Plan International

Deliver lights to marginalized ethnic people in rural Vietnam

Minority ethnic minority people in Vietnam are being left behind in social development. We want to deliver light and create a good learning environment for the children and support them toward a brighter future.

Xin chao (“Hello” in Vietnamese)! This is Machiko Okumura of Plan International Japan. I work in Hanoi, Vietnam for projects dedicated to improving education for ethnic minority people.

Vietnam has been enjoying rapid economic growth in recent years. However, that applies to cities and is often not the case in rural areas and mountain regions where minority people live. Ethnic minorities unable to speak Vietnamese are being left behind in the development. Education is critical for escaping poverty but, many of the children do not have access to high-quality education let alone a proper learning environment.

We hope that you will support us in bringing lights and creating a safe learning environment for these children.

• Vietnam has been continuing to achieve rapid economic growth in recent years. However, rural areas and mountain regions of ethnic minority people are being left behind in this social development.
• Education is critical for escaping poverty and creating a future for children to work in society. However, many villages have no access to electricity and enveloped by darkness come night.
• We want to bring 100 solar lanterns to children who want to study in the evening

The children study in a dim room

Let’s create a safe learning environment for these children

There’s something really missing when children study. That something is “light.” Despite the high electrification rate across Vietnam in general, regions where ethnic minority people live, are still without light. There are only a handful of homes and schools that have enough light. That is why the children cannot do their homework, study for classes, or read their favorite books once it gets dark.

Children living in remote areas leave home once they are in the third grade and start living in school dormitories. But the situation is no different here either. They cannot study once night comes. There is no light in the outdoor toilet, which makes it nowhere near safe especially for girls.

Plan, in an effort to turn this situation around, started providing educational support in 2016 to the Lai Chau Province in northern Vietnam and Kon Tum Province in the central region. Approximately 200 Plan International staff in Vietnam work with 91 kindergartens and 76 elementary schools in the two regions to train teachers, promote literacy, build classrooms and toilets, and manage girls’ clubs among many other things.

Girls of ethnic minority groups reading a Vietnamese book

It is hard to see in the dim classrooms without windows

Motivation to learn also depends largely on whether the children have enough time to study. Students who fall behind in class lose interest in studying and start resenting school. When they fail over and over again, this often leads to them dropping out of school.

For example, Tùng-san’s eldest and second sons living in a village in Kon Tum Province quit school on their own terms because it became “difficult to keep up with the studying.” Fortunately, his third son and eldest daughter still go to school. Tùng-san spoke to us in the language of the Sedan minority, “I don’t speak Vietnamese because the Vietnam war kept me from going to school. My daughter is learning Vietnamese smoothly. Her teacher for the past two years has been a person from Sedang so that helps a lot. I want my daughter to continue school as much as possible. Because with an education, she could even have her own business one day.”

Please help us deliver portable and easy-to-use light to elementary and middle schools in the Lai Chau Province in northern Vietnam and Kon Tum in central Vietnam so that children can live their dream of “Studying to their heart’s content after dark.” The light will be powered by solar energy so that it can be used repeatedly even in villages without electricity.

Having light to use with ease of mind will not only create a learning environment for children but it will also ensure safety when travelling at night or during emergencies and support children’s lives from many angles.

Our goal is to donate 100 lights to schools supported by areas in the two provinces where PLAN International is active.

＊ This project is a part of Panasonic’s “Bringing Light to People".