[Vnbiz] Hunger for knowledge

[Phan, Tai]

Hunger for knowledge
Stories by TAN GIM EAN
The Star online  - Malaysia
Monday July 16, 2007


NGUYEN Tuong Linh does not have a dollar to her name. She farms a 500 square metre plot that yields about 400kg of rice yearly. That, together with some vegetables she plants, are just enough to feed her husband and son. 

"I have no money and my son is just as poor," says the 61-year-old farmer matter-of-factly, as she sat upright on a mat in her empty home. Whenever she needs cash, she has to sell some chickens or pigs. 

Yet Linh, who belongs to the Muong ethnic minority, is as magnanimous as any philanthropist. She allows a group of primary schoolchildren to use the space beneath her stilt hut in Kho village in Dien Quang commune as their school.  

  
Doing her bit: Nguyen Tuong Linh allows primary schoolchildren to use the space below her stilt hut as a classroom. 
The hut has no water supply and the children dart to the nearby bushes when nature calls. Still, that rectangular space is sheltered and airy, and it gives them, especially those who live too far from the nearest proper primary school, the chance to attend classes. 

"I like teachers and studying," Linh says softly, when asked why she didn't hesitate to let her home be used as a school when approached by the Vietnamese government. 

Having dropped out of school after Grade 7, she knows the importance of a good education. Her bachelor son, who is 32 and lives next door in a concrete house which they managed to build last year, finished high school (Grade 12) but was unable to get a job. So, like her, he has to till the land. 

Linh, like most of the inhabitants of Ba Thuoc, is concerned about education, which ranks above health, agricultural techniques and animal husbandry as the issue villagers want most help with under World Vision's (WV) Area Development Programme (ADP).  

After months of visiting schools to talk to principals, teachers, students and village leaders, Le Quang Dao, ADP manager for the district, has arrived at a bleak analysis: primary schools at hamlet level still lack the proper facilities.  

Roofs leak and children, as well as learning kits, get wet when it rains.  

Furniture is rudimentary - the rough-hewn long tables and benches are often old and broken, floors are dirty, and the walls of classrooms are literally bare, save for a portrait of Ho Chi Minh.  

There is inadequate sanitation and infrastructure is just as bad; the majority of the kids have to leave home at 5 in the morning - often on empty stomachs - and walk two hours to school.  

After classes end at 11.30am, they trudge home to eat the same bland lunch daily - rice mixed with cassava and, if they're lucky, some greens.  

When it pours, roads get flooded or landslides occur, thus forcing them to skip school. 

Students don't have textbooks or writing materials, let alone the knick-knacks that fill the bags of the average Malaysian child today.  

Some children don't even get a chance to enrol for lessons because their parents cannot afford to pay the required donation towards the "school construction fee". 

Many schools lack teaching aids; those that have them may not have the proper place to store them. Or, teachers are not trained to use such equipment.  

Between high levels of illiteracy and drop-out rates lies the problem of language. Almost all the pre-school kids of ethnic minorities (Thai and Muong, for example) cannot speak and write Vietnamese. This inability to communicate, often up till Grade Three to Five, affects their confidence and, subsequently, their performance in school. 

Dao observes that Ba Thuoc's villagers are receptive to WV's approach of forming what it calls "partnerships", whereby the poor are taught how to help themselves. 

During the last nine months - termed the Seed Phase - he met with them, as well as commune leaders and provincial representatives to find out the root cause of problems and work out a programme that involves education, agriculture, health, water and sanitation, disaster mitigation and livelihood support. 

He has compiled a detailed assessment report on natural and socio-economic conditions in four specific ADP communes, namely Dien Quang, Van Nho, Thanh Son and Ky Tan.  

The next step of this phase is to design specific programmes for each commune, which will then be implemented over five-year periods.  

WV allots a time frame of 10 to 15 years for its programmes to make a difference in the lives of its "partners".  

It then steps out of the picture to allow the community to build an independent, sustainable future. Currently, WV works in over 100 countries across the globe. It has a hand in over 5,000 projects involving more than 100 million people.