10th grade students set up a support fund specifically for female students in mountainous areas

Vo Nguyen Tuong Minh is a 10th grade student at Concordia Hanoi School. Since childhood, Minh's parents often took him on charity trips to the highlands. During each of these trips, the images of disadvantaged children on their journey to school made Minh think.

“Seeing 15-16 year old girls holding babies in their arms, I wonder why so many girls cannot go to school and have to get married so early,” Minh said.

From that reality, the idea of ​​Future Uplift Foundation - a fund to support female students in disadvantaged areas - was born. Tuong Minh believes that education is the most basic and sustainable foundation. Only when having the opportunity to study, female students can decide their own future. Therefore, the project not only provides financial support but also inspires students in mountainous areas to continue going to school and develop their knowledge.

Vo Nguyen Tuong Minh is currently a 10th grade student at Concordia School Hanoi. Photo: NVCC

Currently, Minh's fund consists of 10 members, all of whom are junior high and high school students in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Since its establishment, the fund has implemented many programs to support female students in mountainous areas. In November 2024, the fund awarded scholarships to 4 Tay ethnic female students in Nam Keng and Nam Sai villages (Sapa, Lao Cai), helping to cover some of their study expenses and motivating them to persevere in their pursuit of knowledge.

The fund also helped build toilets for the families of two disadvantaged female students in Muong Sai commune (Song Ma, Son La), gave Tet gifts, and donated dozens of new bicycles, helping students in mountainous areas have means of transportation to school.

Most recently, Tuong Minh and his friends developed a chatbot to support female students in their studies, psychology, sex education, and abuse prevention.

“I have noticed that many female students today are not provided with enough information about sex education and abuse prevention to raise awareness and protect themselves. This chatbot provides information about sensitive issues in a safe, appropriate and non-judgmental way,” Minh said.

The chatbot was created by the team using a tool that does not require programming. The team's task is to clean the data and put it into the RAG model so that the chatbot can retrieve it. During this process, the team was guided by doctors to collect and clean data on gender, psychology, health, medicine, etc.

Minh is the founder of a support fund dedicated to female students in disadvantaged areas. Photo: NVCC

After the chatbot was set up, Minh and members Dinh Hoang Truc Lam and Dinh Hoang Duyen tested it at Nguyen Huu Huan High School (HCMC). The group also adjusted and updated data many times to make the chatbot more comprehensive and improve its efficiency.

Despite participating in many activities, Tuong Minh still maintains good academic results. The female student has a cumulative GPA of 3.97/4.0, participating in many domestic and international academic competitions such as TIMO (Thailand International Math Olympiad), CIMO (Copernicus International Math Olympiad), VEO (Vietnam Economics Olympiad)...

To balance extracurricular activities and studying, Minh makes the most of his time in class, completing assignments and studying on his own. In the evenings and weekends, Minh often devotes himself to volunteer activities.

Despite participating in many activities, Tuong Minh still maintains good academic results. Photo: NVCC

“It is not easy to effectively balance studying and social activities, but with discipline and proper time management, I believe I can maintain both well,” Minh said.

In the future, Tuong Minh hopes to expand the scope of support from the Future Uplift Foundation to other areas across the country, not just the mountainous areas. To create sustainable solutions, Minh cherishes the dream of studying abroad and pursuing a major in Economics - Finance or Data Science.

“I hope to apply the knowledge I have learned to develop a fund to support female students in the future,” Minh said.

In the three years since its establishment, Future Uplift Foundation has raised nearly VND400 million, mainly through activities such as supporting, being a member of the organizing committee or curating art exhibitions and events of a number of companies. In many events, the group proposed that instead of giving flowers, the delegates attending would donate to the fund.

Muong female student enters university thanks to the kindness of the villagers Phung Thi Thuy said that her education was like “a miracle”. Holding the hard-earned money and effort of the villagers, Thuy is determined to study to soon return to repay this kindness.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/hoc-sinh-lop-10-lap-quy-ho-tro-danh-rieng-cho-nu-sinh-vung-cao-2384410.html