Your kind ATTENTION and HELP requested!
Ya'll, I am so blessed to know the young man you see in the picture. His name is Naing Lin and he is my former student at BEAM Education Foundation (www.BEAMedu.org). He is also my current employee at my restaurant Food4Thought here in Chiang Mai and one of the greatest young people I have ever met in my life. I can scarcely describe the quality of this man in a short post, but in 30+ years of life I have rarely met someone who was more responsible, more determined and more full of sincerity and kindness than him. Like so many of my BEAM students, he inspires me and teaches me to be a better person (truly, although I am supposedly his "teacher", I often feel that it is the other way around!) If I could tell you all of his personal story, if you could begin to have just the slightest understanding of how far he has come, then I have no doubt that you would be totally blown away. You might even feel inspired to help him to continue his journey towards personal and academic achievement.
Indeed, that is why I am writing now, Naing Lin, having recently passed the American GED Exam (as a Burmese Migrant who couldn't even speak a word of English just a couple of years ago!), finally has an opportunity to attend university. He has already been accepted to Chiang Mai University but has thus far been unable to come up with the funds to pay for this coming academic year. I have pledged to him that after all he has overcome to reach this point in his life, I aim to do whatever I can to help him attend university this year. While I can personally only help him a little bit, I am reaching out to my friends in hopes some of you might be willing to donate to his future as well. I can say with confidence that you would be donating not just to him but quite literally to a better future for Burma as he is surely going to be a great community-leader there once he completes his education. Also, It might probably come as no surprise to you that a university education does not cost much here compared to western counterparts. It is literally just a couple grand for the whole year!
Thus, if you are feeling generous and would like to know more about Naing Lin, his story and how you can help, please message me at charles.turner23@gmail.com. Furthermore, I have a whole host of equally tremendous young people that I am blessed to be connected with through BEAM Education Foundation that are also in need. My time teaching there has been one of the best experiences of my life and this is due solely to the young people in my classrooms who give every effort to improve their chances in life and who understand the great value and opportunity that comes from being better educated. In just a year's time, these students go from having little formal education and only broken English to passing the highly difficult GED exam (often their only route to higher-education as migrants and refugees). Its literally unbelievable and quite entirely impossible but they somehow still manage to do it! Some of you might know that last year we hosted a big fundraiser at Food4Thought for BEAM and we are now considering the possibility of setting up a charity through our business to try and help these students further. If you wish to be a part of this process, I honestly could never recommend better or more worthy recipients of your generosity. In a world that seems to be growing increasingly cynical, dishonest and dangerous, these students truly are beacon of hope and a reminder of the greatness of humanity.
Finally, in regards to how you can help and how much you might send, its obviously entirely up to you. For some context and perspective, I can tell you that the tuition is 80,000 baht or roughly 2,300 dollars per academic year. That said, it is reasonable to estimate that he would need an additional 1-2,000 dollars for housing and living expenses (About 4 dollars a day). While I will be providing him with a part-time job and some financial support myself, I would prefer that he is able to focus on his studies as much as can be possible, thus as much generosity to this important component of his success would be highly appreciated.
Furthermore, in full disclosure, there is an outside chance that he might receive some sort of scholarship from Prospect Burma. However, this would only be a partial scholarship at best as funds are very limited due to the amount of needy and worthy candidates. I will keep you all updated on this potentiality.
For those of you who are feeling especially generous, I would also like to suggest you to learn more about BEAM Education Foundation as well as Thai Freedom House. Both these organizations are at the forefront of supporting needy Burmese migrants and refugees here in Chiang Mai. They are also the most sincere and honorable organizations I have ever come across in my many years of NGO work. If you are the type of person who wants to know that your generosity is going very directly to people who truly need it, these organizations offer the best ways I have ever come across to do so.
Here are their websites:
www.beamedu.org
http://thaifreedomhouse.org/
Even easier, a www.JustGiving.com page was created for BEAM to help some of the other great young people from BEAM to also have a chance to go to university. While I am personally slightly partial to my guy Naing Lin, all of the kids you would be supporting through this crowd-funding campaign are my former students and quite equally amazing and deserving. If you have yet more to give, please consider doing so here.
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/steve-g...
Thanks so much again for your time, consideration and generosity. I look forward to keeping you updated on Naing Lin's progress. Bless you all!
Charles
