Basic HTML Version
timeout
47
hangs in the corridor. Nothing is heard
but the sound of the wind.
“Some children like to go to school
very much, but others do not. I am
not sure of whether they will continue
coming here or not from one day to the
next,” says teacher Tran Thi Yen, a Kinh
Vietnamese.
“What is most difficult is that I have
to teach them how to read and write in
Vietnamese, but they speak their own
mother tongue,” she says.
Many children go to school bare foot
and some even learn while half-naked.
“They come from very poor fami-
lies, whose lives revolve around the
buffaloes and maize fields,” Yen says.
“They have no notebooks, so teachers
have to buy them. Their study is free-
of-charge.”
Fueling a better future
Yen and Quynh both say their
schools occasionally receive some cash
or gifts from donors to support the poor
pupils.
“Though the presents are not big,
they have helped us to continue teach-
ing and studying,” says Yen. “Several
months ago, an organisation presented
the pupils with some studying aids, but
we need more support from donors to
create a decent school that can attract
more pupils.”
In 2011 many pupils from Quynh’s
school received
Vietnam Investment
Review
scholarships. “Poor pupils are in
critical need of support from benefac-
tors so the school wants to continue
receiving
VIR
scholarships,” she says.
Over the past years, many enter-
prises and organisations have joined
hands in programmes to support poor
pupils with good study records.
For example, since October 2006
locally-owned Vingroup has been run-
ning its charitable fund, named the
Thien Tam (Kind Heart) Foundation. This
aims to help needy people throughout
the country via scholarships, building
houses and bridges, and giving gifts of
clothes and savings books.
Over the past eight years, the fund
has earmarked millions of dollars an-
nually to support the poor via many
projects and programmes.
“You cannot know how difficult
their life is now. Many people have
limited or even no schooling,” says
Vingroup’s vice chairman Le Khac Hiep.
“That’s why enterprises should help
them to have a better life.”
Each year Vingroup organises
about 50 visits to mountainous areas
to present gifts to the poor. “We have
helped them build some bridges. How-
ever, in those areas, there are so many
steep streams that the inhabitants need
more bridges. Many teachers and pupils
have had to cross streams amid tor-
rential flooding,” Hiep says, recalling a
recent video clip of a group of teachers
and pupils crossing a steep stream in a
bag. The clip was filmed by a Tuoi Tre
newspaper reporter.
In the clip, when floods around
Sam Lang village in the northern Dien
Bien province blocked a route to school,
rather than use it as an excuse for a day
off, the teacher and pupils devised a
method for getting to the other side of
the stream without getting wet. A man
put each child in a plastic bag before
launching himself neck deep into the
raging torrent. Holding the bag in one
hand, he used his other hand to pull
himself across the water, despite the
powerful currents. Once at the other
side, the child was taken out of the bag
and the man repeated the process.
“We must help teachers and pupils
like these. In many other localities, we
also see teachers and pupils cross rivers
and streams on bamboo rafts. More
dangerous, many teachers and pupils
even cross streams by pulling them-
selves along a rope,” Hiep says.
After witnessing the video clip, Min-
ister of Transport Dinh La Thang decid-
ed to build a VND3.5 billion ($166,600)
bridge over the stream. However, in
Dien Bien, nearly 60 places like this
are in critical need of bridges, meaning
that inhabitants are chancing their lives
when it floods.
Education for all
Vingroup is among many benefac-
tors extending support to the have-nots.
For example, the Rice Scholarship Pro-
gramme (RSP) was established in 2005
and assists disadvantaged students,
particularly those from ethnic minority
groups in remote and mountainous ar-
eas, to continue their education.
Donors contribute money and time,
establishing relations with local part-
ners and coordinating the programme
on a voluntary basis.
RSP has been supported by 500
national and international donors and
delivered thousands of scholarships to
needy students in 18 mountainous dis-
tricts of six provinces in Vietnam.
“Let’s join hands to support the
poor, because this is a way that suc-
cessful enterprises can show gratitude
to society and it is also a way for the
enterprises to develop more sustain-
ably,” Hiep says.
A dilapidated school building in the North