Hello from Hanoi. I understand its been real hot in So. Cal. . As I was packing I told Kristina my daughter "I'm glad i getting out of town before the heat hits!" She gave me a puzzeled look, saying "but your going to Vietnam in the summer." Oh yeah it been around 104 plus humidity. So much for my "get away." Our team arrives in another day. Looking forward to it.
A lot of exciting things are happening for GIBTK and sure I'll be writing in the coming weeks. But nothing as exciting as the growth of Dorothea's Project Legacy 2! Todays journal is written by one of our Legacy 2 teachers. Hein teaches Math and Physics. As always I welcome words of encouragement to Hein. I will forward them.
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| Opening ceremony of Dorothea's Project Legacy 2 |
Hien's journal
October 23rd2017 is a special day to me, not only because this was the day when I started working for Giving it Back to kids, but also the day on which I could fulfill my dream. I am proud to say that I am one of the teachers at Dorothea's Legacy Project 2 in Que Son district- a very poor district in Quang Nam province.
There are 2213 poor households in Que Son where people mainly live on farming and have to face frequent natural disasters every year. Therefore, not many parents pay much attention to their children's study, which can explain the reason why the number of students dropping out of school increases every year. Dorothea's Legacy Project is having a strong impact on changing this problem by providing tutoring classes for the studious and hard-working students here after school.
I do not know how to describe the joys and happiness of the students here when they first went to our class. Beforethey were so busy going to work on the farm, cutting trees or taking care of their families' cattle that they did not have time to study. And a thing that I often do is asking them how they feel when studying at the project and can you guess what they say? It is "wonderful."
Together with other teachers, I have tried my best to help them to gain the basic knowledge that they had missed before.Also to develop their hidden talents by giving them chances to take part in other activities such as drawing and painting and some knowledge contests. Thanks to this, the students are becoming more and more confident. They do not just come to us when they have troubles in their study, we are those who they confine in whenever they are happy or sad. This actually means to me more than anything.
In addition to the love we receive from students, what their parents give to us moved us a lot. Their gifts are not something material. What they give us are hugs, tightly hand shaking and sincere and happy tears. There is one parent that left me with a deep impression. Her name is Van who has three children but unfortunately her husband left them when her third child was just three years old. She also suffers the disease of gallstones. Every day, it takes her thirty minutes to ride her kids to school and then she rushes to work at a nearby food stall. Despite her health and her work, she always tries to spend time asking her children about their study. She said that because she could not go to school, she desperately wants her children to go to school and have better futures.
There is a saying that I really like: "To help others to reach their dreams is to fulfill your own dream". Thanks to GIBTK, my dream has been fulfilled. And I hope that we will love and help people around us because life is only meaningful when we do that.
