"Charity class" in the slum

(Baonghean) -For the past 2 years, the children in the slum have become accustomed to the volunteer students coming to teach them. Without knowing when, the students have become close and attached to the children, and are loved and treated like their own children by their parents…

Every Wednesday afternoon, Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon, students from Thanh Vinh Student Volunteer Club come to teach children in the floating village along the Cua Tien River, Vinh Tan Ward, Vinh City. The students mainly teach the following subjects: Math, Literature, English, Chemistry... Nguyen Thi Hoa (Vinh University) is in charge of the volunteer teaching team here and said: "For the past 2 years, our class has maintained a class size of about 11-13 students from the fishing village along the Cua Tien River, however, the majority are still children from the noc house village. The name "noc house village" was also given by us volunteer students, from the image of the rainy season, when water floods the huts, people here have to live on noc (small boats).

"Charity class" by students of Thanh Vinh Volunteer Club

The first days of the charity class were very difficult. Hoa recounted that at that time, the people in the Noc hamlet were not open and welcoming to us, because before that, a group of students had come to teach, but only for a short time then stopped. “That’s why they didn’t trust us, thinking that we would leave too, and wouldn’t change or help them in any way. We had to convince them for a long time, then prove it with our enthusiasm, by regularly coming to teach the children. Gradually, they trusted us, and considered us as their own children.”

Because their parents work hard, most of the children in the Noc hamlet have to help earn money, and don’t have much time to study. The boys go fishing, and the girls go to Vinh market to sell fish in the afternoon. “Seeing the children working so hard, the students feel more sorry for them and try harder to visit them regularly to make up for their shortcomings. The students have renovated the classroom, which is one of the four huts of the Noc hamlet residents, from making the floor flat to sit on, making tables and chairs, and adding a bamboo mat to cover it when it rains or is windy. The classroom is simple but has been maintained for 2 consecutive years.

Nguyen Thi Hong (Vinh Medical University) has been teaching here for a year, sharing: “On the first day of volunteering, a member of the group took me to this stilt house neighborhood. It was the rainy season at that time, the water was up to the floor. I stood on the other side of the river, watching the children rowing boats to pick me up and was moved to tears. I thought these scenes only existed in the Southwest, but I never expected that behind Vinh market, next to the bustling neighborhood, all the high-rise buildings, there was a place like this. I suddenly felt a strange connection! Since then, I have been teaching the children until now.”

In the middle of class, seeing a shadowy figure below, the children cheered loudly and ran out to welcome her. It turned out to be teacher Vo Thi Huyen (a final year student at Vinh University). Huyen has been teaching here for quite a while and is very loved by the children. According to the children in the group, Huyen is the most enthusiastic person. There was a time when the children were studying for their semester exams, but still had to help their parents go fishing and sell fish, and had no free time during the day to study, Huyen came to the children in the evenings to tutor and review. Some days it was so late that the female student slept in simple, poor huts, then hurried back to the lecture hall early the next morning to go to class. Huyen said: “I feel so sorry for them. Many days, at 9 or 10 pm, they still haven’t eaten because they are working with their parents. They wake up at 4:30 in the morning, so they don’t have time to study. I have to teach extra classes at night, and many times I even sleep here. But this is their final year, and I am so busy with school that I can’t come to teach them regularly. Sometimes I take the time to visit and ask about their situation to ease my longing.”

The students' kindness has also been rewarded by the children's progress in their studies. Since the day they started tutoring, their academic performance has improved. When they first started teaching, there were students who were already in grade 2 but had not yet memorized the alphabet, but after a while they could read and write fluently, and some even achieved excellent students like Le Thi Oanh (grade 3B, Vinh Tan Primary School, Vinh City). Last school year, there were 5 students who were recognized as advanced students. "They were smart and quick-witted, but because they did not have time to study, their academic results were poor. But all of them are lovely, affectionate, very obedient and listen to their older siblings, so gradually after a period of teaching, they have made a lot of progress," Nguyen Thi Hoa shared.

Not only teaching, the students also have to motivate them to continue going to school, not to stop halfway. Le Van Tu, a 9th grader at Vinh Tan Secondary School, has wanted to drop out of school many times because of his low self-esteem and frustration with his family situation. The volunteer “teachers” have to constantly encourage Tu, then talk to and convince his parents to let him continue going to school.

Because of the wholehearted concern of the students, the people of the Noc hamlet were moved and tried their best to send their children to school. Mr. Le Van Nien (40 years old) confided: “All of our families came here from Quang Binh, it was very difficult and hard. Our life was considered “dark”, neither my husband nor I knew how to read or write, so when we saw that our children could go to school, we were happy, and there were brothers and sisters who volunteered to teach us, so there was nothing better. Well, even with rice, eggplant and water spinach, we still tried to teach our children to make their lives brighter”.

Lake Lai