Students walk their Chinese-donated bicycles at the Chhork Kandoal Primary School in Kampong Chhnang province, Cambodia, Nov. 24, 2023. (Photo by Liao Hongqing/Xinhua)
KAMPONG CHHNANG, Cambodia, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Hong Raksa, a 12-year-old underprivileged student in central Cambodia, was thrilled on Friday after receiving a Chinese-donated bicycle, saying that it would be a "memorable gift" in her life.
The sixth grader at the Chhork Kandoal Primary School in Kampong Chhnang province's Tuek Phos district is one of 2,024 underprivileged primary school students in Cambodia to receive bicycles from the China Foundation for Rural Development (CFRD).
With their parents being poor farmers, Raksa, the youngest of her five siblings in the family, said the bicycle was the first big gift in her life and promised to use the bike with care.
After receiving the donated bike, she looked at her new bike with a sweet smile on her face, and touched the handlebars and clicked the bell before riding it several times between the primary school's gate and the main building.
Raksa, whose house is about 5 km from the school, said the new bike would replace her old and rusty one, which was quite difficult to ride.
"My old bike was small. When its chain fell off, it was difficult to put it back on, and sometimes its tire went flat during a ride," she told Xinhua.
Raksa said she sometimes had to walk to school and arrived late when her old bike broke down.
"I feel elated to receive this new bicycle, so I will be able to get to school on time. This bicycle is nice and I like it," she said. "I will try to study hard in order to get a good grade, and I want to be a teacher when I grow up."
Raksa's mother Seang Vanny said she was happy that her daughter got the bicycle.
"I would like to thank the donors for providing the bicycle to my daughter, so she can travel to school on time," she told Xinhua. "If there was no this donation, I could not afford to buy it because we lived from hand to mouth."
Vanny said she would encourage her daughter to give a ride to neighbors' children because they don't have a bike to go to school either.
"I hope that my daughter can be a teacher in the future to help our country cultivate more talents," she said while laughing with a gentle gaze settled on her daughter.
Pen Sovanvathana, another sixth grader at the Chhork Kandoal Primary School, who also received a bike from the CFRD, said his house is about 3 km from the school and it takes around 45 minutes to walk to school every day.
"When I walked, I sweated a lot because it was hot and sunny, and my clothes became stained with sweat," he told Xinhua. "I feel very happy because I have never had a bicycle before."
Sovanvathana thanked China for donating the bikes to poor students in Cambodia, promising to study hard as he wants to be a pilot when he grows up.
"This bicycle has given me a new hope, I promise to study hard to gain a good grade so as to fulfill my dream," he said.
Ly Silin, principal of the Chhork Kandoal Primary School, said the donation has put a smile on the face of Cambodian underprivileged students, giving them new hope for a bright future.
"These bicycles are very useful for the students to ride to school on time and they have also helped reduce their families' expenses on the means of transportation," he told Xinhua.
He said that if parents spend their own money to buy a bicycle for their children, it would cost about 250,000 riels (62.5 U.S. dollars) each.
"With the donation of bicycles from Chinese donors, each of them has saved 250,000 riels, so they can use this money to spend on other things such as stationery and clothes," Silin said.
He added that his school had received 100 bicycles to distribute to poor students and those whose houses are from 3 to 5 km away from school.
CFRD's representative Wang Haoyu said the bicycles could significantly reduce students' commuting time to school, allowing them to spend more time studying in the classroom. Moreover, the bicycle could be used by their family members during the students' free time.
He said public primary schools in rural areas are given a priority to get the bikes.
"We hope that they can understand Chinese culture and realize that there is a group of Chinese people, although thousands of kilometers away, are caring for them, caring about their lives, growth and education," he told Xinhua.
"In this way, we hope to plant the seeds of China-Cambodian friendship in their hearts, with the aspiration that they will grow up to be bridges of friendship between China and Cambodia," he added. ■
A primary school student cleans her Chinese-donated bicycle at her home in Kampong Chhnang province, Cambodia, Nov. 24, 2023. (Photo by Liao Hongqing/Xinhua)
Students walk their Chinese-donated bicycles at the Chhork Kandoal Primary School in Kampong Chhnang province, Cambodia, Nov. 24, 2023. (Photo by Liao Hongqing/Xinhua)