A Little Model Sings Well

Photos by Le Thiem Xuan - Communications Officer

Little Duong is not shy when she sees a group of visitors coming to her home. The five-year-old girl stands next to her grandmother inside their small house, smiling, and politely greeting them.  

She joyfully reads poems, sings a folk song about her hometown, and dances when she is asked to perform.

“I like singing the most,” she adds.

Duong and her whole family returned her hometown in Tien Lu district, a rural and lowland area in Hung Yen province, 90 kilometres north of Hanoi, last year after the adults could not find good employment in another mountainous area.    

The little girl now stays with her grandparents. She sees her mother on weekends, when she returns home from the garment company where she works. Her father works as an assistant for crane drivers in Hanoi and comes back home a few times per year.

Her grandparents are working so hard for a living that they don’t have enough time to take care of her properly.

“We focused on daily diet for Duong but she was only 13 kilogrammes last year. She was malnourished when she started going to kindergarten,” recalls Duong’s grandmother, Tran Thi Ke, 54.

The girl is now 16 kilogrammes and she looks better. Her weight is above the malnutrition rate. She has made other progress since she began school.

“She can sing many songs, colour pictures, and learn many good things at school,” says Ke, “She is happier and more confident.”

Under World Vision’s programmes, local kindergartens including Duong’s, have been supported to provide better care, especially nutrition, for their students.

World Vision has initially supported local schools to set up kitchens so that students can enjoy lunch at school and stay there from the morning until the afternoon. Teachers, mothers and caregivers are trained on such topics as nutrition, the prevention of children from diseases, injuries and accidents, and making toys or learning aids.

“Our assistance has made good changes on how children are cared for at local kindergartens,” confirms Bui Thi Thanh Hang, who is the manager of World Vision’s programme in Tien Lu district.

“Children don’t study at communal houses of each village or pagodas like in the past. Those with different ages learn at separate classrooms. Previously, they were all in one classroom so teachers worked like babysitters,” she adds.

A total of 378 students, ages 1-5, go to Duong’s kindergarten, which consists of one main area and four satellite areas. More than half of them now have lunch at school which are prepared by their teachers.

  
"We weigh our students and measure their height every month. The information is written in each child’s health check-up notebook," says Principal Ngoan.

“The malnutrition rate has reduced to less than 10 per cent from 29-30 per cent,” says Luong Thi Ngoan, the principal. “We weigh our students and measure their heights every month. The information is written at each child’s health check-up notebook. We pay more attention to those who are malnourished and ask their parents to take the children better care at home.”

“Previously, our kindergarten had only rooms for children aged four and five but only 60 per cent of them went to school,” the principal recalls. “Parents were not aware that going to kindergarten was necessary. They thought their children just needed to go there to learn the alphabet before they entered Grade 1.”

Local authorities have an optimistic vision about the reduction of malnutrition in their areas.
  
“Local awareness is changing. With the trend, our community will find no children suffering from malnutrition,” says Pham Van Quang, a senior local leader.

Little Duong says she likes going to school because she learns a lot there. “My teachers tell me not to go near ponds or lakes because I may fall into the water. I learn about friendship. I know I should collect waste and put them into a fixed place,” she says.

Duong’s grandmother admitted she was so busy that she couldn’t join any activities at school last year. “I’ll participate in those activities this year as I promised with her teachers,” says Mrs Ke.

Duong is now among a total of 2,561 children sponsored through World Vision’s sponsorship programme in Tien Lu district.