Letter From The Scholarship Project Coordinator

Dear Education For The Poor Members,

I, Father Nguyen Xuan Duong, CSsR, would like to send you the list of Education For The Poor’s scholarship recipients for the 2006-2007 term.

This list is part of the project designed to assist students in paying their school tuition. The students were chosen for their determination to overcome hardship in order to advance themselves through education.

I received the amount of three thousand US dollars on September 1st, 2006, to create twenty scholarships, and I have accomplished this task within two months. However, due to the high number of students who desperately needed assistance, I have decreased the scholarship amount from 150 US dollars to 100 US dollars in order to accommodate thirty instead of twenty students. I have remitted the whole 100 US dollars to the students and have born the transmittance fees myself. I have encountered some difficulties in remitting the scholarship amount because the chosen students were located in many different regions. However, the task was completed and all recipients have signed a receipt with their photos attached. On their behalf, I would like to send Education For The Poor our gratitude.

I would like to share with you some information I have gathered while fulfilling this task. Each recipient of the Education For The Poor scholarship has their own distinct financial situation, and all the financial situations are equally difficult. Most of the recipients come from poor farming families in remote areas, and the dream of getting into universities has sustained them over the years despite the many difficulties they had to face. Those whose families have left the countryside to come to the city to make a living face even greater difficulty. The acceptance into the universities is the result of their resilient and strenuous fight to escape poverty.

In general, the recipients have to work while going to school in order to subsidize their living expenses. They hold different jobs selling newspapers and magazines, serving food in restaurants, baby-sitting, doing housework, tutoring, etc... which only brings them at most 200,000 VND per month.

Besides these fortunate recipients, there are many other young individuals who will have to forego their chance for further education after passing the university entrance exam due to the lack of financial resources. These individuals usually will go to Saigon to work in the hope of saving enough money to go back to school. Their second chance for higher education will depend on their success in retaking the entrance exam. Some will be able to fulfill their dreams, and many others, with their knowledge dulled by the long years away from school, will have to go back to their ancestor’s difficult farming life when they fail the entrance exam. The difficulties will not cease once the students obtain their degree. Sometimes, in order to get a job in their field of study, graduating students have to go through a certain process that requires further pecuniary requirements. Those who are not financially able will have to accept work in other fields in the hope of returning to their field of expertise later on because for now, they must pay off loans.

We always put our hope in our young people who overcome so many difficulties to get into universities. They have the determination, the resilience, the strong will, and the sense of responsibility toward their families and society. All they need is an opportunity to be the person that they are. Please give them a chance to succeed. On behalf of all the recipients of the Education For The Poor scholarship and their families, I would like to send you our deepest gratitude. We thank you for your concern for the development of the young people in Viet Nam.

We wish you success and good health.

Father Paul Nguyen Xuan Duong, CSsR
Scholarship Project Coordinator
Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer
142 Nguyen Hue, Hue, Vietnam