Give2Asia Giving Forum

The Story of Huot Ravuth: A Mother’s Smile, A Son’s Dream

A young man lives at the Center for Children’s Happiness in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and leads his fellow students in many activities throughout the day. He is only 17 years old and unlike most teenagers, he has overcome incredible obstacles and willed himself to gain an education, impact his community, and live a happy, productive life. When Give2Asia Program Officer Gillian Yeoh visited CCH in June 2009, Ravuth showed her around the center and told her his life story in fluent English. 

This impressive young man, Huot Ravuth, was born on March 8, 1992 in the Kandal province of Cambodia. As a small child, Ravuth lived in the rural countryside with his family, caring for the home, cows and chickens with his siblings. Though the youngest and smallest, he also worked in the rice field, side by side with family members and other workers, carrying heavy bunches of rice.

Calvin Chin & Qifang Help Make College Affordable in China

Fewer than 15% of students in China enroll in college today, compared to the more than 45% who enroll in the United States. The problem: Many eligible students lack the ability to pay for college tuition, and the university system in China lacks the resources to help finance the tens of millions who need assistance in order to further their education.

This is a huge problem as China hopes to continue the economic boom that it experienced this past decade.

It could also be a big opportunity for the right solution that manages to connect these millions of potential students with eager lenders. Calvin Chin and his company, Qifang, hope that they have found a sustainable, successful model for making college more affordable for Chinese students.

Give2Asia launches the Pakistan Humanitarian Relief Fund

Conflict between the Pakistan military and Taliban insurgents has displaced over two million people from their homes in the Swat, Malakand, Buner and Dir regions of Pakistan. The fighting has compelled millions of Pakistani men and women to leave their homes, belongings, livelihood, and even their identities behind. These internally displaced people are in dire need of food, water, supplies, shelter, and medical care. The majority of those displaced have moved to the cities of Mardan, Nowshera, Peshawar, Charsada and Swabi. Some have relocated with relatives or host families; a majority are in camps, while others have taken refuge in different parts of the country.

This is the worst displacement of people globally since the Rwandan genocide in 1994; and the largest in Pakistan since the historic partition of the South Asian subcontinent in 1947. Day by day, the number of displaced Pakistanis continues to mount and the current funds and assistance are insufficient to meet their needs. The camps have become over-crowded, and lack proper medical facilities and sanitation.

There is something you can do.

Success Against All Odds: Women's Education in Afghanistan

"Please teach our children."  This was the message that Dr. Sakena Yacoobi heard when she visited refugee camps in Pakistan and Iran during the Soviet incursion in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and before the rise of the Taliban.

Later in the early 1990s, when the Taliban came to power, many thought it would be safe to return to their homeland. What they found was a new regime, which distrusted the practice of teaching girls -- a practice suddenly negatively associated with the Soviet occupation. However, protected by the communities where she operated, Dr. Yacoobi safely entered Afghanistan -- and an Afghani woman herself -- and began teaching girls and training new teachers in an environment where such activities could lead to imprisonment or death.

Early this week, on Monday May 18, Give2Asia had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Yacoobi, founder of the Afghan Institute of Learning. Dr. Yacoobi is the president and executive director of this internationally recognized NGO, which grew out of her work teaching girls and training teachers during the Taliban's rule.  Today, AIL provides health care to women and children, teacher training for women, and educational support for boys and girls in Afghanistan. Despite the ongoing violence, her schools remain safe because of her respect for local traditions and partnership with the villages and towns where AIL operates.

Since 1995, AIL has been able to provide access to education and health care to an estimated 350,000 women and children every year. This NGO, still led and run by Afghan women, plays a major role in reconstructing the health and educational systems in Afghanistan today.

During her presentation to Give2Asia, Dr. Yacoobi spoke of conditions in Afghanistan when she was a little girl, watching women in Afghanistan receive poor or little medical attention, especially during stages of pregnancy. She was lucky to be able to receive a formal education in the U.S. and Europe, but she was always aware that she was one of the lucky ones.

Dr. Yacoobi is a 2006 Skoll Award recipient. This year Dr. Yacoobi received the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership for extraordinary accomplishment and bold, visionary leadership in the nonprofit sector. 

To learn more about Afghan Institute of Learning, check out their Web site at www.afghaninstituteoflearning.org. To donate to AIL, click here.

Amidst the economic debacle, Chilton Investment Company sets itself apart

May 12, 2009 – Chengdu, CHINA – On the first-year anniversary of the Wenchuan earthquake, Chilton Investment Company LLC is helping students at Sichuan University to overcome the hardships created by the disaster and to achieve their academic goals. In partnership with Give2Asia and with the goal of making an investment in China’s youth, Chilton Investment Company made possible a series of scholarships for freshman Economics and Finance majors who possess a solid record of academic success and who have been adversely affected by the earthquake.

The Awards Ceremony will be held on the Jiang An Campus of Sichuan University in Chengdu. Twenty-eight students will each receive a Chilton Scholarship Award in the amount of RMB 3,000 (US$450) per year, which is renewable for up to four years. All recipients of these awards come from impoverished families who live in one of the 51 officially designated earthquake-affected counties in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi. In addition to academic performance, students were also selected based on their inability to afford normal tuition fees and living expenses.