During gift giving in Con Cuong, we took the time to get to know more about each families’ situation. One family in particular, in Son Khe Village, needed urgent help since the mother has a growth in the neck and only the husband can work when a job is available. They have no rice field, farm, cow and buffalo, resulting in considerable financial constraints on the family. Furthermore, they have 3 children – the oldest child, Tiểu Băng, a 14 year old girl had to leave school to go work to help the family with food and support, Tiểu Phụng, 13 year old girl and 6 year old boy to go school. The mother’s health condition is not good – she can only stay at home and cook for her children. Based on the information, we decided this was an urgent case that required immediate help for the 14 year old daughter to return to school and finish her education. First and foremost, we spoke to the family about how we could help their daughter go back to school and whether someone could pay for her school fees? Secondly, we spoke to Tieu Bang in-depth on whether she would like to go back to school. As any responsible human being, she voiced her concerns on the impact it would have for her 2 siblings’ education if she left work and didn’t want to put herself first. We reassured her we will ensure nobody’s education will be sacrificed at the expense of the other and we are determined to see them all back in education together. After a long conversation with the family and Tieu Bang, they were all in agreement! We contacted the principle of the senior school to organise a meeting between the family, principle and teachers at the school premises. The following day, the meeting took place and thankfully, everything went smoothly. Furthermore, all the teachers agreed to help with Tieu Bang’s study courses to catch up with her classmates. We decided to give 2 scholarships: one for Tiểu Băng (year 8) and another for Tiểu Phụng (year 7). The very same day, we bought Tieu Bang a bicycle, school bag, books and school equipment for her to go to school. Please find below the costs breakdown:
School bag: 1 x 170,000 VND = 170,000 VND
Trainers: 2 x 35,000 VND = 70,000 VND
Box of crayons: 1 x 15,000 VND =15,000 VND
Geometry set: 1 x 45,000 VND = 45,000 VND
Hat: 2 x 50,000 VND = 100,000 VND
Set of textbooks: 1 x 27,000 VND = 27,000 VND
Exam sheets: 1 x 15,000 = 15,000 VND
Pens: 1 x 50,000 VND = 50,000 VND
Bicycle: 1 x 1,400,000 VND = 1,400,000 VND
Scholarships: 2 x 1,927,000 = 3,854,000 VND
Total = 5,746,000 VND (approximately £191.53)
Many thanks to the principle and all teachers for helping to make this happen. They also supplied exercise books and some money for Tieu Bang to start school. It’s incredible when a school really has the children at their best interest and invest their time, effort and money to push them to become more educated and more importantly, working towards ending the poverty cycle. Together there is hope.