'For Vietnamese Stature' Fund: Bringing a new learning space to students in the Ky Son highlands
My Ly 1 Primary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities is located 55 km from the center of Ky Son district, and is home to 345 students, more than 97% of whom are Thai, H'Mong and Kho Mu ethnic minorities.
With a total budget of over 5 billion VND, the project to renovate My Ly 1 Primary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities implemented by the "For Vietnamese Stature" Fund will bring students a more spacious learning environment.
I wish there were a more beautiful and safer school.
Having worked at the school for 23 years, Mr. Tran Dinh Thong - a 5th grade teacher at My Ly 1 Primary School, worries: "Many students of the school go to school very far, their parents are mainly workers in companies, they live with their grandparents, so transportation is still limited. Some students are taken to school by motorbike, but many still have to walk, which is very difficult. The farthest village is 17 km away, the second village is 13 km, one village is 11 km and the two nearest villages are also 5 km from the school. When the road is eroded, students can only walk or miss school." Therefore, the need for students to stay in boarding school is very high, currently the school has 167 students living in boarding school, however, the school currently only has 4 boarding rooms, not enough to meet the best conditions for the students.
Mr. Vi Dinh Hoi, parent of Vi Dang Kiet, shared: The house is 4 km from the school, the road is difficult to travel, so my family let my child study at the school from Monday to Friday afternoon. He said that at school, the teachers are very kind, but the classrooms, bedrooms, dining room and especially the toilet facilities are too rudimentary, not guaranteed, especially on rainy and windy days and especially in winter, it is very difficult and inconvenient.
When asked about her dreams, Luong Thi Ngoc Linh, a 5A student, innocently said: In winter, I have to take cold showers, so it's very cold. Only when I'm in class do I feel a little warmer.
I wish my school would have new, more beautiful classrooms, a nice IT classroom so I can study well and make friends from everywhere. I wish the bathroom would be nice with warm water for bathing, and the rooms would have more fans so it wouldn't be so hot in the summer!
Student Luong Thi Ngoc Linh, class 5A
Sharing the same concern, teacher Nguyen Thi Vinh - homeroom teacher of class 4B said: In addition to some classrooms that have been built, due to the large number of students and lack of rooms, students still have to study in temporary classrooms and wooden houses. The dormitory rooms are also overloaded and very cramped. "In winter, it is windy and cold, in summer it is hot, sometimes there are power outages, sometimes the students cannot sleep, some students still fall asleep during class". The lack of facilities, difficulties, and poor living conditions have affected the physical health and quality of learning of students.
Feeling sorry and worried for the students, the teachers do not know what else to do, they can only encourage the students to work hard and focus on studying; outside of teaching hours, the teachers try to find ways to repair and temporarily fix the damage, trying to ensure the safety of the students in studying, living and eating.
Bringing new learning space
From the 2019-2020 school year, students from the satellite locations will transfer to the main school after finishing grade 3 to ensure that they can study IT and foreign languages at school; the large number of students leads to overload, lack of classrooms, and the school even has to use the dining room to make an English classroom for the students. The school's facilities are also seriously degraded. Principal Nguyen The Vinh said: "The school really wants to invest in building construction items such as classrooms, boarding rooms for students and auxiliary works, to limit the dangers, especially during the rainy and stormy season because the temporary wooden classrooms are very degraded."
After more than 2 months of implementation, the fundraising campaign to renovate My Ly 1 Primary Boarding School, phase 1, has received over 2 billion VND from 2,260 donations. Of which, over 1.3 billion VND came from 192 benefactors, individuals and organizations who donated through VSF's bank accounts and website; over 401 billion 579 million VND from 1,982 participants in the Happy Steps Run season 3 "Race to raise", and over 346 billion 390 million VND from the profit from the 2025 Lunar New Year calendar sales campaign "Dawn in the highlands", with the support of 86 individuals and organizations.
The construction item of phase 1 is a 2-storey dormitory building with 10 closed rooms with full bathrooms and toilets. Each dormitory room is designed with 4 beds for 8 students to stay, ensuring that they have enough living space. The completion of phase 1 will help 345 students of My Ly 1 Primary School to play, study and live in a cleaner, more spacious environment.
The representative of the "For Vietnamese Stature" Fund said: In parallel with fundraising, the design and detailed budgeting for the project were also urgently carried out by VSF in coordination with the consulting unit, the District Department of Education and Training and the school. Immediately after the successful fundraising campaign, VSF quickly completed the final procedures so that the project could start as soon as possible, bringing a new learning space to teachers and students of My Ly 1 Primary School.
The project to renovate and upgrade My Ly 1 Primary Boarding School is part of a series of activities towards the 10th anniversary of VSF. The project has a total estimated cost of VND 5,150,000,000, divided into 3 phases, of which phase 1 will be implemented in 2024. The project is implemented by VSF in coordination with Nong thon ngay nay Newspaper/Dan Viet Electronic.
This is a milestone marking a decade of dedication by VSF in the journey to improve learning conditions for children in the highlands in particular and improve social security in general. The project is expected to help children here have equal access to education, contributing to the locality having more connections and sustainable development.
Previously, VSF has built and renovated many schools in disadvantaged areas, contributing to supporting localities in achieving sustainable development goals, helping children in disadvantaged areas have a brighter future. In Nghe An, the "For Vietnamese Stature" Fund and TH Group sponsored the renovation of Duc Son Kindergarten (Anh Son).