The fishing village yearns for literacy.

(Baonghean)According to statistics from the Provincial Rural Development Department, along the Lam River in the districts of Hung Nguyen, Nam Dan, Thanh Chuong, Do Luong, and Anh Son, there are approximately 735 households with nearly 3,500 people who make a living from fishing and are in need of resettlement on land. The resettlement project for these fishing villages will not only help them "settle down and make a living" but also bring the children of these villages closer to their dream of education...

We arrived at Van Tai hamlet (Vo Liet commune, Thanh Chuong district) on a scorching afternoon. Beneath the Ro bridge were old, dilapidated boats. Waves crashed against the sides, making Mrs. Nguyen Thi Ha's boat rock precariously, threatening to drift away. Tying the mooring rope to an iron stake on the shore, Mrs. Ha said: “My whole life I’ve been tied to this stretch of river, to the profession of fishing with hooks and nets. We are fishermen, utterly alone, without a single plot of land to call our own. My fate is already sealed, but the future of my grandchildren is also very uncertain…”

Her children all went south to earn a living, leaving her to raise her three grandchildren. The youngest is in first grade, the oldest in fourth. Vo Liet Primary School is not far from the shore, and the children go to class together every day. Their parents frugally send money for tuition, and they borrow used books from friends. But the worst part is the lack of a proper place to study. The four of them live in a dilapidated boat, constantly getting waterlogged. On the roof of the boat is a worn-out backpack containing all the children's books, pens, and blackboards. At the back of the boat is a thin plank placed on some bricks to serve as a makeshift desk. "They rarely use it because the boat is low and cramped; if they sit, they have to hunch over, and they complain of sore shoulders and necks. Usually, all three spread a mat in the middle of the boat and crawl out to study... On rainy or windy days, they go ashore to take shelter at a friend's house. It's so sad," Mrs. Ha sighed, her eyes gazing distantly at the river shimmering in the sunlight. Perhaps because of the arduous learning process, 40% of school-aged children drop out of school midway to seek a living in the South or North.



Ms. Nguyen Thi Ha (Van Tai hamlet, Vo Liet commune, Thanh Chuong district) and her grandchildren on a dilapidated boat.

Nestled behind a grove of barren bamboo, outside the dike lies Hamlet 16 (Hung Long, Hung Nguyen). Of the 70 households and 300 inhabitants, 100% live off the river. Only 30 households own land to build houses, while more than half live precariously on boats. Their lives are constantly fluctuating with the tides, resulting in all families being classified as poor or near-poor. To afford their children's education, parents constantly move back and forth, mooring their boats in different places to cast nets and fish. Young children follow their parents from place to place, and when they reach school age, parents risk building makeshift thatched huts on land so their children have a stable place to attend school. Mr. Luu Van Tinh (Hamlet 16, Hung Long) said: “My two children are now old enough to go to school. The older one is in 7th grade, and the younger one is in kindergarten, so I can't take them with me. I know building a house on the riverbank violates the Land Law, but I have to take the risk so that my children have a stable place to study...”

Other families, when their children reach school age, try to send them to live with their grandparents or relatives living on land so that they can attend school. Parents work on the river, often away for days at a time, leaving their children's education entirely to their children and teachers, with little to no success. Mr. Luu Van Thong, head of Hamlet 16, said: “The education of children here is very difficult. They go to school twice a day, and the time at home is entirely up to them; there’s no one to encourage or guide them. Parents don’t know which teachers or classes their children are in. Parents often have to rely on grandparents to attend parent-teacher meetings a few times a year.”

"The most worrying thing is the children's journey to school during the rainy season and floods. When the water rises, Hamlet 16 is isolated like an island. To get to school on the other side of the dike, families take turns rowing boats. When the water recedes and the boats run aground, parents tie clothes and books into plastic bags and carry their children on their shoulders to class. Despite the difficulties, all the children here still go to school," Mr. Thong said, opening his notebook and proudly showing off: "100% of the children in the hamlet are of school age, and the number of those who have completed high school is increasing. In particular, in recent years, five children from the hamlet have gone on to attend college or vocational school. We have suffered because we didn't get a proper education. Now, no matter how difficult it is, we must try our best to ensure our children can go to school. Who knows, maybe someday they will surpass their fathers... and they won't have to wander the rivers and waterways anymore..." he wished.

For the children in the fishing village at the foot of the Do Luong bridge (Dang Son commune, Do Luong district), education is a distant dream. With no land to call their own, life is difficult due to the depletion of fish and shrimp stocks. Even transporting sand and gravel on the river now involves large motorboats, winches, and excavators. Struggling to make ends meet is already exhausting, so investing in their children's education is only a "secondary" concern. Nguyen Dinh In's family has seven children, but only Nguyen Dinh Ngoc (born in 2000) has the opportunity to attend school.

Ngoc's siblings, Nguyen Thi Hoa, Nguyen Dinh Hong, Nguyen Dinh Dung, and Nguyen Dinh Ung, all had to drop out of school in the first and third grades. The reason why Mr. In's six children couldn't attend school was because of extreme poverty; their parents couldn't afford tuition and other expenses. Mr. In confided, "Life on the riverbank, mainly relying on fishing, means the entire village's income is precarious, fluctuating with the tides. We work tirelessly from morning till night, but our income is only about 1 million dong a month, barely enough to cover expenses, let alone pay for our children's education..." Therefore, many parents, despite loving their children, have to spend months at a time fishing. And when they can no longer manage, they reluctantly accept their children dropping out of school. Hoang The Anh, an 8th-grade student, said: “My older sisters dropped out of school after finishing primary school. Because I'm a boy, I was given priority to continue to secondary school. But now, due to difficult family circumstances, I don't know when I'll have to drop out. I want to go to high school, to go to university, and to become a civil servant...”

As dusk falls, the wind from the Lam River blows fiercely into the makeshift huts along the riverbank, the boats bob gently on the water, and under the flickering electric light, the children diligently study. Born and raised experiencing the hardships and difficulties of the fishing community, the precarious life on the river of their grandparents and parents, the younger generation yearns to go to school, striving to learn and rise above their circumstances, to escape the curse of the river (homelessness and lack of burial). And I believe that, with the attention of the authorities at all levels, the children's thirst for knowledge will be shared, and their future will be brighter, "the children will surpass their fathers..."

Thanh Phuc