Helping children in mountainous areas

Ca Dong children carrying agricultural products on Tak Po road (Nam Tra My commune). Photo: THU TRAN

Carrying vegetables on the shoulder and smiling in the sun

That was the moment of the Ca Dong children that my friend recorded and shared on social media a few days ago. One weekend, he went up the mountain and met them.

A group of children, the oldest of whom is in 8th grade at the commune school, take advantage of the weekend to go home to help their parents harvest crops in the fields, then travel all the way to the center of Tak Po to sell to passersby before they return to the city.

The children’s footsteps hurried through the mountain alleys, stopping at each shop along the roads. Although they sometimes had to receive head shakes from customers, the children still smiled peacefully…

Behind the stories of the “insiders”, we can see that although the mountain children still face many hardships, their spirit of learning and overcoming difficulties is always lit up. They never give up, even though the road ahead is sometimes as bumpy as stepping on a suspension bridge across the mountainside.

Dr. Tran Van Thu, Director of the Nam Tra My Regional Medical Center, said that children carrying wild vegetables to sell along Tak Po center have become quite popular in recent years. They go in groups of about 4-5 people each, mainly on weekends.

The children's work of selling agricultural products through the mountains has gone through many arduous stages. From village 1, Tra Tap commune (old), they carry vegetables to Tra Mai, then stop at shops to sell. Sometimes they stop at the Medical Center and continue their journey along the road to sell to pedestrians.

“There were sunny afternoons, sweat soaked their backs, but the children always smiled and talked happily. Everyone wanted to quickly sell all the goods on their baskets so they could return home and continue to go to the fields to pick vegetables and tubers for the next trip.

Once, I witnessed a child, after selling a basket of vegetables, stop by a Quang noodle shop and order a delicious bowl of food. After asking, I learned that the amount of money from selling vegetables was only equivalent to 2 bowls of meat noodles, so I was very touched when a stranger offered to pay for it. Because I love these children, I often encourage my colleagues in the office to buy vegetables to support them, even creating conditions for the children to go into the unit's premises to sell vegetables to medical staff and patients' relatives," Dr. Thu shared.

Children going through flood season

Dr. Thu’s story is not an isolated one. The other day, I witnessed a group of children in Hung Son commune walking through the mountains to get to school. With heavy school bags on their backs, they were walking busily in the cold rainy afternoon.

Smiles of mountain children through the lens of passersby. Photo: THU TRAN

My companion said that in the mountains there is nothing to fear except… floods. All it takes is a heavy rain, a stream cutting across the road, and floods come rushing in. That situation is even more dangerous for the children who have to return home by themselves. There have been many drowning cases involving children in the mountains.

Last year, I rushed to the residential area of To Po (formerly Ta Po commune), now Ben Giang commune, to hand over the amount of more than 36 million VND that was called for on social networks to the case of a Co Tu family whose two children drowned.

Relatives recounted that before, when both parents were away working in the fields, the two sisters, one aged 8 and the other aged 6, went fishing in the pond behind the house. When they returned in the afternoon and did not see their children, their parents were terrified and went to look for them, and later discovered the bodies of the two children in the deep, cold pond.

Many highland villages do not have playgrounds for children. So, if they are not in school, they often go to the river or stream to play. I heard this story from an acquaintance who lives in the mountains.

In general, the story of investing in essential infrastructure has not received due attention. Even in schools, in some mountainous areas and difficult borders, children have not been familiar with modern teaching equipment, so the quality of education cannot be compared to the lowlands.

Child-centered

Quang Nam - Da Nang are merged. This merger is expected not only to expand administrative boundaries, but also to open up development opportunities for children in the new Da Nang urban area, including opportunities for both urban children and children in mountainous areas.

The city government needs to have more policies to develop green shoots in the period of urban consolidation. Photo: ALANG NGUOC

To do that, in addition to building a mechanism for evenly allocating resources, the government needs to flexibly prioritize solutions for mountainous areas, especially children - the future green buds of Quang Nam.

As a stepping stone for this humane policy, many mountain people expressed their excitement when witnessing the groundbreaking ceremony of the inter-level boarding school model that took place not long ago. A former teacher of mine said that when urban areas merge between the lowlands and the highlands, investment in educational infrastructure must put children at the center. Therefore, each inter-level boarding school is a "humane bridge" between regions, opening up opportunities for equitable development space, aiming for comprehensive development in a common educational environment...

Source: https://baodanang.vn/nang-buoc-chan-tre-em-mien-nui-3306071.html