An Arakanese social organization has awarded educational stipends to 228 Arakanese students who are pursuing graduation and post-graduation courses. In a formal meeting held at International Business Center (IBC) in Yangon on 27 July 2013, Rakhine Thahaya Association (Yangon) awarded the students of college and university standards.
“We have offered educational stipends to 228 students who are brilliant but from poor economic backgrounds to continue their studies in the universities. We provided 200000 Kyat per student for 2013-2014 academic session,” said U Hla Maung Thein, president of Rakhine Thahaya Association.
Many Arakanese organizations including those are based abroad like Arakanese Social Association based in Japan, Arakan Education Foundation (Worldwide) based in Singapore and the Yangon based Arakanese Sailors Social Association contributed funds for the award function.
Even a Japanese national named Hiromi Yokoyama also contributed a large amount of money to the Rakhine Rakhine Thahaya Association for this noble cause.
“Last year, we could award around 60 students only due to financial crunch. But this year we could award over 200 students as many Arakanese associations in exile had co-operated with us for the program,” added the Rakhine Thahaya Association president. He also revealed that this time 140 fresh applicants expressed their interest for the stipend program.
“Arakan is facing worst financial crisis at this moment. Many families in our State are running their families with lot of economic hardships. A good number of students have thus been compelled to leave their educational courses. We are actually supporting those students, who are brilliant but belonged to poor families,” disclosed U Hla Maung Thein.
The organization has selected 90 fresh applicants this time, many of them are pursuing professional courses like medical and engineering.
Not only the senior level students, the Rakhine Thahaya Association also support the primary, middle and high school students. Dedicated for the promotion of educational avenues to Arakanese youths, the Rakhine Thahaya Association offers stipends to 60 students from primary level, 12 students from middle level and 6 students from high school level every year in 17 townships of the State.
The organization, which was formed by the Arakanese intelligentsia in 1982, claims that over 400 students across the State have already completed their studies with the financial supports from Rakhine Thahaya Association.
