Gifts for our dearest friends

Notebooks, text books, pens, back-packs, warm clothes, uniforms, red scarves, or a couple of thousand dong from savings, are the gifts we gave our dearest friends.

The idea of "Gifts for our dearest friends!" came up during a club meeting in August of 2016, from our desire to bring joy to our classmates who are in difficulties, so that they can start the new schoolyear with enthusiasm and motivation.

With help from World Vision staff of Yên Bình ADP, we set off with preparation and planning. 5-10 friends from each class joined hands in directly implementing the project.

They represent their classes, boys and girls, each with unique look and personality, but all share the same goal of bringing something interesting to struggling friends. Nearly 400 members, all worked with excitement, effort, responsibility and “professionality”. School leaders and teachers also participated.

We picked out 47 friends who have special conditions - “our dearest friends”, and kept this secret until last moments.

As a 9th grade student, a senior in school, and a member from first day, I deeply felt the spirit of co-operation and solidarity of friends in club and in school.

We had to cross streams to reach our friends’ houses

Understanding our dearest friends’ situations, but we ourselves also live in mountainous rural area being limited in resources, thus our gifts were mostly “from the heart”: notebooks, books, pens, backpacks, warm clothes, uniforms, red scarves, or a couple of thousand dongs from savings. There were cards with loving words too.

Gifts were neatly arranged and carefully wrapped. At dawn of September 3rd of 2016, we on our bicycles brought gifts to the hands of “our dearest friends”, along with the childish delight and sincerity.

Their houses are about 7-8km away from the school, on village roads with bumps over hills and streams, and hot sun above. But all of us were joyful, cycling and chatting on the way. I can always recall the look of bashfulness and surprise on their faces welcoming so many guests to visit. Not only handing gifts, we also helped them making studying desks, cleaning houses, singing and playing common games.

Coming home after a meaningful good deed, I and other club members shared the happiness about an interesting and useful trip, an experience that helped build in each of us a spirit of empathy.

Nguyen Khoa Hong Ngoc, member of “Golden Kite” children club, Yen Binh ADP, Yen Bai province