Journey to build schools that "touch the clouds"

Up to now, Mr. Nam has mobilized and called for funding to build 18 schools, mobilized to support tuition fees up to grade 12 for 360 orphaned and especially disadvantaged students in mountainous areas...

18 schools give gifts to students in mountainous areas

At the beginning of the new school year 2024-2025, Ong Phung school, belonging to Tra Don commune boarding school, Nam Tra My district, Quang Nam province, was officially inaugurated and put into use.

This is a project by the Friends Club calling for cooperation and connection from all regions to support students in mountainous areas. The school was built with a scale of two classrooms, a teacher's room, a toilet, a fence, a gate, and a school yard, with a total cost of nearly 1.3 billion VND.

Having a solid school is a great joy and encouragement for teachers and students in Tra Don commune, a poor and disadvantaged commune of Nam Tra My district. This is the 18th school and also marks the 11-year journey of Nguyen Binh Nam and the volunteers of the Friends Love Each Other Club with teachers and students in the mountainous region.

Mr. Phung's school, part of Tra Don Commune Boarding Ethnic Secondary School, Nam Tra My District, Quang Nam Province, has just been inaugurated.

To reach today's journey, Mr. Nguyen Binh Nam said: "Looking back at the difficulties we have overcome, the members of the club often encourage each other to continue trying. Nothing is more precious than letters and knowledge. We are very happy that students in the mountainous areas can go to school."

Mr. Nam recalls that 15 years ago, the first time he and his friends saved money to give gifts to poor students and those in especially difficult circumstances, he set himself the goal of spreading and connecting the charity journey further.

In 2013, Nam founded the Friends Club, consisting of close friends who volunteered together. That year, the club organized a Tet program in the highlands at the Nuoc Ui school (Tra Mai commune, Nam Tra My district). When he directly witnessed the living and studying conditions there, he wondered how he could build a school for teachers and students in the highlands.

Despite the difficulties, Nam boldly came up with a plan, conducted a survey, and asked for help from the local government and people to transport materials to the Nuoc Ui school. Compared to the initial budget of 55 million VND, Nam and the club raised more than 222 million VND to build and hand over the school to teachers and students in 2013.

“This first school gave me the motivation to get to where I am today,” said Nam.

To date, Mr. Nguyen Binh Nam and the Friends Club have mobilized and called for funding to build 18 schools, of which 12 are in Quang Nam province alone, and the rest are in Tra Bong district (Quang Ngai province). Each school has enough space for about 60 students.

To date, more than 1,000 preschoolers, first and second graders have been studying in the solid school. The total amount of money that Mr. Nam has mobilized is up to billions of VND, updated, reported in detail and transparently.

The Friends Club with the journey of bringing highland students to the city.

To build these schools, Mr. Nam's group had to make at least three trips, first to survey, second to verify, third to work and meet with local leaders to complete licensing procedures, then meet and hold meetings with local people to ask them to protect the construction and support workers when necessary. During the three months of construction, he and his friends arranged time to inspect and encourage workers to complete the project on schedule.

Many schools encountered difficulties in the process of transporting equipment and construction materials. Mr. Nam had to run back and forth many times until the project was completed, inaugurated, and handed over to teachers and students of each school. Every three years, he returned to each school to check the quality of the construction items and see if any repairs were needed.

“Fortunately, up to now, the first school built, Nuoc Ui, is still safe for teaching and learning,” Mr. Nam shared.

To overcome all difficulties, Mr. Nam concluded that it was thanks to the unity, solidarity and joint efforts of the kind hearts for teachers and students in remote mountainous areas, which provided an extremely great source of motivation.

On the contrary, after hundreds of trips climbing mountains, wading streams and crossing forests to reach the schools "in the clouds", his heart and soul were filled with abundant life energy, connected and had many more friends, teachers, mountain people, students who knew how to overcome all difficulties to pursue knowledge, to read, to write, to live and to share love.

“I am so happy that I have fulfilled my dream of living for the best things. A piece of food when hungry is worth a package when full, but the timely support for teachers to diligently stay at the school, take care of and teach the children is the best gift. When children have knowledge, they will master their lives,” Nam shared.

Students of Mr. Phung's school, Tra Don Ethnic Boarding School, Nam Tra My District, Quang Nam Province, with gifts donated by the Friends Club.

Transmit life energy

Setting the charity goal of "Going far - Where it is difficult - Going to the right place - Giving directly to the hand", "Living is giving, not just receiving", over the years, Mr. Nguyen Binh Nam has become a keeper of the fire, spreading positive life energy to the community and has become a friend to the people in the highlands of the central provinces, especially the students in the highlands.

After busy days of work, every weekend the leader of the Friends Club with more than 40 permanent members and dozens of volunteers goes up the mountain, persistently fulfilling his aspiration to live for the community, for the innocent eyes of students in the highlands, for the teachers stationed at remote schools with countless difficulties and shortages.

Mr. Nam's group has implemented a series of very practical and meaningful projects such as "Mountain Meals", "Small Swallows in the Highlands", "Highland Bookcase", "Highland Medicine Cabinet", "Going to School in the Mountains", "Going to Teach in the Mountains"... aimed at students in difficult mountainous areas.

Thousands of meals, hundreds of scholarships... have been given to students in mountainous areas over the past 11 years. Mr. Nguyen Binh Nam's volunteer journey has inspired and brought confidence, motivating students in especially difficult mountainous areas to learn to read and write, and soon reach their dreams and aspirations.

The project “Going to school in the mountains” has been implemented since September 2022. The project operates with the motto “Each family/individual in the city adopts a child in the mountains”, with a support level of 500,000 VND/child/month.

Up to now, Nguyen Binh Nam's journey to highland schools has mobilized and built 18 schools.

The list of students participating in the project is introduced by the school with specific information about each student's situation. The project "Going to school in the mountains" operates under the coordination of members of the Friends Club with teachers at the schools.

Every month, teachers receive money from the project to buy clothes, books, necessary items, and necessities to support the children and their families. The project is currently supporting 360 orphaned and especially disadvantaged students from dozens of schools in the mountainous areas of Quang Tri, Quang Nam, and Quang Ngai with a rate of 500,000 VND/child/month, which is more than 2 billion VND/year.

As for teachers stationed at schools in mountainous areas, Mr. Nguyen Binh Nam's group has implemented the project "Teaching in the mountains", and has so far called for support for 20 teachers in mountainous areas in Nam Tra My, Tra Bong, and Huong Hoa districts with an amount of 500,000 VND/person/month. The beneficiaries are contract teachers, not yet on the payroll, with low salaries, difficult family circumstances, and children...

After storm No. 3 caused terrible damage, Mr. Nguyen Binh Nam and the Friends Club went on a volunteer trip, donating money and necessities to teachers and students in Bao Yen district, Lao Cai province in the program "Supporting Bao Yen students to return to school".

Mr. Nam shared: “It is so lucky and happy that everyone is safe after the storm and flood. Faced with the severe impact of natural disasters, we set out with the mission of being a bridge to bring trust and love to the hearts of friends, relatives, and people we have never met before, who trust us and come to the group to indirectly support us. Giving is forever, and we hope that this source of life energy will continue to multiply.”

Source: https://nhandan.vn/hanh-trinh-xay-nhung-diem-truong-cham-may-post835072.html