No One Leave Behind

My name is Mean Vibol Ratank, I am a person with disability lives in Cambodia. I would like to go to Singapore and participate in a disability inclusion study tour Enabled Futures. Enabled Futures is a short term study tour for Australian students to learn about disability and make social change. They had accepted me as a special participant outside Australia. They also waved my program fee of $3500 AUD.
I am now fundraising for the tour to cover my travel costs to go to Singapore. I will need $4000 USD for my flight, hotel, food and local travel costs for 15 days in Singapore by 10th November 2019.

A bit of my story, I was born in 1990 and I became a person with disability since I was 3 years due to polio. I have four brothers and I’m the youngest in the family. My father was a doctor and my mother was a housewife. I lost both of them and became an orphan when I was 10. When I was a child my mother taught me everything like wearing clothes, bathing and many things. My parents were my strength, but when they passed away, I have to learn how to be independent and do a lot of things by myself in my young age as a child with disability.
When my brother went to school I stayed alone in my house. I felt afraid and lonely, but I remember the words from my mother “When I am leaving you, don’t depend on your brother or other relatives. They’re not always available to help you, you need to be independent and hard-working” Thus, I cook, wash my clothes, mop the floor and clean the house. This is what I have learned to survive as a kid.
I was bullied in school due to my disability, my classmates call me by my disability other than my name. No one at school wants to make friends with me and that distorted my self-esteem. At my school, there was no ramp for classrooms and I couldn’t use the toilets because it was too small. I don’t eat or drink at school to avoiding going to the toilet. After I finished primary school, I asked my mother to drop out because I couldn’t stand the bullying in school anymore. It was the fate of having an independent life when I grow up supported me finished school.
I’m really thankful for my parents, because they always encouraged me. They tried so hard to let me become a person who is confident in this society. I have an impairment but I am not “disabled”. Through their advice, I graduated from high school, and it was really challenging to find a university at that time. I decided to continue my studies in a private school because it had an elevator that I could access my classrooms. After 3 years of studying English I made some friends. In July 2014, I started working with CDPO as an Intern for Voice of Person with Disability Radio. I felt that this is my new life including new experiences of being a person with a disability and I really understand more about disability and also about other people with a disability. I work with colleagues who have different types of disabilities in my workplace. I’m happy because I’m not alone anymore.
I want to become a great leader, I want to see people with diverse disabilities getting the opportunity to fully participate in all social activities. And children with disability won’t experience the bullying like I had when they go to school in Cambodia.
Going to Singapore and participate in the Enabled Futures program will be a life-changing experience for me. I will be able to see how Singapore is doing in disability inclusion. Working with students from Australia. Please support me and my dream by funding me to go to Singapore for this study tour.