Join hands for schools in mountainous areas

Young students receive enough supplies for the new school year at the "Mountain Supermarket".

Trucks loaded with goods were transported to Ngoc Linh Primary Boarding School (Tra Linh Commune), ready for the 2025-2026 school year's opening day. The program was implemented by the Red Cross Volunteer Club "Zen Love Zero Dong Bus" along with a number of volunteer clubs and the People's Committee of Tra Linh Commune.

This year’s festival was held for all 935 students of preschool, primary and secondary school age in the commune. In addition, there was also a “Highland Market” activity for 182 households with a total cost of about 500 million VND.

Around noon, the bus arrived at the school. Each group was divided into tasks to complete within the day, from free haircuts, nail care; preparing a grand feast with 15 dishes; to opening the festival and the free market.

Many Xo Dang ethnic children and their parents were waiting at the school. Ms. Ho Thi Giay (village 2) decided to take a day off from farming to take her children to the main school to attend the festival. Her two children had their hair cut, their hands and feet cleaned by volunteers, and were led to line up to choose new dishes such as fried shrimp, steamed sausage, sponge cake, fruit, etc. to eat buffet with other children. Ms. Giay also took the opportunity to stop by the Zero-dong Market to receive necessities such as spices, fish sauce, salt, dried fish, fresh fish, hoes and machetes for farming, etc. After finishing lunch, her two children went to the "Mountain Supermarket" to receive school supplies, school bags, uniforms, sandals, raincoats, etc., fully equipped for the new school year.

Looking at her children having a busy day, Ms. Ho Thi Giay shared: “I was also worried when my child was about to start the new school year but could not buy anything. Today, my child has enough school supplies, notebooks, coloring books and a spiritual gift to go to school, the family is very happy”.

The festival was filled with laughter and excitement with circus magic shows, balloon clowns, lion dances and a mountain cinema that kept the children there until the end of the day. This program has been organized by the club 5 times in the past 8 years, in the communes of Tra Tap, Tra Mai, Tra Don, Tra Leng and Tra Linh (old).

“Each highland commune and each family has different circumstances, but all are very difficult. We want to support before the new school year to give more motivation and strength for the children to go to class,” said Mr. Ho Ngoc Thanh, Chairman of the Club.

Actively working in the field of education , during the summer, the Pink Smile Club of Da Nang and other volunteer organizations completed the installation and donated the Solar Power Station and Mountain Cinema No. 34 to Tu Nac School (Hamlet 5, Tra Tap Commune). The club donated a high-capacity projector and a large screen to the school for teachers to use in teaching. The "cinema" is maintained by the school to show movies every week to "encourage" the children in the great forest to eagerly go to school as well as for the people to be entertained.

This time, the Pink Smile Club also installed solar power grids for 30 households in the village. Installing electricity and showing movies is a volunteer program that Pink Smile has been implementing for the past 15 years with the hope of attracting more children to school. All the schools that the club visited were still facing difficulties such as no electricity, some places had no phone signal. The children were surrounded by mountains and forests, and it was even more difficult for them to learn.

Mr. Ho Hoang Liem, Chairman of the Club, said: “I think this is a “door” for children and local people to see the outside world . With electricity and watching movies, learning will be more interesting, and the children’s journey to school will be a little easier. The Club will focus on completing the schools in each (old) district and then deploy them to other locations in Da Nang.”

Recalling a few months ago, when arriving at Lang Luong school (village 6, Tra Tap commune), seeing classrooms built of plywood, corrugated iron roofs, no national grid electricity, no clean water, weak phone signal, the Friends Club was determined to build a new school. In early September, teachers, students and local people were happy when Lang Luong school was inaugurated and put into use right before the new school year. The newly built school is spacious with enough rooms for teachers, classrooms, kitchen, toilets; has a school yard, embankment, fence, gate, and full nameplates. The total investment value is nearly 750 million VND.

The club also donated solar power systems, televisions, refrigerators, rice cookers, water heaters, sleeping stalls, blankets and highland bookcases, cooking facilities for children, mountain cinemas, etc. so that teachers and students have the best conditions for teaching and learning.

After finishing the work at Lang Luong school, the club went to Rang Chuoi school not far away to hold the groundbreaking ceremony. This is the 20th school to be built, everyone calculated that if conditions are favorable, by the end of this year the students will have a new school to study. In addition, the Friends Club has also implemented the activity "Supporting schools" for the past two years. It is still necessary equipment such as pots, pans, pans, water shelves, water tanks, shoe racks... so that teachers and students in remote schools have enough supplies for the new school year.

Along with Da Nang , this school year, the club will support nearly 30 schools from Quang Tri to Quang Ngai, with a total budget of more than 200 million VND. Club President Nguyen Binh Nam said: “I have received support from family and friends everywhere to build schools. We will continue our path towards education in the highlands. If we want to help change these lands, we must start with the children.”

THANH TAM

Source: https://nhandan.vn/chung-tay-vi-cac-diem-truong-vung-cao-post907790.html