Many school-aged children in the Jo Ngay Village, Dong Giang Mountainous District, Quang Nam Province, have to drop out of school to earn money to support their families. In its efforts to help those in need, especially children in mountainous areas, the Marketer Club of the Da Nang University of Economics has opened free classes to help these children get access to education.

The children in the Jo Ngay Village eagerly attending a free class which is opened by the Marketer Club. Photo: T.T

Hope for children in mountainous areas

Children in the Jo Ngan Village are at risk of leaving school early because of difficult family circumstances. Their families are struggling to pay for food and other essentials. Therefore, having access to education seems to be a distant dream for the children in this village.

Mr. Atin Bi, the Secretary of the Jo Ngay Village’s Party Cell said that 75% of the village’s population studied up to the primary school level while 22% received junior high school education and 3% received senior high school education. There is no one within the village that has the ability to successfully pass  university entrance exam in the country or graduate from university.

Mr. A Lanh Sinh, a local resident, remarked: "Children in my village children can miss out on important learning opportunities, like school dropouts, due to financial constraints of their families. All families in the village are living in poverty as they often don’t have the resources to help their children get what they need for their learning. Therefore, children up to the age of 14 have to drop out of school to help their parents work at the fields to support their families."

With the purpose of lighting up hope for children in high mountains of Dong Giang District, the Marketer Club has implemented a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) program for them as part of its charity campaign "Empowering future ambitions for poor children". Focus has been on opening 3 classes with 3 themes, namely "Healthy Footprints", "Innovative Footsteps" and "Strong Foundation" with the aim of inspiring a love for learning, and sparking creative thinking in children in mountainous areas.

The club's activities only took place in two days but attracted enthusiastic participation from children of the Jo Ngan Village.

Seven-year-old A Lanh Tuc, an active attendee of the program, said innocently: "I really like studying with the program’s teachers. I spent two days with great teachers as they engaged us as active participants in our learning during class time."

Ms. Hoang Kim Nhung, the Vice President of the Club remarked: "We are afraid that children in mountainous areas will find difficult to access STEM program as it is a fairly new form of learning for them. However, it is truly surprising to me that they were not only eager to go to class but also actively participated in experiential activities during class time. Our classrooms are filled with students but we still see many children standing near classroom windows to access our teaching program. Many of them has the ability to think outside the box and find it easy to access to our lessons."

Mr. Tran Duc Anh Son, the Head of the campaign's external affairs board, affirmed: "We hope that the "Jo Ngan's Footsteps" campaign will not only contribute to igniting passion for learning in these children by getting them engaged with our classrooms, but also changing their parents' mind about the education of their children."

Spreading joy of learning at schools

Apart from opening free classes for children in the Jo Ngan Village, the Marketer Club also carried out a project to build a library with more than 200 books, located at the Guol House (community house) of the village. Furthermore, heed was paid to organizing a charity store themed "Sun Painting" that attracted nearly 300 shoppers. Visiting the charity store allowed local residents to choose and buy clothes and essential items on store shelves for zero dong.

To mark this occasion, the club also gave 15 gifts to students for the spirit of continuous improvement in their studies, and offered 30 others to poor households at a total cost of over 10 million VND.

Lung Linh, a child in the Jo Ngay Village said: "I'm very happy that members of the Marketer Club came to help us. They gave us new clothes and candies. It's fun to study with them."

Talking about the meaningful activities of the Marketer Club, Mr. Atin Bi happily said: "The club’s free classes have helped local children know how to protect and take care of their health. We hope that, in future summers, such a volunteer campaign will continue in our village to help local children change their perceptions to create a better life, as well as spread knowledge to residents in neighboring villages and communes."

Reporting by THUY TRANG – translating by H.L