Teacher of charity work

With nearly 25 years of teaching in the mountainous district of Nam Tra My, teacher Nguyen Tran Vy is known not only as a teacher, but also as a bird connecting benefactors to sponsor funds to build hundreds of classrooms, suspension bridges, and wells for the mountainous district he is attached to.

Love Connection

Teacher Nguyen Tran Vy, 45 years old, is from Bac Tra My district (Quang Nam province). In 2000, Nguyen Tran Vy was assigned to teach in Nam Tra My district. On the first day of work, what caught Mr. Vy's eyes were dilapidated classrooms built of bamboo, with dirt floors and old corrugated iron sheets. He had to stay in makeshift offices with poor living conditions. Seeing this, the young teacher encouraged himself that "if the teachers can survive, I can too", and continued to stay in the village.

Teacher Nguyen Tran Vy in the New Year lucky money program to encourage students to return to school after the Lunar New Year holiday

After more than 10 years of staying in Nam Tra My district, Mr. Vy and some officials in the district established the Nam Tra My District Love Connection Club to give gifts to help students in difficult circumstances. After a while, Mr. Vy realized that this was only temporary and not sustainable.

“I understand the hardships of teachers at schools because 20 years ago I was like that. With a school and a solid public building, students no longer have to study while suffering from leaks during the rainy season, and teachers feel more secure when staying in class and in the village. Thinking about this, I have the motivation to contact and find sponsors,” Mr. Vy confided.

A school in Tra Cang commune (Nam Tra My district) was built by Mr. Vy and his teammates.

Therefore, he searched on Facebook to call for support from forums and charity organizations to get a large source of funding to repair and renovate classrooms and rebuild old schools that were at risk of collapsing... To gain trust, Mr. Vy went to the site to film and take pictures of the current state of the schools that needed support and then made a budget estimate to send to the sponsor.

With his growing reputation, many benefactors at home and abroad have sent him funds to help the club eliminate temporary schools. In nearly 10 years since the club was founded, Mr. Vy and his colleagues have mobilized tens of thousands of working days to transport materials and build new classrooms and teachers' offices at remote schools at a cost of billions of dong.

16 clean water projects for schools help students not have to go to the stream to get water for use every summer day.

Mr. Vy said that once when he went to survey the construction of new schools, he saw that teachers and students at some schools had to go to the stream to get water for use. "The water source from the stream will be cloudy in the rainy season, and dry in the dry season, mixed with moss and algae, which is not hygienic. At that time, I came up with the idea of ​​calling for funding to build wells at schools that often lack clean water," Mr. Vy recalled.

When there is money, he hires workers to drill wells, the cheapest one costs 50 million VND. Because Nam Tra My district is mountainous, drilling wells is not easy. Some schools have to drill many times to get water. So far, he has built 16 clean water projects for schools.

Step up for students to go to school

The villages in Nam Tra My district are typically located on hills, across large streams. In many places, to cross the stream, people can only build temporary bridges made of bamboo. However, when the rainy season comes, floods from upstream wash away the temporary bridges. As a result, students cannot go to school for long periods during the rainy season.

Thousands of working days from local people and young volunteers have contributed to building 30 bridges across the remote district of Nam Tra My.

Seeing the classrooms empty during the rainy season, Mr. Vy wondered how to help students get to school more conveniently. Finding a source of support, Mr. Vy immediately went to the temporary bridges that were damaged or swept away by floods to survey and find locations with the most traffic and urgent needs to propose sponsors. Finally, Mr. Vy chose a location in village 1, Tra Don commune to build the bridge.

Everything went smoothly, the suspension bridge with a total cost of 90 million VND with steel pillars, protective railings on both sides, and a solid cable system was completed not long after. "The day the bridge was put into use, seeing the excited children running across the bridge, it was like the children could now comfortably go out of the village without having to work hard like before, I felt very happy", Mr. Vy shared.

After the success of the first bridge, Mr. Vy continued to survey and ask for funding to build more suspension bridges. As more and more benefactors saw the effectiveness of bridge building, the funding support increased. There were years when construction of three bridges started at the same time.

Up to now, the group of teachers has called for the construction of suspension bridges in two forms: walking or riding motorbikes, depending on the population and the funding conditions. Since 2017, Mr. Vy has requested funding to build more than 30 suspension bridges for students to go to school. Of which, the bridge with the lowest budget is 90 million VND, the highest is 180 million VND.

A new solid bridge was built next to the makeshift bamboo bridge.

According to Mr. Tran Van Man, Vice Chairman of Nam Tra My District People's Committee, the funding source of the Love Connection Club of Nam Tra My District and Mr. Vy personally connected to the locality is up to tens of billions of VND, contributing significantly to the local socio-economic development, especially for students in mountainous areas.

“During his years living and working in the district, Mr. Nguyen Tran Vy has made many meaningful and practical contributions to the people as well as local education. In particular, he has called for the implementation of many school and suspension bridge projects, and organized many volunteer activities to help teachers feel secure in their work and students feel excited to go to school.”

NGUYEN CUONG

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/nguoi-thay-cua-cong-trinh-thien-nguyen-post763534.html