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Saigonchildren brings safe schools to an ethnic minority community in the far north of Vietnam.

date_range2019-07-04

On June 27, in Na Hang District, Tuyen Quang Province the Opening Ceremony of the Da Vi Kindergarten and Da Vi Primary school took place at the Ban Luc Site.

Saigonchildren in collaboration with the authorities in Na Hang District, Tuyen Quang Province held the Opening Ceremony for two schools built in the local area. These schools will provide classrooms sufficient to cater to all the children living in the neighborhood of Na Hang District.

The Da Vi primary school satellite site in Ban Luc Hamlet had four classrooms serving approximately 50 children from the 1st  through 5th grades. It had been built with basic construction techniques using raw timber and iron sheeting and was dilapidated, making it physically unsafe and unhealthy for the children. Due to the poor structure, the temporary room was dangerous for students in the stormy season and on very hot and sunny days. Da Vi Kindergarten satellite site in Ban Luc Hamlet had one classroom which was borrowed from a primary school.

There was an urgent need to provide a safe and proper learning environment for deprived ethnic minority children, and so saigonchildren implemented the project School Building in Na Hang, Tuyen Quang. Na Hang is 110 km away from the centre of Tuyen Quang and is the poorest district in the province.

The Project replaced dilapidated classrooms with new classrooms constructed with appropriate, high quality design and materials. These classrooms are designed to suit the extreme weather in this mountainous area, which has many storms. The construction of the kindergarten includes one classroom of 86 square metres, plus a toilet block and a storage area in each, built with a concrete foundation, iron roof, tiled floor, painted brick walls, a corridor and a porch. There is also a kitchen, a 200m2 playground with a concrete play area, a school gate and a hedge. The primary school’s construction includes two classrooms, each room measuring 64 square meters. There is inside space and a front corridor, iron roof, tiled floor, and painted brick walls; a 300sq metre playground, hygiene facilities, and a hedge.

These two schools will benefit an estimated 85 children living in the villages and surronding area each year. Most of these kids belong to ethnic minorities. Also, this project aims at raising awareness amongst the community about the benefits of education and contributes to the improvement of educational quality in Tuyen Quang Province. Saigonchildren works not only in Southern Vietnam but we also support disadvantaged kids in Central Vietnam and the far north. In the north, saigonchildren have built four schools in remote areas where they are most needed, including two schools in Da Vi commune, Tuyen Quang province, a school in Ninh Binh province and a school in Phu Tho province.

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Tuyen Quang is a highland province 235 km North of Hanoi, with a population of 760,289. The majority of the area is mountainous. In 2018 15.38% of the population was classified as poor, using income as the main ranking criterion. Though the economy of Tuyen Quang is growing with industry, service, agriculture and forestry sectors, it is still fragile and facing many challenges such as slow economic recovery, high bad debt, weak purchasing power in the markets, etc. This is a result of the impact of public policies such as investment cuts and reduced state budget spending. In addition, climate change, natural disasters, and epidemics still occur, affecting socio-economic development and people’s lives in the area. (Information collected by saigonchildren in 2018 from public sources)

Being a longstanding program of saigonchildren, the School Building and Learning Environments Program aims to construct or renovate kindergartens and primary schools, to bring safe and effective learning environments to children in the most disadvantaged areas of Vietnam. Since 1992 our School Building Program has built 198 schools, 534 classrooms and benefited 15,500 students across Vietnam.

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