A Fund Isaan alumni: part forty one: Sirikanya

Fund Isaan granted Sirikanya a scholarship in 2012, when she was 18 years old and studied Computer Business at Prasat Industrial and Community Education College. She finished her semester with a grade of 3.33 (83%).

Sirikanya lived with her mother, grandmother and two younger sisters in Ban Sek Kong, in Surin province. Her father passed away when she was very young. Her mother worked very hard to support her children. They were very poor. Sirikanya mother expected her to go to work after secondary school because she could not effort further education. But Sirikanya dreamed of getting a degree, so that she could support her family even better. She loved to work with computers.

Thanks to her scholarship, Sirikanya was allowed to continue her studies at the same college. She used her scholarship money to pay for her tuition fees and many other school materials and costs. it reduced her family’s financial worries a lot.

Sirikanya also received a laptop from Fund Isaan, which she used a lot during her studies, she loved surfing the internet and finding information on computers and programming languages.

In 2013, Sirikanya performed her internship at CPF Company in Nakhon Ratchasima province. She liked her job very much. She worked with the computer every day, normally typing in information into the company’s database. Her bosses were very happy with her performance; they even offered her a job at the company.

Shortly after her internship, her mother got an accident and could not work on the rice field anymore. Sirikanya opened a small coffee shop in front of her house to make some extra money. In the morning she sold coffee and bread before leaving to school. The business went very well, Sirikanya started to think about running her own business in the future.

In March 2014, Sirikanya graduated with her high certificate in Computer Business at Prasat Industrial and Community Education College, with a grade of 3.27 (82%).

Even though, she was planning to open her own coffee shop in front of her family’s house to make enough money to support her sisters’ education, Sirikanya got married later that year. She went to live with her family in law in a nearby village. She gave birth to her first daughter a year after that and carried another child a few months later, she had to stay home to take care of herself and the babies.

Sirikanya didn’t stop working. As she was very good with computers, every year the sugarcane factory in Prasat hires her for three months in the busy season. This way she makes 12,000 THB per month. Recently, Sirikanya and her family decided to open a franchise business in Prasat, selling stuffed bread called “Ji Pang”. The business is going very well.

Finally, Sirikanya and her family would like to express their deepest gratitude to Fund Isaan and her sponsor, 3AMB, for allowing her to continue her studies and graduate with a high certificate. Without the scholarship, she would never have been offered a variety of jobs to save up the amount of money needed to start her own business as she always dreamed of. Thank you!