The green-uniformed soldier 'Accompanying the border dormitories'

The station has 72 adopted children.

Mid-November, FortBorder guardsMon Son cooperated with the People's Committee of Mon Son commune and Mon Son Secondary School (Con Cuong) to launch the model "Accompanying the dormitories in border areas". Accordingly, Mon Son Border Guard Station sent a working group from the mass mobilization team to carry out tasks at the school's dormitory. The working group is permanently stationed here to help foreign students.Dan Laiearly familiarization and integration with the community; experience life, activities, and study close to the military environment; create a healthy cultural and spiritual life, support, practice, and improve life skills for students.

Launching the model "Accompanying dormitories in border areas". Photo: CSCC

Major Nguyen Manh Hung - Head of Mon Son Border Guard Station said: Mon Son Secondary School currently has 72 ethnic minority students who are Dan Lai (one of 11 ethnic minorities with very few people in the country, only distributed in Nghe An). In primary school, the children study at a separate school in Bung village, Co Phat village (located deep in Pu Mat National Park, 15-20 km from the commune center). In secondary school, the children have to go to the main school to study. At the age of 11-15, the children face many difficulties because the road from home to school is far and isolated; far from family, so living and studying are still confusing. Therefore, many students intend to drop out of school...

To help Dan Lai students, in 2018, agencies, departments, branches and localities paid attention to building a separate boarding area and supporting meals of 18,000 VND/day/student. The boarding area was formed, but still did not meet the conditions to enjoy boarding policies. Mon Son Secondary School also encountered many difficulties arising in management, ensuring security, order, preventing students from dropping out of school... 100% of students' families are poor households, so the students' lives in the boarding area are difficult.

Besides, Dan Lai students are used to living in isolation in the deep forest, so they are very shy, do not dare to contact strangers, resist people's attention, and do not know how to take care of themselves. They also have the habit that if one child drops out of school, dozens of children in the same village will drop out as well.

Major Phan Van Tham guides children in arranging blankets. Photo: Thanh Chung

Therefore, in 2019, Mon Son Secondary School proposed the Border Guard Station to establish a "campus" working group to help manage and educate life skills for students... Once in operation, the working group has actively carried out management work, maintained the regime and hours of the day and week for Dan Lai students in the boarding area; supported and helped them practice life skills, personal independence, haircuts, laundry, how to plant and care for crops; organized collective activities, physical education, sports, culture and arts; propagated, disseminated and educated the law; provided material support for living and studying...

Major Nguyen Manh Hung shared: After 3 years of effectively supporting Dan Lai students, the Border Guard Station has coordinated with Mon Son Secondary School and the People's Committee of Mon Son Commune to develop a plan to implement the model "Accompanying the dormitory in the border area" in the boarding area. The plan received high consensus from the Provincial Border Guard Command and the People's Committee of Con Cuong District... The new model was born on the basis of inheriting old activities, with clearer additions of new regulations, requirements, tasks and solutions, as well as inheriting the model "Adopted children of the Border Guard Station". If before, the Station only had 4 "adopted children", now the Station has up to 72 "adopted children" who are Dan Lai students.

Let joy follow joy

Border guards always monitor and take care of every meal and sleep of the students. Photo: Thanh Chung

Major Phan Van Tham - a member of the working group "Accompanying dormitories in border areas" said about the responsibility of "being a father and a mother": The working group has 3 people, monitoring, maintaining and supporting the living and studying activities of students in the dormitory.

Specifically, the working group tries to create for the children a lifestyle and activities like in a military environment (such as alarm clocks, morning exercises, hygiene, home arrangement, etc.); equipping them with knowledge in all aspects (especially paying attention to language) so that they can quickly integrate into their new life; creating a premise for them to develop comprehensive thinking and have the opportunity to develop themselves both intellectually and socio-economically; coordinating with local authorities to ensure security and order in the dormitory area so that the children can study, live, and be attached to the dormitory area with peace of mind... "Really, we have considered the children as our own children to give them all our love, always monitoring every meal, sleep, and illness" - Major Tham shared.

Le Van Son (15 years old), in Co Phat village, a 9A2 student at Mon Son Secondary School, said: “I am the fourth child in a family of 5 siblings. Both parents work in the fields. Living in the dormitory, my friends and I are very happy. Here, the border guards teach us how to study, work, exercise, and are fed well. The guards are very kind, always talk to us and tell us that we need to study hard to have more career opportunities.”

As for Le Thi Hoa (15 years old), in Bung village, a student of class 9A1, said: “We female students are closer to mother Thanh (Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Thi Tran Thanh - officer of Mon Son Border Guard Station). She is gentle and teaches us many things from singing and dancing, sewing, personal hygiene, legal knowledge and reproductive health care. She told us not to get married early, getting married early is very hard, we have to study in high school and then study further… Whatever delicious or beautiful things she has, she gives them to us.”

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Thi Tran Thanh and her adopted children, Dan Lai students, at the boarding school. Photo: CSCC

Since receiving support and help from the Border Guard Station, Dan Lai students have loved their school and class more, and have no longer dropped out of school. The students no longer want to live in isolation like “wild animals” but want to pursue higher education.

Teacher Le Duy Thuan - Principal of Mon Son Secondary School affirmed: The support of the Border Guard Station is extremely effective. The model is very necessary for the development of education in communes, districts, and mountainous areas. In order for the model "Accompanying dormitories in border areas" to go deeper, the school will continue to coordinate with officials to strengthen coordination in inspecting, urging, and managing the children's studies and activities; grasp and exchange, and promptly propose difficulties and new problems arising during the children's studies at school and activities in the dormitory.

Businesses and philanthropists support and accompany the model. Photo: CSCC

According to teacher Le Duy Thuan and Major Nguyen Manh Hung: Right from the beginning of building the model, the Commune People's Committee, Mon Son Secondary School and Mon Son Border Guard Station focused on calling on agencies, departments, branches and benefactors to support additional facilities to support the children in the boarding area. At this time, there were a number of units, organizations and businesses supporting. Thereby, a Study Encouragement Fund worth 56.5 million VND was established to reward the children; a non-governmental organization supported additional meals for the children with 12 million VND/month; a number of businesses promised to accompany... However, the children's meals are still very poor, not ensuring nutrition. Hopefully, there will be more support to improve meals, improve the quality of material and spiritual life and learning environment for Dan Lai students in the boarding area./.