Brilliant summer from the highlands

Like all students across the country, in the past few days, members of the Highland Sunshine project have also eagerly attended the opening ceremony, welcoming the new school year. And on this occasion, the young people of the project have summarized the activities of the past summer, a brilliant summer with a lot of love given and received.

Members of the Highland Sunshine project with primary school students of Ea Tu commune, Dak Lak province. Photo: BICH THOM

“Hello” village

Highland Sunshine is a project of students from high schools in Ho Chi Minh City, mainly from the Gifted High School (Ho Chi Minh City National University). Last summer, 52 students took turns going to Ea Tu commune, Buon Ma Thuot city (now Tan An ward, Dak Lak province) to teach English to students at 3 schools: Ly Thuong Kiet Primary School, Ngo May Primary School and Mac Thi Buoi Primary School.

According to Pham Gia An, a member of the project's board of directors, Highland Sunshine was born by chance. During a break at the end of the first semester of the 2024-2025 school year, Gia An (then in 10th grade English) and a few friends "eavesdropped" on Chau Anh, a girl from Dak Lak, talking to a friend. The story mentioned children in her hometown who are having many difficulties learning English. "From Chau Anh's story, we wanted to do something to help children in the highlands," Gia An shared.

From the beginning of the second semester of the 10th grade, the project began to come up with ideas and "recruit" members. Initially, the project wanted 12 students, but after 1 month of announcement, it received 60 applications. In addition to students from the Gifted High School, the project received support from students from schools in the city such as: Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted, Tran Dai Nghia High School for the Gifted, Bui Thi Xuan High School, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai High School. After consideration, 52 qualified students were selected to go to Dak Lak to teach free summer English to children there.

From June 15 to July 12, the Highland Sunshine project officially came to the children in Dak Lak, the members live together at the Agricultural Extension Center of Ea Tu commune. Every week, 12-16 members from Ho Chi Minh City come to teach. "We focus on teaching the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders at 3 primary schools in the villages in Ea Tu commune. The main purpose is to help the children review their old lessons and at the same time inspire them to have a passion for learning English," Gia An said.

Go to grow up

Most of the members of Nắng cao nguyên were away from home for such a long time for the first time, so this trip to the Central Highlands was both a challenge and an opportunity for them to grow up. At home, Lê Bá Nhật Minh (grade 11 English, Gifted High School) only knew how to fry eggs; but when he arrived in Ea Tu, in addition to teaching English to the children, Nhật Minh was also assigned the task of being a "foster brother", taking care of meals for the members of the group. Thanks to that, Minh "improved his cooking skills", knowing how to chop chicken and cook food. "This is the most memorable summer of my life. At first, I thought I was giving something to the children, but in the end, I realized that I was the one who received the most in return. When I was in school, I didn't pay much attention to the teachers, only when I came here to teach the children did I understand how hard they worked," Nhật Minh confided. As the youngest member of the project, Pham Hoang Ha Chi (Class 8A12, Tran Dai Nghia Secondary and High School for the Gifted) shared useful skills on preventing abuse for children at Ngo May Primary School. “This is a very necessary skill in today’s life. Due to limited conditions, I can only share at one school, hopefully in the future I can share at more places,” Ha Chi shared.

Only one summer month took place in Dak Lak but it brought a lot of emotions to the members of the Highland Sunshine project. From the feeling of confusion and struggle in the early days, then joy when the children made progress, started to be passionate about English. Along with that was the feeling of sadness, nostalgia and regret when having to say goodbye to the children to return to Ho Chi Minh City, ending a summer full of sunshine and wind in the highlands, returning to being innocent and carefree students.

During a summer month in Ea Tu commune (Dak Lak province), the Highland Sunshine project organized 2,160 English lessons for more than 200 students at 3 schools. The project also donated 45 gifts including cash, textbooks, and school supplies (contributed by parents) with a total value of 22.5 million VND to students in difficult circumstances. In addition, Highland Sunshine also donated a bookcase named after the project with a total value of more than 10 million VND to Ly Thuong Kiet Primary School.

QUYNH YEN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/mua-he-ruc-ro-tu-cao-nguyen-post812802.html