A hunger for food, friends and school

Monday, April 20, 2015

Just a decade ago, it was rare for Khang ethnic minority girls, who live without main electricity in Vietnam’s mountainous district of Tuan Giao, to go to school.

“My dad can read and write, but he had to drop out of school in grade five when my grandfather died of a lung disease,” says Hoan, who belongs to the remote community near the border with Laos in the nation’s north-west.

“My mum can only use her fingerprints instead of writing yes or her name on official papers, though,” the 11-year-old adds.

Born to a poverty-stricken family, the fifth grader has two sisters, 13-year-old Van and nine-year-old Linh. All three girls are in school.

  

Hoan and her classmates take care of the vegetables garden at their school. The garden is right behind their classroom. Here, they can practice their farming skills and plant vegetables for meals, especially for their boarding-school kitchen where meals are prepared for them as boarders.

Hoan continues: “My mum told me that almost all the mothers and grandmothers living on this mountain didn’t go to school.

“Girls usually stayed at home to help their parents with the struggle for food. The kitchen was the place for girls, while school was for boys, especially those from families with enough rice to eat.”

Unlike her mother and thanks to World Vision, Hoan and her siblings attend the commune’s boarding school, which is 10km from their home. Children in her tiny community can only go to their village school until grade two because there aren’t enough students for later grades.

Her father, Tao, recalls his childhood: “I went to school for a bit when I was a child. But from grade three, I had to walk for two to three hours to reach the commune’s main school.

“After walking with my friends along the only trail there, which was very dusty, our hair was red. But we enjoyed it.”

Tao remembers being confined to home in the wet season. If he and his friends had ventured out, the torrential rain and violent winds could have swept them off the mountainside.

“It was really difficult to be stuck at home,” the 31-year-old says. “My hunger for friends and school was more than for food.”

 

Hoan, her sister Linh (sitting beside Hoan, in blue jacket) and other schoolmates have lunch at the school dining-room.

World Vision began working with Hoan’s community seven years ago, when the then five-year-old, was in kindergarten. Hillside farming was her parents’ sole means of feeding the family, but the rain-fed land could never produce enough rice or maize for them to eat.

Their hunger was worst in the months between harvests, when the family had to scavenge the forest for yams, bamboo shoots and wild vegetables. Meanwhile, the children’s schooling was a constant burden.

World Vision has encouraged Hoan’s parents to change their lifestyles since they first took part in its activities alongside fellow villagers.

Joining the organisation’s farmers’ group, they have learned how to expand their cultivated land and received seeds for additional food sources. Starting with only one hectare of unproductive land, the couple now harvest two tons of rice and three tons of maize each year.

By selling maize for cattle feed alone, they can buy food and items for school, such as notebooks and clothing for their three daughters.

World Vision has also trained the parents in animal husbandry to boost the household income. Since, they have joined a group to raise a breeding cow. The cow’s offspring are shared within the group, with Hoan’s parents selling their calves to buy a motorbike.

 

Hoan, her sister and parents are with the breeding cow supported by World Vision for generating family income.

Hoan’s mother says, “Now it only takes half an hour to get to the boarding school, instead of walking for two or three hours. And on weekends, my husband can bring our daughters home to see me and enjoy family meals.”

The 32-year-old feels securer as she fills every sack of rice or maize and hears the impatient uproar of her hungry pigs and cows. She is proud of helping her husband to earn enough to keep their daughters in education. Going to school was her dream, but she was denied the opportunity. Her children won’t be.

 

Hoan and her sister Linh have lunch with their parents. They have meals together only at the weekend. For other days, Hoan and her sister stay at their boarding school which is more than 10 km far from their home.

Hoan says: “I like school. I can make friends there and learn words. I must be literate, so I can be a teacher for the children in my community.”

The pupil, whose mother tongue is her ethnic minority’s distinct language, adds: “My favourite subject is Vietnamese. If I can speak the language well, I can do well in school and talk to different people. And I can understand the [translated] letters, greetings cards and gift messages from our Japanese sponsors.”

Like Hoan, her friends have fleeting dreams for the future, depending on what they learn from their teachers or peers. One day it’s to be a doctor, footballer or singer; the next it’s to be a scientist, nurse or bulldozer driver.

Hoan is one of more than 4,000 children in Tuan Giao to benefit from World Vision’s programme, which operates with the support of community members and local partners, so the young residents can fulfil their potentials and achieve their dreams, whatever they may be.

 

More about Hoan and her family:

 

Hoan shows her Child Sponsorship booklet to her parents and younger sister. Thanks to such communication, children and community members have knowledge of programme interventions and participate in them.

 

 

Hoan and her sister Linh help their parents to cook cabbage soup and cook sticky rice in a traditional double-boiler.

 

 

Sticky rice is the main food for Hoan’s family like other community members of Khang ethnic minority.

 

 

Hoan’s father uses his motorbike to ride her and her younger sister back to their boarding school after spending the weekend at home.