One Book Can Empower a Child
In many places in the world,/children cannot go to school. This is the story of those children/and of Shanti Volunteer Association (SVA),/a Japanese NGO,/which is trying to help them.
1
Phea is a thirteen-year-old girl/living in a village in Cambodia. Every morning/she goes to the river and into the forest/to get fish and fruit,/which she sells in town. She used to go to school. But when she was in the fourth grade,/her family could no longer pay the daily 30-yen fee. She had to quit school.
Phea says shyly,/“I can write my name,/but I’ve forgotten many things. I wonder/if I can get a decent job.”
Hak is fourteen. When he was in the second grade,/he left school to go to work. He collects plastic bottles and metal fragments/in a dump in the slums of Phnom Penh/for about 100 yen a day.
“I envy my friends who attend school,”/he says. “I wish I could study, too.”
It is reported/that more than 70 million children around the world/cannot go to school. To help children like Phea and Hak,/SVA has been working/to give every child an opportunity to learn.
In many places in the world,/children cannot go to school. This is the story of those children/and of Shanti Volunteer Association (SVA),/a Japanese NGO,/which is trying to help them.
1
Phea is a thirteen-year-old girl/living in a village in Cambodia. Every morning/she goes to the river and into the forest/to get fish and fruit,/which she sells in town. She used to go to school. But when she was in the fourth grade,/her family could no longer pay the daily 30-yen fee. She had to quit school.
Phea says shyly,/“I can write my name,/but I’ve forgotten many things. I wonder/if I can get a decent job.”
Hak is fourteen. When he was in the second grade,/he left school to go to work. He collects plastic bottles and metal fragments/in a dump in the slums of Phnom Penh/for about 100 yen a day.
“I envy my friends who attend school,”/he says. “I wish I could study, too.”
It is reported/that more than 70 million children around the world/cannot go to school. To help children like Phea and Hak,/SVA has been working/to give every child an opportunity to learn.