It is often said, “Education is the key to success.” For poor families in isolated areas, education is a luxury beyond their reach.
Consider the expense of tuition, books, and uniforms along with the distance to school. The walk to school could take one or two hours for these students.
As many of you know, the needs of the poor people in Vietnam are so vast. For many years, the Hong An Association has been focusing on the program “Hong An Rice” for those who can no longer care for themselves like the elderly, disabled, mentally unstable, and lepers or those with other incurable diseases. The Hong An Association felt the need to help students who have to give up their education to help their families. Students in highlands and rural areas face a shortage of schools, especially for the upper-grade levels. For example, there may be a primary school (grades 1-5) near the village. But the secondary school (grades 6-9) are farther away. Students in these grades would have to walk over 3 miles to school. High schools are very scarce, so students might have to walk over 8 miles to the nearest high school. Universities are even more scarce. A small, isolated city like Kontum does not have a private university but only one branch of Danang University that recently opened.
Some children rely on a friend for transportation. This means they must rely on their friend’s schedule. If the friend is late, busy, or sick; the children miss school, too. When children fall far behind in assignments, they are afraid to go back to school.
The Sister in charge shared: “The children in the villages are really poor. They commute a long way to school and leave early in the morning. Sometimes, they do not have anything to eat. How can they focus on school on an empty stomach? If they are lucky, some days they can carpool with a friend. When the Hong An Association donated bicycles, the children were happy because they did not have to ask their friends for a ride.
Many other children have no transportation or tuition, so they withdraw from school early. For these reasons few minority students going to college Some of the students are very bright, but they have to leave school because they cannot afford tuition to continue their education…”
In addition, it is difficult for ethnic minority children to learn in school because Vietnamese is not their first language. Many of the ethnic minority families are still speaking the local languages (Xo Dang, Bana, Gia Rai, GieTriengTrieng ,Brau, Ro Mam). In order to learn in school, the children have to put in double the work and effort. It is comparable to Vietnamese refugee families when they first came to the United States and had to learn to speak English at school. It is no wonder many of the children who finish primary school end up dropping out of school! Seeing their children and grandchildren go through such difficulties is sad for these families!
The Hong An Association started to contribute funds to the Sisters in Kontum and Tuyen Quang so that the Sisters could give bicycles to the deserving students. Where the roads were flat, the Sisters bought bicycles for about $60 per bicycle; wherever the roads are too hilly, the Sisters bought more durable bicycles at about $90 per bicycle. Children who received the bicycles were as thrilled as if they won the lottery. A bicycle for the city people means very little; but for the children in the poor areas, it is a big fortune.
The Hong An Association would like to invite everyone to lend a helping hand to provide more children with bicycles so they can have the opportunity to get an education for a brighter future.
