I am greatful for your kindness in accepting my application and look forward to your reply .

Phirom Kaksok (Roy)