A DIFFERENT WAY OF CHARITY
Written by Tina Vu
Edited Cici Liu Life In The Countryside Traveling two hours from Ho Chi Minh City- Commercial city in the South of Vietnam all the way to the West, you will eventually see vast amount of land scattered by cattles surrounding by green and watery space, occasionally seeing house or school. A village called Nghe An locating 120 km away from main town where the government usually pay little attention to. This place takes the role of the main supplement of rice and food needed for the factory’s laborers nearby as well as the industrialization in the region. By having the ideal location and warm climate with massive land for agriculture, people living there take great advantage to do planting and raising cattle which contributes strongly to the economic development in term of agriculture. Therefore, most of people tend to go to the field as soon as they’re up to 7 years old. Children at age of 7 or older do whatever is left with in the field by the previous generation and keep the work going over time. Most of them don’t go to school as they should do; they go to rice raising or feeding cows at the field instead. Not only young children but also adults wake up early in the morning and start working until noon on the rice field while many of those children take responsibility of selling in grocery as a vender. In spite of the occupation of schooling program are open but it is recommended and not a must, many families living in such places prefer to choose farming work insteads of going to school for their kids. It is not because they don’t want to but the reason is that their prior is to work and earn money and food instead of attending school. While in tough situation of poor living standard, many families choose a short term plan. Charity Class Charity class is a non- profit program providing direct support to disadvantaged or poor children, who don’t have a chance to go to school in the countryside. It is created to ensure the access to education. The program is mostly run by university students to help people out in term of education. Every year in summer, there would a tour for people who is eager to help, excited to connect them to be a part of our community. In the countryside, people might experience discrimination or being separated in some way by the people living in the city. There, the volunteer connect people by teaching them more about language, communication in term of writing, counting, etc… Depending on the different university, the program’s time starts might be slightly different based on school schedule or the number of volunteering. The common time when this tour starts is in June after they have finished their final exam and every classes. The class run by university students in two month every years. Everyday, it starts from 6:00pm to 8:00 pm with the rotation of teacher in every week. Utensil will be provided from the donation including pencils and notebook that the volunteer give them as soon as they enter the class. Conclusion After they have accomplished in the past three- month for people in the countryside making them more enjoyable that most of people have broadened their perspective with fresh and extensive knowledge. They can read and count at the basic level of knowledge proven their effort throughout three months. The students themselves feel proud of work they have done to help the people out start returning to the university afterward. As well, students have the chance to experience the back side of life and their difficulty. |