Only an estimated 20,000 people live in the district of Nam Tra My, part of the Quang Nam province in Vietnam. It is located the South Central Highlands in an area known for the production of Saigon Cinnamon.
We partnered with #TongueOut, who is building a 5 classroom school in a secluded village in this remote district. Their new school building replaces a one-room school that has been serving the local children. We provided school supplies including: clothes, helmets , footwear, backpacks, pencils, and books to help them kick off the opening of the school in September of 2015.
Education in the villages is mainly limited to K-5. After 5th grade, the village children would have to go to a middle school that is located in a larger town. This would mean the children would need room and board along with the education. This not only is a hardship financially, it also impacts the family by not having the children around to help the family out with agricultural tasks. Attending high school requires the children to go even to a school farther away. The end result: few villagers are educated beyond 5th grade.
Our goal in villages like this is to work with the local church and other groups to help the children receive a solid elementary education. Then, with this foundation, we can develop strategies to assist the families to send their children for middle and high school education. Because of the low population density, it is not practical to have middle and high schools in each village. This means that a solution to giving continued education is to support the family and village while the students are at the school. We must also consider how to handle the village after their children, with high school educations, may not return to the village. We realize that we cannot do this alone, that something like this requires God’s wisdom.
Long-term, we hope to see established a strong and vibrant Christian community with a network of village churches, where our Christian brothers and sisters can help each other and reach out to even more remote villages. Our ultimate job is to help them help each other.
