VAS For Our Beloved Central of Vietnam 3rd time – The journey isn’t over yet
When launching the donation drive "VAS For Our Beloved Central of Vietnam- 3rd time", VAS has received very positive responses from parents, students, all staff and teachers across all campuses. Within 10 days after launching (October 21 to 30, 2020), the VAS community donated VND 819,547,600 directly to the Charity boxes and various fundraising activities at campuses were organized by students such as the music night “For the Central region”, selling handicraft products, beating the piggy bank... Apart from the donation call are the encouragement and heartfelt sharing from VAS students and teachers to the Central region.
Clip: We will always beside you, the Central of Vietnam
VAS also added VND 959,758,341 collected from other charity activities of the school, bringing the total donation amount to support the students in Central Vietnam up to VND 1,738,498,941.
We have chosen Dakrong and Huong Hoa, Quang Tri as the destinations of the Charity project "VAS For Our Beloved Central of Vietnam - 3rd time" because these are the two mountainous regions that located entirely in the Annamite Range with many difficult paths caused by the effects of storms and floods. More than 80% of theses areas’ students are from the Pa Co and Van Kieu ethnic groups and most of them are from poor households.
This information can be easily found on Google. When we came to this place, we learned that there are many preschool children who have to eat lunch with just chili salt every day. Many mothers still carry rice over the mountain for more than half a day to reach their children's boarding school. Many teachers have to stick to the village and the school which are more than 20 kilometers walking per way from the main school. There was the Deputy Principal of A Vao Elementary and Secondary School still laying by the stream when the flood came, a child from Huc Primary School was buried with his family of 6 people in the landslide ... Our efforts when visiting nearly 50 schools across the villages (on the last November 10 and 11, 2020) while many bridges and roads were washed away and corrupted ... still nothing compared to the losses and difficulties piled up in these regions.
One month after the storms and floods past, the roads and living conditions of the students in Dakrong and Huong Hoa have not settled yet
And so, the amount of nearly 2 billion VND contributed by the VAS community suddenly became like “a drop in the ocean” compared to the great damages of the schools here. After direct survey, VAS chose to donate the most practical facilities to help schools quickly resume their operation and improve the quality of students' activities at school. On November 12 and 13, 2020, VAS presented 40 computers, 6 refrigerators, 880 sets of tables and chairs, 92 wall fans, 460 light bulbs and 1,007 portable beds for preschool children in 31 schools in Dakrong and 11 schools in Huong Hoa district. (Of which, 705 beds are the additional donations from VAS partners and individual members from VAS management team).
VAS aims to maintain its support in long term for these schools by making improvement on the quality of the students’ lunches
Although this charity tour has brought positive results beyond our expectations, the poor living standards and essential needs of the children here are still a concern for us. In the long term, VAS wants to contribute more in coordinating with the Education & Training Departments of these 2 regions to subsidize the improvement of kindergarten students' boarding meals (kindergarten children aged 3-5 years old from impoverished households in remote and border areas receive aids for their lunch at 2,500 VND - 6,000 VND/day/child, children under 3 and not in this category will not be supported); organize cultural and artistic exchange programs and expand awareness of Pa Co and Van Kieu children about social progress in Vietnam and around the world. VAS will update the details of these activities with parents shortly. We genuinely hope parents and students will continue joining hands with us.
Once again, the school sincerely appreciates the contributions and encouragement of all students, parents, teachers, and staff so that VAS could have the opportunity to perform these meaningful activities.
Sincerely,
VAS Board of Management
Details of donations from the while VAS community are as below:
- Phan Xich Long Campus - VND 27,560,000
- Sunrise Campus - VND 67,952,500
- Ba Thang Hai Mega Campus - VND 287,793,600
- Hoang Van Thu Campus - VND 101,488,500
- Garden Hills Mega Campus - VND 108,331,000
- Sala Mega Campus - VND 100,000,000
- Riverside Mega Campus - VND 60,572,000
- Head Office - VND 55,850,000
- Thanh Vinh Interior Decoration Trading Company Limited – VND 10,000,000
- Quang Tri School Equipment Company - 555 beds
- Additional donations from individual members of VAS management team -150 beds and VND 34,000,000 for confectionery
