What do we do ?

Giving the first 300 sets of textbooks to the kids in Dong Coc village

Saturday, August 7, 2010

This morning, Better Life Vietnam took a trip to Dong Coc village in Bac Giang province to deliver the first 300 sets of textbooks to the kids in the primary school. We took a 7 seat car for 5 people from Better Life Vietnam and the 300 sets of textbooks. (Until now, we can't believe how we could fit the car with so many textbooks up)


The village is 120 km far from Hanoi. It takes 2 hours and a half to arrive the village. It was a really long trip, but meaningful and memorable to all of us. We were warmly welcomed by the teachers, the kids and specially the kids' parents. We were so surprised and appreciated that the parents also came to join in our giving textbooks ceremony. They didn't mind stopping their work to join the ceremony, didn't mind waiting for us with their children, this affirmed how meaningful our textbooks were to the children!!love

We gave textbooks to the kids through the school which will help to manage the use of textbooks in the future.


For this textbooks giving activity to be successful in the long-term, we not only need the help of sponsors, volunteers, and schools but also the help of the parents and the kids themselves. So we had a meeting with the teachers and the parents. In this meeting, we explained to the teachers and parents our activities; about how much we desired to help all the poor children in Vietnam enjoy free textbooks; about our goal to buy textbooks for the rest of kids in this primary school and the pupils of the secondary school of this village. (The first 300 sets of textbooks is for grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3). We need the parents to help us by encouraging their kids to keep the books in good condition for other pupils to reuse it, and they in-turn can reuse other books too. We were so happy to know that the school and the parents absolutely agreed with us to keep the books.

The representative of Better Life Vietnam had a meeting with the teachers and the parents

We also wanted to know if the parents have any questions for Better Life Vietnam. We list 2 of the questions here:


Q: Does each set of textbook include both basic textbooks and complementary books? 

(All children in Vietnam are required to have the basic textbooks to study in class. The complementary books which include extra exercises for pupils to practice at home are not required. The pupils always try to buy both type of textbooks)



A: At this moment, we try to provide the basic textbooks. But we hope in the future we will be able to give also the complementary books.



Another question which is also one of our concern:



Q: What happens if our kids lost or break the books by accident? Of course, even when we buy the books for our kids ourselves, we also expect the kids to keep books for their brothers or sisters. But it's really hard to control the kids to keep the books!

A: We understand that. That is why we are standing here to encourage you, together with us, we will encourage the kids to keep the books so that the families will never have to buy textbooks from now on! We promise to replace the ones that need to be updated with new content and the ones which unintentionally are broken. How do we define this? Please show us your good will in keeping the textbooks!! 



The Principle of this primary school also answered this question by asking the parents to discuss the method of keeping textbooks in the meeting between the school and the parents at the beginning of this coming semester on September. (In Vietnam, we have meeting between schools and the parents at the beginning and the end of each semester). Better Life Vietnam will send people to join in these meetings, to manage the use of textbooks with school and the parents.



At the same time with this meeting, our volunteers were giving textbooks to the kids in different classrooms. We had to divide the kids into each class because it was too sunny outside for us to gather at schoolyard.




Our staff and volunteers were giving textbooks to the kids



Our first trip to deliver the 300 sets of textbooks to the kids in Dong Coc village was so successful! We could give the books to the kids and talk to their parents and the school at the same time. We would never would have had this successful trip without the help of our advisors, sponsors, staff and volunteers, as well as the supports of Dong Coc primary school and the paticipation of the wonderful Dong Coc villagers!

BETTER LIFE VIETNAM WOULD LIKE TO THANK TO:
- The wonderful and enthusiastic staffs and volunteers who helped us to prepare for and join in the trip
- The teachers of the two schools in Dong Coc village for supporting us to carry out this activity
- The wonderful kids and the parents from Dong Coc village for joining our books giving ceremony 

BETTER LIFE VIETNAM REPRESENTS FOR ALL THE KIDS AND THEIR FAMILIES FROM DONG COC VILLAGE, WOULD LIKE TO THANK TO:
Mr Anonymous for helping us to buy 140 sets of textbooks
Ms Allison Disenso for helping us to buy 15 sets of textbooks
Mr Andrew Stephens for helping us to buy 17 sets of textbooks
Mr Brian Wittnebel for helping us to buy 17 sets of textbooks
Mr Dan Rathbun helping us to buy 17 sets of textbooks
Mr Edwards Nemeroff for helping us to buy 17 sets of textbooks
Mr Malcorm for helping us to buy 7 sets of textbooks
Ms Phan Quynh Hoa for helping us to buy 36 sets of textbooks
Mr James for helping us to buy 10 sets of textbooks
Ms Do Thuy Linh for helping us to buy 36 sets of textbooks
Mr Phan Vinh Quang for helping us to buy 10 sets of textbooks
Mr Robert Rogrowsky for helping us to buy 36 sets of textbooks
Ms Hoang Kim Thoa for helping us to buy 4 sets of textbooks 
Ms Bui Hong Vien for helping us to buy 6 sets of textbooks

There are 1050 kids who are in the primary and secondary school of Dong Coc village. We gave 300 sets of textbooks to the 300 kids. There are other 750 kids who are looking forward to receiving free textbooks. Hopefully we can help them to have textbooks before the school starts on the 2nd of September. wait 

After 2 weeks, we could buy more 120 sets of textbooks for the kids in Dong Coc village. 
Better Life Vietnam would like to thank to:
Mr Thomas Hart for helping us to buy 112 sets of textbooks
Ms Tran Huong Giang for helping us to buy 8 sets of textbooks
All the schools in Vietnam start on the 5th of September. We look forward to receiving help and support from around the world so that we can help all the poor kids in Vietnam enjoy free textbooks by next September.

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