With the desire to help people in difficult circumstances gain knowledge and skills to change their lives and avoid being lured into the wrong path by bad people, with a small amount of money from his allowance as a security guard and an industrial park worker, Mr. Tran Lam Thang, residing in Long Buu neighborhood, Long Binh ward, Thu Duc city, opened a charity class.
After nearly 13 years of operation, up to now, with the support of local authorities, Youth Union, philanthropists and volunteer students, the class has taken a new step of "spreading love" in association with Long Binh Primary School to guide children to study in secondary school, high school, even university, college...
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| Mr. Tran Lam Thang teaches Math to students. |
"Fate" comes by chance...
I went to Mr. Tran Lam Thang's charity class in Long Buu neighborhood, Long Binh ward, Thu Duc city on an afternoon in mid-May 2023. The sounds of primary school students reading letters and numbers mixed with the gentle, loving teachings of the volunteer teachers were like a cool breeze that dispelled the stifling heat of the late dry season in the South. Pulling me to an old stone bench in the corner of the yard, Mr. Thang told me about the process of forming, maintaining, and stabilizing the charity class he founded.
In 2007, after completing his military service, he returned to his hometown to find a job. While waiting for a job, he applied to work as a neighborhood security guard to help ensure security and order in the area. The area is home to more than a dozen large and small makeshift brick kilns that attract hundreds of workers from other places to work, but they do not have time to take care of their children, leaving them hanging around, gathering in small groups and often fighting with each other. After dozens of times of resolving conflicts, explaining what is right and wrong so that the children do not repeat the offense, one day in early October 2010, Thang discovered two children about 14-15 years old fighting each other, so he took them both to the neighborhood headquarters with the hope of teaching them on behalf of their parents by giving them paper and pen to write a commitment. About 30 minutes later, Thang returned and saw both of them with tears in their eyes and saying in unison: "We are illiterate". After taking the two children back to their rented room, Thang took the opportunity to learn more and discovered that not only the two children, but most of the children were children of couples who worked in the brick kiln area. Due to difficult circumstances, their parents could not afford to send them to school. When they were old enough to work, they carried bricks, coal, and firewood to earn extra money to help their parents with food and clothing...
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Students show off doing their homework |
Illiteracy, lack of parental care, gathering to cause trouble, fighting and easily going astray with bad guys to do illegal things... is the reality of children. Thinking of this, Thang decided to find a way to help the children and concluded that only literacy and math could help them understand what is right and wrong and escape the vicious cycle of poverty from their parents to decide their own future lives. Thinking and doing, after several sleepless nights of thinking, Thang went to the ward Youth Union to ask for support in establishing a charity class. Realizing that Thang's plan was very humane, the ward Youth Union and local authorities immediately agreed and even lent a room in the Long Buu quarter headquarters to use as a class.
As if he had found gold, Thang immediately cycled to every alley, knocked on every door of every rented room, and went into every brick kiln to persuade parents to let their children attend evening classes. At first, all their parents refused, but with Thang's persistent persuasion, gradually more people agreed to let their children attend class, but only for an hour, the rest of the time they had to carry bricks and coal to help their parents earn money. They had students, but the problem of books, notebooks, pens, boards, and chalk also gave Thang a headache because his parents were also poor and could not support them. With no other way out, Thang took a risk and went to the ward to ask for an advance of two months of his allowance for working as a neighborhood security guard, taking 1.2 million VND as initial expenses. When the class was in order, the children also liked to come every night to learn, play with friends, and especially listen to the teacher tell stories to guide them to become good children and good students, so the time was extended every night. So once again, Thang had to go to each household to persuade them to give the children an extra half hour each night to go to class.
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A birthday party full of love between teacher and student. |
Anxious wishes
At first, Thang thought the class was just to help the children of brick kiln workers learn to read and write so that when they grow up and enter society, they would know how to distinguish between good and bad, and choose a suitable job, better than their parents. But gradually, many poor migrant workers from other places came to ask for their children to learn to read and write. He couldn't bear to refuse, but if he accepted, where would the teachers be to teach the lessons, where would the money be to buy notebooks, books, paper, and pens, while the monthly allowance of 600,000 VND for the civil defense was only enough to support a few dozen children.
While not knowing what to do, a working group consisting of representatives of the Ward People's Committee, Long Binh Primary School and the Youth Union came to visit the class. Seeing that the organization was quite thoughtful, the students were well-behaved and considered Mr. Thang as their father, asking about everything, the representative of Long Binh Primary School proposed to change the organization to the model of Universal Love Linkage so that any child who studied well, met the standards and had their parents' support could be transferred to study according to the school's curriculum, then could study and take exams to grade 2, 3, university as desired... Also at this visit, the representative of the Ward People's Committee agreed to lend more classrooms in the kindergarten and then, together with the departments and organizations, went to knock on the doors of the philanthropists to ask for financial support.
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The students enthusiastically volunteered to go to the board. |
Having received valuable support from all levels, departments, and organizations, but how can one teach many classes at the same time, how can one have the skills to convey knowledge to mentally retarded children? After thinking it over, Thang decided to find a local first-year university student to try to invite him to help. With the support of his parents, this student accepted and after a trial teaching period, this student considered the class as a part of his own flesh and blood and also helped Thang invite many other students to join in teaching.
A parent named Lan shared that in 2010, due to difficult circumstances, she took her child to Long Buu neighborhood to work as a porter in a brick kiln to earn two meals a day. Her child was autistic and had slower development than normal children, but there was no other way. Every day, at 6am, she bought a loaf of bread and gritted her teeth to leave her child to roll around in the slum dormitory and went to work until dark. When she reached school age, she did not dare to take her child to school because she thought her child could not participate. One evening, as soon as she got home from work, Mr. Thang knocked on her door and advised her to let her child try out the class and if he could not keep up, he would have the opportunity to integrate with his peers.
After a while, Ms. Lan decided to let her son try the class and unexpectedly, although he was not good at learning, he really liked to play and chat with his friends. “Since that day, every night he asked his mother to take him to class. Until now, although he has not passed grade 2, he can read, sing, and help his mother with some housework… I am very happy, but I don’t know what to say, I can only thank Mr. Thang… Thank you for saving my son,” Ms. Lan was moved.
Knowing that we were coming to class, a parent named Dung rode her motorbike to show off: “Due to circumstances, from a poor countryside in a province in the Southwest, I had to run away from home with my child to work as a worker in a brick kiln. My child had finished 2nd grade in my hometown, but without a record, he could not apply to any school. I could not let my child drop out of school, so from a friend's recommendation, I went to Mr. Thang to ask to enroll him in a charity class. Although my child had to retake the class to have a record and transcript according to the process, under the guidance and instruction of Mr. Thang, my child is now an excellent student in grade 9. The other day, my child brought home a certificate of merit to show his mother and said that he would try to finish high school, take the university entrance exam to find a stable job to support his mother and not let down Mr. Thang's efforts…” - Ms. Dung said excitedly.
It was late at night, and it was time for me to say goodbye to Thang so he could prepare to take on the patrol shift to ensure security and order in the neighborhood. Holding my hand tightly, Thang said: “Up to now, although many students after completing the charity education class have found suitable jobs with stable incomes, I still feel sad. Due to the awareness of their parents and difficult economic circumstances, when the children were only at the level of literacy, they were let go to work, so they were not qualified enough to take on higher level jobs. But after nearly 13 years of striving and overcoming many difficulties, I am not discouraged. I will continue to advocate and enlighten parents so that they can understand, think openly, and try to help children through this universal love class to continue to study at a higher level to improve their qualifications and become engineers, doctors, etc. Personally, I have saved up nearly ten months of civilian security allowance, and will continue to support children who intend to study at secondary, high school, and university, and will be determined to maintain the class until there are no more disadvantaged children who have to study universal love...", Mr. Tran Lam Thang shared.
Mr. Nguyen Dang Nhan - Vice Chairman of Long Binh Ward People's Committee (Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City) said: As soon as receiving the proposal of Mr. Tran Lam Thang about establishing a charity class, the Commune People's Committee considered and realized that this was a highly humane work, helping poor children with difficult circumstances who do not have the conditions to go to school to learn to read and write, so they wholeheartedly supported. The leaders of the Ward People's Committee discussed with the Board of Directors of Long Binh Primary School to guide Mr. Thang to bring the class's activities according to the model: "Linking to popularize love".
In addition to supporting facilities and electricity bills, the ward also mobilized benefactors to support the cost of buying notebooks, pens, and uniforms so that the children could go to school with peace of mind. After completing his military service and returning to his hometown, Mr. Tran Lam Thang volunteered to join the militia, then the neighborhood security force to contribute to ensuring security and order, and was loved by the people. He also actively participated in the youth movement and was an exemplary party member in the neighborhood party cell, always taking the lead in the movements...
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