A new school for children

“It’s hard to express how I have been feeling about such a big change of the school,” says Bac Thi Chi, a new kindergarten’s teacher in Na Dang village in the mountainous commune of Ta Ma in Dien Bien province.

Before, the kindergarten was a cramped room of just 35 square meters that had long been in poor condition- worm-eaten board walls and poles that put 50 children at risk of a sudden collapse of the classroom.

"It was too hot on sunny days, teaching under the low fibro-cement roof. But when it rained, we had to run around with lunch bowls in hand finding a dry place," recalls Quang Van Mai, a kindergarten’s teacher.

Even though Na Dang village is not in a World Vision project area, the kindergarten’s poor conditions had been among World Vision’s concerns for years.

In 2015, World Vision provided financial support for the local government to build a new kindergarten and renovate a children playground.

“I feel lucky when teaching in this beautiful school that I’ve never dared to dream of," says Lu Thi Luong, a kindergarten teacher. “The new kindergarten has brought about 100 per cent student attendance this year.”

Na Dang village’s new kindergarten is one among over 100 World Vision initiatives related to education in Tuan Giao district’s four project-area communes.

Vietnamese text and photos by Van Phong, Tuan Giao ADP’s development facilitator