From tearful farewell letter to charity kitchen for poor students

From the tearful farewell letter and leave of absence from school of Giang Thi Do because her family was too poor, the teachers here thought of a charity kitchen and it was born, maintained for nearly 10 years, lighting up hope and encouragement for poor students in remote areas.

At the end of April 2013, when the final exams for primary school were about to take place, Ms. Huynh Thi Thuy Dung, a teacher at Vo Thi Sau Primary School (Quang Phu Commune, Lam Dong Province) unexpectedly received a farewell letter from Giang Thi Do (born in 1999, formerly Dak Nang Commune, Krong No District, Dak Nong Province). After reading half of the letter, Ms. Dung's tears streamed down her face. Although she knew that most of the ethnic minority students at her school were in difficult circumstances, Do's case was a special silence. Closing the letter, Ms. Dung felt disappointed and burst into tears in helplessness. She realized that Do's family was too poor. As the eldest sister in a family where her father died early and her mother remarried, Do wrote a letter to her homeroom teacher, asking to leave school and saying goodbye to her classmates. It was a difficult decision for a responsible student to give her 6 younger siblings the opportunity to go to school.

Hundreds of poor students at Vo Thi Sau Primary School receive meals at school.
The next day, Ms. Dung followed the trails, crossed the bare hills, to the Mong village to encourage Do and his family. The teacher and student met, their eyes filled with tears. Do told her everything about his family's extremely difficult circumstances. Studying up to grade 5 was already his utmost effort. Because his family was poor, and his family had many incidents, Do, who was 14 years old at that time, only studied up to grade 5. Ms. Dung hugged her student, encouraging Do to continue returning to class, the school would try to support him as much as possible. The homeroom teacher's response was only helpless silence, pitiful tears and desperate head shakes. Do was determined, he could not watch his mother work day and night to feed 7 siblings, 9 mouths to feed. At 14 years old, he had to take responsibility for going to the fields and working for hire to help his family. So the teacher and student could only hug each other and cry.

It is poverty, daily bread and clothing that have taken away the childhood of innocent children. Hunger also blocks the path to school to find knowledge and hope for a brighter future for children in remote areas. Many children drop out of school early to help their parents. Some go to the forest to pick bamboo shoots, pick bamboo shoots, and look for banana seeds. Some stay home to look after their younger siblings while their parents go to work. Many students drop out to follow adults to go everywhere to make a living. The portion of rice that poor students bring to their boarding school for lunch is so heartbreaking. They put rice and men men (steamed corn flour) in plastic bags. Many children have white rice and men men dyed green or red due to the color fading from the plastic bags. The food is just sesame salt, cane sugar or salty braised eggplant, rarely do students have a full meal of meat and fish. Yet the poor students still eat deliciously, not leaving anything to waste, even still craving for more because they are not full. Anyone who saw that scene would feel sorry. That is also the reason why many students like Giang Thi Do had to drop out of school to stay home and help their families earn a living.

The sad story of Giang Thi Do and the meager meals from poor students touched the hearts of the teachers at Vo Thi Sau Primary School. Ms. Huynh Thi Thuy Dung took a photo and posted it on her personal Facebook page with a helpless confession. The story of Do and the poor students immediately moved the social network community. In December 2016, thanks to the support of the charitable community, the first free meals were given by Vo Thi Sau Primary School to poor boarding students. At that time, the school only had enough money to maintain a kitchen for more than 100 students and distributed it once a week. Up to now, more than 200 poor students of the school have had 3 meals a week. From the 2024-2025 school year, Ms. Dung has maintained 4 meals a week for boarding students.

In the early years, the charity kitchen of Vo Thi Sau Primary School faced many difficulties. The meals were relatively frugal, with the budget only enough to buy vegetables and steamed fish to cook for the students. However, for poor students in the highlands, being able to eat white rice instead of men men was often a happy thing. Adding vegetables and fish was a clear improvement in the meal compared to at home.

Seeing that her students often dozed off because they often wandered around at noon because they had no place to sleep, Ms. Dung and the teachers in the school mobilized funds to build a kitchen combined with a resting place for students. In 2019, the kitchen of Vo Thi Sau Primary School was built on an area of ​​1,200 square meters. So after lunch, the kitchen was cleaned up, becoming a resting place for students far from home. The charity kitchen for poor students has been maintained by Vo Thi Sau Primary School for nearly 10 years, providing students with about 200,000 free meals. Thanks to these special meals, hundreds of poor students did not have to drop out of school. They all strived to study and graduate from primary school.

Ms. Huynh Thi Thuy Dung and her students at the charity kitchen.

This comes from the love for students of Ms. Huynh Thi Thuy Dung and the teachers, the school's Board of Directors. However, to maintain and decide the existence of the kitchen is the golden hearts of the philanthropists. "There are many philanthropists who have accompanied us since the early years when it was just a free meal. In that journey, I was just a bridge, connecting the philanthropists with the deprived and disadvantaged children. Tens of thousands of meals have been delivered to the students. That is the love everyone has for our students!..", Ms. Dung emotionally shared.

Looking back on the past journey, teachers of Vo Thi Sau Primary School are proud to have contributed to the cause of educating people. Originating from the tearful farewell letter of poor student Giang Thi Do, the charity kitchen of Vo Thi Sau Primary School was born in such circumstances. From that kitchen, the school hopes that there will be more Mong, San Chi, Dao, Mnong children... confident on the way to school, finding opportunities to escape poverty in the future.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/Xa-hoi/tu-la-thu-chia-tay-dam-nuoc-mat-den-bep-an-tinh-thuong-danh-cho-hoc-tro-ngheo-i784645/