This is an inspiring story of one of our students, Võ Thị Hương Duyên. Hương Duyên is from Tân Châu, a province bordering Cambodia. She received the Greenleaves's Scholarship since 7th grade and is currently in her second year at the College of Foreign Economic Relations.
Hương Duyên’s father left when Hương Duyên was little, and her mother worked (peeling cashew nuts and other odd jobs, etc) to raise her three children alone. Hương Duyên’s mother is in her 50s. This year, she lost her ability to work due to health reasons. Hương Duyên’s older brother used to study at the University of Technology and Education in Saigon, but due to family circumstances, he had to quit school and now do manual labor work to earn money. Hương Duyên’s older sister finished 12th grade and went to Saigon to work for a while, but after many struggles, she returned home and got married. 

Hương Duyên said that after finishing 12th grade, her mother told her to go to work because she could no longer work to support the family. However, Hương Duyên’s brother persuaded her to go to Saigon to continue her studies. After many considerations, Hương Duyên decided to continue studying because she realized it would be the only way to improve her future.

When she first came to Saigon, Hương Duyên shared a room with her brother in the Bình Thạnh district. The first-year tuition was 15,000,000 VND/year, paid in 2 terms. During the first semester, her brother helped with the tuition, but Hương Duyên had to pay for other expenses such as food, books, etc. To support herself, Hương Duyên worked part-time at the restaurant until 10:30 pm every night. Later, due to the far distance from classes (Thủ Đức), Hương Duyên had to move. She shared a room with another student from the same school and worked with her brother at Pizza 4P's restaurant. Hương Duyên works 6 days a week to support herself, from 5 to 8 hours/ a day, depending on class schedule, earning 25,000 VND per hour.
During the school year 2023-2024, Hương Duyên received the GL500+ Tịnh An and GL500+ TNV scholarships, which helped her pay for college tuition.

The interview with Hương Duyên about the reconsideration of the GL500+ scholarship for the academic year 2023-3034:

With the desire to help cancer patients, Hương Duyên has tried to grow her hair long for the last two years and donated her hair on September 9th, 2024. We truly admire her beautiful gesture and her inspiration.

The path from elementary school to college for our underprivileged students is long and winding with many hardships. For the seeds to grow and reach far toward the shining sun to form their beautiful sunflowers, it is a difficult process that needs to be cultivated and nurtured. GiKaD started growing its seeds in 2017, and now GiKaD's bright and cheerful sunflowers are gradually blooming.
We are proud of our students and together with your help, we can make a difference in their lives.