Vietnam Children's Fund

Lan, Hang and I left on Saturday all excited about this trip as we were going to open an eight classroom primary school for this isolated village. It’s a two hours flight from overcast Hanoi to sunny HCMC (Saigon). Lan was going to translate, Hang was going to video and we were all going to photograph whenever the situation allow it. We arrive late afternoon at the hotel in HCMC and after getting settled we took care of a few last minute items so that we’d be prepared tomorrow morning.

At four early Sunday morning we woke up and left the hotel for the airport. As we drove through the normally bustling city at this time of day it was strangely empty. We had organized with Citigroup to meet them at the airport at 5:30 am. There was Mr. Tu the vice president from the Hanoi office and Mr. Phuong the vice president from the HCMC office that was coming along to share this marvelous experience with us.

We checked in and went up to the waiting area. Apparently we got there a few minutes before Citigroup so we settled down to wait for the gate to open. While we were waiting Mr. Tu and Mr. Phuong showed up eager for the days events.

It was good to see Mr. Tu again and to meet Mr. Phuong. The turbo-prop plane took 50 minutes to get us to Ca Mau City where we were met by cheerful Mr. Son of PACCOM and our host. He took us to our hotel were we dropped our bags and rushed off to catch the speedboat to Ap Mui village.

At the dock we met the local newspaper and TV crews as well as several local officials from the province. The speedboat was a 14 seater and quite a bit larger than the usual 6 seater we normally took on previous inspection trips. We zoomed off racing through the canals and waterways weaving around the slower traffic. About 2 hours later we slowed down just at the village limits and casually made our way to the poorest excuse for a pier one ever did see. We shakily clamored over the “dock” and around to the front of the school.

Colored flags waving in the breeze, excited children, curious village folk, teachers and officials met our group. What an amazing turnout! After all the introductions and while we waited for the last minute preparations we helped Mr. Tu and Mr. Phuong hand out candies to the patiently waiting kids that were all lined up in neat rows. I took a zillion photos!

The speeches began with an introduction about building the school, how much it cost and who was involved. Each of the main parties had their turn to say a few word then we handed over a few gifts, which were books from Citigroup and globes from Vietnam Children's Fund (VCF). In addition this time we added a special treat for the students as we gave art supplies.

Art classes and supplies are a luxury for these remote and very poor communities and the children enjoy them so much. I’m amazed at the quality of the artwork that the students produce. They have no formal training and yet they have an incredible natural sense for shapes and colors.

To officially open the school we had to cut the ribbon and then visit the classrooms filled with students for the first time. What a feeling it is to see all these bright-eyed happy faces ready to learn.

These events are always so emotional for me no matter how many times I do this. It’s just absolutely fabulous what we are doing for these people. We give them hope that their future will one day be better. It is their ticket out of poverty. You can well imaging that this means so much to so many.

This school was an impossible dream and to have it come true is beyond words for many of the people there. I only wish you could have been there to experience the moment firsthand.

The last item on the agenda was the planting of trees along the fence. Surrounded by curious children each one of us had a tree to plant. With this came the goodbyes, the handshakes and the final photos.

On the way back to the speedboat we made a slight detour by the old two classrooms school. The conditions for learning were very poor. The building was falling apart with a leaky roof and the rendering falling off the walls. The small windows provided minimal light that did little to help the single light above the blackboard. There was no place for the students to play or assemble, as the small schoolyard was a bog.

In comparison the new classrooms have modern lighting standards with four ceiling fans and very large windows for ventilation and natural light. The new yard is three times larger and has been land filled with sand that was loaded on and off boats all by hand.

This project means a lot to me, as it was the most difficult school VCF ever built and the most remote. It’s over 160 km by boat from the nearest road in the middle of a mangrove forest in the Mekong delta at the most southern tip of Vietnam. Wow!

VCF had every possible obstacle from extremely unstable soil conditions to taking 12 hours by cargo boat to deliver every grain of sand, bag of cement and brick used to build the school. Working with the locals as a team we worked hard and persevered to solve every problem and in the end it was well worth it. I’d do it again without hesitation.

Like the rest of us Mr. Tu and Mr. Phuong were completely overcome by the whole affair and for the rest of the trip they just couldn’t stop talking about it. I was so glad that they cold witness this wonderful day with us. When we returned to Ca Mau City our host invited us the visit the bird sanctuary, which was a wonderful site to see at sunset with all the birds getting ready to roost for the night.