Give Something Back: Photo Album: Vietnam

photo album: Vietnam

Beginning in 2003, the Give Something Back International Foundation started giving scholarships to needy children in grades K-12 in Vietnam and Thailand. We are currently sponsoring more than one hundred fifty children per school year. The children are carefully chosen on the basis of need. Many are orphans or come from broken homes. Almost all the children have to work to support their families or themselves, often earning the equivalent of just a few pennies a day. By providing the scholarship we enable the children to continue at school where they can master the basic skills of reading and writing. Through their education the children get a fairer chance in life and an opportunity to escape from the poverty into which they were born. The information below was taken directly from the child and translated into English.

student: Nguyen Thi Minh Dung
gender: Female
age: 13 years old (Born in 1992)
school level: 7

location: Binh Linh Hamlet, Cha La Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Viet Nam
year: 2005

my family: To be able to support my younger brother and me, and cover our school fees, my parents work laboriously as hired labourers on the field without bothering bleak weather. There is no electricity in our little leaky house. My whole family have only one bicycle.

wishes for the future: I have no idea.

student: Pham Thi Kim Chi
gender: Female
age: 11 years old ( born in 1994)
school level: 6

location: Binh Linh Hamlet, Cha La Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Viet Nam.
year: 2005

my family: My parents got little education. They work as hired labourers to raise my younger sister and me. With their small income, they try hard to enable me to go to school, but it is very difficult for them to keep me in school until I finish high education. We all live in a thatched hut with many leaks and no electricity. There is nothing valuable in my house.

wishes for the future: I have no idea.

student: Vo Ngoc Tham (EM)
gender: Female
age: 13 years old (born in 1992)
school level: 7

location: Binh Linh Hamlet, Cha La Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Viet Nam.
year: 2005

my family: My mum left my family forvever due to a malignant disease. Since then, my father, who can barely read and write, has had four children on his hands. We all live in a small leaky house with my old grandmother. With his small earnings, Dad can only keep his three children at school, and the oldest daughter has had to quit school although she had not finished Primary school.

wishes for the future: I have no idea.

student: Bach Thanh Tam
gender: Female
age: 15 years old (born in 1990)
school level: 8

location: Ninh Hung I Hamlet, Cha la Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Viet Nam
year: 2005

my family: Since my father died of malignant malaria, I have lived with my mother and my grandmother. My Mum, who got little education, earns a meagre amount of money for the whole family by working as a hired labourer. Daily expenses of my family are too great as against my mother’s income. That is why I went to primary school two year later than my friends. I am very grateful to the local government for giving my family a small house to live.

wishes for the future: I don’t know yet.

student: Do Tuan Anh
gender: Male
age: 14 years old (born in 1991)
school level: 9

location: Binh Linh Hamlet, Cha La Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: My father is dead. My mother remarried another man, taking my younger sister along with her. I am left in the care of my grandmother and my aunt. My grandmother is over seventy but is still working. She sits all day putting candies into plastic bags, earning VND 500 (USD 0.03) for 100 bags. After school time I help my grand with this work. My aunt does the embroidery; the income from this job is unstable as it depends on how many works she embroiders a day. She can earn at most VND 10,000 (USD 0.60) for hard day’s work. I got a pretty good school report last year.

wishes for the future: I don’t know.

student: Duong Thi Hong Linh
gender: Female
age: 13 years old (born in 1992)
school level: 8

location: Cha La Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: Both my parents are ricepaper makers. In my free time I help them with their work. We do not have anything valuable in our home. We cannot afford electricity and have to make do with an oil lapm at night. We have land but have no money to invest in. The house we are living in is in terrible condition: it is not only shabby but also leaky. However, a rennovation is just out of our reach. My brother is now in the ninth grade.

wishes for the future: I haven’t thought of it yet but first of all I would like to have the chance to finish high school.

student: Le Thi Kieu Hoa
gender: Female
age: 14 years old (born in 1991)
school level: 9

location: Binh Linh Hamlet, Cha La Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Viet Nam
year: 2005

my family: My parents, who are illiterate, are hired labourers working laboriously to support their mother and their three children. Although they always try hard, my siblings’ school fees and mine are too great a burden to them. We all live in a small house with many leaks. Water is from the neighbour’supply. Last year, I got pretty good school report.

wishes for the future: I have no idea.

student: Le Thi Kim Cuong
gender: Female
age: 14 years old (born in 1991)
school level: 9

location: Cha La Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: I have one older brother who is a hired labourer though still in the age for studying. He could only reach class 4 at primary school. My father and mother, who can barely read or write, are hired labourers, too. In my spare time I either help my mother make rice paper or do tiny work for my neighbours for some money. Our house is built on my grandmother's land. We have only one bicycle and cannot afford electricity.

wishes for the future: I have no idea.

student: Le Thi Ngoc Han
gender: Female
age: 15 years old (born in 1990)
school level: 10

location: Binh Linh Hamlet, Cha La Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Viet Nam.
year: 2005

my family: Since my father walked out on my family, my mother has had two children on her hands. She, who cannot read or write, alone struggles with her work of a hired labourer to be able to keep her children at school. We three live in a small house built shabbily with the support from the hamlet’s authority. Our meals are very infrequent because rice is bought erratically. After school, my younger brother and I look for tiny jobs in the area to do. We can earn a little more to add more food to our meals. Last year, I got pretty good school report.

wishes for the future: I have no idea.

student: Le Thi Ngoc Thom
gender: Female
age: 15 years old (born in 1990)
school level: 9

location: Truong Xuan Hamlet, Truong Thanh Commune, Hoa Thanh District, Tay Ninh Province, Viet Nam.
year: 2005

my family: My parents work as hired farmers. They try hard to support my two brothers and me and to keep us at school. We are luckier than our three older sisters and brother since none of them could finish primary education because my parents couldn’t afford their school fees. Now they work as hired labourers and can barely support themselves or their families. We live in a small thatched hut lent by the boss of my parents. My family life is only a hand-to-mouth existence because rice is often out of stock in my house. Last year, I got pretty good school report.

wishes for the future: I have no idea.

student: Le Thi Thanh Tuyet
gender: Female
age: 14 years old (born in 1991)
school level: 9

location: Binh Linh Hamlet, Cha La Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Viet Nam
year: 2005

my family: My parents have walked out on me since I was born. I was fostered and brought up by my present Mum, a woman of a heart of gold, and her mother. My adoptive mother is a worker of a rubber plantation for her meagre wage to support her mother and me. She does not bother to endeavour much in order to send me to school, and I know my school fees are not an easy problem for her. Last year, I got pretty good school report.

wishes for the future: I don’t know yet.

student: Luu Thi Ngot
gender: Female
age: 13 years old (born in 1992)
school level: 8

location: Binh Linh Hamlet, Cha La Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Viet Nam
year: 2005/06

my family: With their small amount of earnings from working as hired labourers, my parents do their utmost to raise their two children. There’re times when their labour is not needed at all. My school fees are already quite a big burden to them, not to mention those of my younger brother, who is now in class 1. My house is very small and leaky. Its walls are made of earth and bamboo. It can barely protect us from the rain. Last year, I got good school report.

wishes for the future: I wish to be able to finish High school education.

student: Ngo Thi Ngoc Mai
gender: Female
age: 13 years old (born in 1992)
school level: 8

location: Ninh Hung I Hamlet, Cha la Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Viet Nam.
year: 2005

my family: Since my father died of tuberculosis, my mother has had two children on her hands. She makes rice papers for money. With her small earnings, she tries to cover the daily basic expenses and keep my younger brother and me at school. We live in a shabby small house with two old bicycle as the only valuables. Last year, I got pretty good school report.

wishes for the future: I dream of being a teacher.

student: Nguyen Tan Linh
gender: Male
age: 15 years old (born in 1990)
school level: 10

location: Cha La Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005/06

my family: We have no land so our aunt gives us a small plot to build our little mud hut on. I am living with my mother. My parents got divorced a long time ago. My father left home and has never visited us since then. Formerly, my mother is a hired labourer. However, she is afflicted with a heart disease, which prevents her from doing heavy work. Since the Tet holiday, she began to learn to weave bamboo baskets. In my free time I go around the village collecting bamboos to sell and help with basket weaving.

wishes for the future: I wish I could find a job so that my mother could relax.

student: Nguyen Thi My Hanh
gender: Female
age: 14 years old (born in 1991)
school level: 9

location: Cha La Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: My father is a hired labourer and so is my mother. My mother also makes rice papers when she has time for extra income. I often help her with this work. My two younger siblings are at primary and secondary school. The only valuable thing in our possession is an old bicycle. Our house is in desperate need for a renovation as it is so shabby and leaky but we cannot afford to do so.

wishes for the future: I don’t know.

student: Nguyen Thi Nha Trinh
gender: Female
age: 14 years old (born in 1991)
school level: 9

location: Binh Linh Hamlet, Cha La Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Viet Nam
year: 2005

my family: Working as hired labourers for small income, my parents have been doing their utmost over the years to support their eight children and to enable them to get good education. We live in a small house built on the bank of a channel. With my parents’unstable income, rice is bought erratically.

wishes for the future: I don’t know yet.

student: Nguyen Trong Nhan
gender: Male
age: 15 years old (born in 1990)
school level: 10

location: Cha La Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: My father works far away in a factory producing rubber bands. My mother is also a factory worker. They do send us some money but rarely. My younger brother and I are living with my uncle, who is a peasant, and his wife. They have three children, all of whom are students. As my family is so poor, our family has to resort to their help. So my uncle and aunt has to support five children to go to school.

wishes for the future: I don’t know.

student: Nguyen Van Phong
gender: Male
age: 14 years old (born in 1991)
school level: 8

location: Ninh Hung I Hamlet, Cha la Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Viet Nam.
year: 2005/06

my family: I am now the best-educated member of the family. None of my parents or my four older brothers could finish class 3 at primary school. My parents are hired labourers working diligently to be able to support the members. Only my younger sister and I are allowed to continue our schooling. My house is badly-lit because we can not afford to buy electricity.

wishes for the future: I don’t know yet.

student: Pham Hoang Nam
gender: Male
age: 13 years old (born in 1992)
school level: 8

location: Ninh Hung I Hamlet, Cha la Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Viet Nam.
year: 2005

my family: Neither of my parents could reach secondary education. As hired labourers, they work laborisously without bothering difficulties to support my younger sister and me. With their meagre earnings, they try to save to the minimum from the daily expenses so that they could have us got higher education than them before. However, our school fees are still causing them worried frowns. The whole family has only one old bicycle to travel.

wishes for the future: I don’t know yet.

student: Pham Van Tri
gender: Male
age: 12 years old (born in 1993)
school level: 7

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam
year: 2005

my family: I am the youngest child in my family. My next brother is a ninth former. The other three older siblings are working, two of them help my parents with rice and tobacco planting, the other is a worker in another province. Like my parents, none of them had a good education. As a result the other members of the family work very hard to send us to school. At present our house is in bad condition but we cannot afford a renovation. After school, I also have to work on the field with my brothers and parents.

wishes for the future: I think I would be a peasant.

student: Tran Thi Tham
gender: Female
age: 14 years old (born in 1991)
school level: 8

location: Binh Linh Hamlet, Cha La Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Viet Nam
year: 2005

my family: My parents are hired labourers working industriously to support my younger brother and me. Because they got little education, they try hard to enable their children to get higher education than them. However, our school fees always cause a lot of worry for them whose work is very seasonal. About my house, I am very afraid of rain because it makes my house as wet as a drowned rat through the leaks of the house. Our only valuable property is an old bicycle.

wishes for the future: I don’t know yet.

student: Truong Hoang Em
gender: Male
age: 14 years old (born in 1991)
school level: 8

location: Binh Linh Hamlet, Cha La Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Viet Nam
year: 2005

my family: Five of my older siblings had to quit school when they hadn’t finished primary education while the eldest could only reach class 9. They now can barely support themselves or their families. My mother is not very healthy. She sometimes works for hire but earns little since she cannot do heavy work. She now still has to support three children, my two youngr brothers and me.

wishes for the future: I have no idea.

student: Vo Huynh Thi Anh Huong
gender: Female
age: 15 years old (born in 1990)
school level: 10

location: Binh Linh Hamlet, Cha La Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Viet Nam.
year: 2005/06

my family: I live with my grandmother because my father left for another woman, and my mother is away working as a hired labourer. I can see my parents on few occasions when they drop in our small leaky house. To make a living for both, my grandmother do the work of cutting bamboo, earning VND 2,500 (about USD 0.16) per kilo, and I help her after class. Last year, I got good school report.

wishes for the future: I have no idea.

student: Vo Thi Bich Tuyen
gender: Female
age: 16 years old (born in 1989)
school level: 11

location: Ninh Hung II Hamlet, Cha La Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province.
year: 2005

my family: I am living with my grandmother, my parents, aunt and my younger brother, who is in class 10. We live in our aunt’s house because we don’t have our own. My parents sell coconuts to earn a living. They can earn VND 40,000-50,000 (about USD 3.00) a day. However my mother has to spend a lot of that money buying medicine to cure her goitre, which often makes it hard for her to breathe. After school, I help my parents by making rice paper. That would earn me a little more money to pay for my school fees. The whole family has only one bicycle. I had a pretty good school report last year.

wishes for the future: I wish to become a teacher.

student: Hoang Duong Ngoc Thao
gender: Female
age: 13 years old (born in 1992)
school level: 8

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam
year: 2005

my family: My father died of hepatitis a long time a go. My mother is a street vendor. Every day she peddles her wares in other communes. She works very hard but still has to struggle to feed and send us to school. I have a younger sister who is in the third grade. I had excellent results last school year.

wishes for the future: I haven’t thought of this.

student: ??
gender: Female
age: 13 years old (born in 1992)
school level: 8

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam
year: 2005

student: Hoang Thi Bao Thanh
gender: Female
age: 14 years old (born in 1991)
school level: 8

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam
year: 2005/06

my family: My mother died of a disease some years ago. My father is a security guard in Binh Duong province, which is very far from home. He takes my two younger siblings, aged 7 and 3, with him. I am living with my oldest brother and grandmother (73 years old). The house we are living in is my aunt's, she sells lottery tickets in Ho Chi Minh City. Each month my father sends rice and money home. To help my father support the family, my eldest brother also goes to work for hire after school.

wishes for the future: I wish to be a doctor.

student: Nguyen Thi Cam Tu
gender: Female
age: 14 years old (born in 1991)
school level: 8

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: My mother died 6 years ago in a traffic accident. My father works as a mason assistant in another province, leaving me in the care of my grandmother. Grandmother is old, she cannot work much. We depend chiefly on what my father sends home each month. In case he could not manage some money, we have to manage ourselves. After school, I walk the streets in my commune to sell lottery tickets. The house we are living in belongs to my aunt, which is very shabby and leaky. I go to school on foot as I don’t have a bicycle.

wishes for the future: I don’t know.

student: Nguyen Thi Thuy Mai
gender: Female
age: 16 years old (born in 1989)
school level: 11

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005/06

my family: My father had an accident at work, which results in his inability to work now. We are taking care of our grandmother and a mentally-impaired uncle. My mother is a housewife as she could not find a job. We plant some cashews on my grandmother's land but do not earn much from this as we lack labour and money. My older sister is an au pair in Ho Chi Minh City. She had to stopped her schooling early to help the family. We even cannot afford an electricity supply. Last year my academic results were good.

wishes for the future: I don’t know.

student: Doan Thi Dieu
gender: Female
age: 12 years old (born in 1993)
school level: 6

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: My parents are farmers. We grow wake pumpkins, sharing the with another family. My father does know reading and writing but my mother is illiterate. I have two brothers, both of whom are eighth formers (the older one started school late). According to my parents, they earn 3 or 4 million dong (USD $200-260) per year from the pumpkins.

wishes for the future: I want to become a tailor.

student: Ho Minh Quan
gender: Male
age: 12 years old (born in 1993)
school level: 7

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: My father is a farmer. My mother stays at home to look after the household as there is little work to do in this poor area and she couldn’t find a job. I have one sister who is in the eighth grade. This school year if my parents could not afford the school fees for two of us, one would have to quit school. Last year I got a good school report.

wishes for the future: I don’t know.

student: Le Huu Trung
gender: Male
age: 12 years old (born in 1993)
school level: 7

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: As my family doesn’t have land, we are allowed to built a house and do the cultivation on my grandmother's land. However, the land is not large and what we earn from it is not enough to feed the four people, my parents have to work as hired labourers. Try as they might, they could only manage to send me to school. My sister, who has reached the age for school (7 years old), is staying at home due to our lack of money. She will have to go to school next September though.

wishes for the future: I wish to become a policeman.

student: ??
gender: Male
age: 12 years old (born in 1993)
school level: 7

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

student: Le Thi Thu Thanh
gender: Female
age: 11 years old (born in 1994)
school level: 6

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: My father works as a hired labourer, earning little money from the job. I have one sister who is only three years old. My mother has to stay at home to take care of her since she is not very healthy. We haven’t got even a bicycle. After school, I look after my sister and help my mother with the housework.

wishes for the future: I don’t know.

student: Ngo Xuan Tuong Vy
gender: Female
age: 11 years old (born in 1994)
school level: 6

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: My father left our family a long time ago. My mother has remained a single mother since then, struggling to bring me up, besides supporting my grandmother, aged 63. We encounter lots of difficulties as my mother cannot find a stable job for a long time. Recently she has found a job as a typewriter in a secondary school, earning VND 320,000 (USD $20.40) a month. Her earnings are the main source of income since my grandmother doesn’t make much profit from her little stall.

wishes for the future: I have no idea.

student: Nguyen Thi Bao Ngoc
gender: Female
age: 11 years old (born in 1994)
school level: 6

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: I have 5 siblings, all of whom are going to school. Two of them are high school students, one is secondary student and the youngest one is a first former. The only income in my family is what my father earns as a hired labourer. My mother is a housewife as she cannot find a job. My family has some of land. However, as we lack labour and money, we hardly harvest anything from our fields. Last year, my academic results were quite encouraging and I got a good school report.

wishes for the future: I have no idea.

student: Tran Thi Huynh Nhu
gender: Female
age: 12 years old (born in 1993)
school level: 7

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: My two siblings and I are living in the care of my father. My parents are divorced and my mother remarries another man. She is living far from us. It is very difficult for my father to bring us up since he earns very little money as a hired labourer. There is not always work to do and there are so many unemployed people in my neighbourhood. Still, my father tries to send us all to school, hoping that with proper education we could have a better future. Last year, I got pretty good results for my studying.

wishes for the future: I haven’t thought of it yet.

student: Nguyen Thi Kim Phuong
gender: Female
age: 11 years old (born in 1994)
school level: 6

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: My parents are both farmers, working on our small farm. My brother is only three years older than me but has to quit school to work as a hired labourer so as to help my parents. After class, I help my family with the housework. We have two old bicycles as our means of transport.

wishes for the future: I want to work in factories.

student: Nguyen Van Hien
gender: Male
age: 11 years old (born in 1994)
school level: 6

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: Our family has no land. We build our thatched hut on a small plot of land given by my grandmother. Both my mother and father are hired labourers, earning very little for their manual work. I have a younger brother who is at the age of 4. We have only one bicycle. Therefore, I go to school on foot. Our house is a dark shabby one with many leaks. Last year my studying results were pretty good.

wishes for the future: I want to be an electrician.

student: Nguyen Van Set
gender: Male
age: 14 years old (born in 1991)
school level: 7

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: I am the youngest child in the family. I have three siblings, the two older ones have quit school to help my parents with their work, the other is at the seventh form. Both my father and mother are farmers. In the sunny season we plant tobaccos. For the rest of the year, the fields are cultivated with rice. We live in a very small and shabby house. The most valuable thing in my house is a bicycle, which is shared among the family for travelling. In my free time, I help with tobacco-pounding.

wishes for the future: I want to continue my studies until graduating from high school. After that, I want to help my parents with their farmwork.

student: Pham Van Tri
gender: Male
age: 12 years old (born in 1993)
school level: 7

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

student: ??
gender: Male
age: 14 years old (born in 1991)
school level: 8

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

student: Tran Thanh Vu
gender: Male
age: 12 years old (born in 1993)
school level: 7

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: Both my parents are rice-paper makers. However, they are working far from home, being hired by other people. I have a younger brother, aged nine, who is living with my parents. My grandmother is taking care of me. She sells steamed thin rice-pancake. Each day she earns at the most just enough to buy 1 kilo of rice. I walk to school as I don’t have a bicycle. After class I go to nearby houses to carry water home as our well has dried out.

wishes for the future: I want to be a worker.

student: Tran The Phuc
gender: Male
age: 11 years old (born in 1994)
school level: 6

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: My parents are hired labourers. Try as they might, they still find themselves struggling to cover the expenditure of the family. At the moment, only my mother is working as my father has gone to the town to look after my grandfather, who is suffering from cancer. This causes our family to lose a source of income and adds to our financial difficulties. I have two siblings, one of them is an eighth former. The other is aged 7 but hasn’t gone to school as my parents cannot afford. Our house is in terrible condition: shabby and leaky, but there is nothing we can do.

wishes for the future: I wish I would be a mechanic.

student: Tran Thi Mong Giao
gender: Female
age: 13 years old (born in 1992)
school level: 7

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: Both my parents are farmers. They work on our farm, which is far away from home. I have a younger brother who is in the second form. Our family has two bicycles, one of which is used by my parents, the other is used by us to go to school. I take my sibling to school with me everyday. Though my parents work very hard, they can only afford daily food, depending how much they earn. We haven’t got an electricity supply as we cannot afford it.

wishes for the future: I don’t know.

student: Truong Kim Quy
gender: Male
age: 12 years old (born in 1993)
school level: 6

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: My parents are divorced. My mother is a hired labourer in another province, she sometimes pays us a visit. My father remarries another woman with whom we are living with at the moment. We have a field on which rice is grow. However, we have to sell rice to cover our debts, a result of crop failure. My father hires another field to plant tobacco for a living. I have two siblings, the older one quit school when she was only 11 years old to help my father and the younger is only 2 years old. After school I help with the housework or work on the field with my father.

wishes for the future: I haven’t thought of this.

student: Vo Thi Diem
gender: Female
age: 11 years old (born in 1994)
school level: 6

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: I am the oldest child in my family. I have two sisters, one of whom is a second former, the other is only one year old. My mother has to stay at home to look after the one-year-old child. The only labourer in my family is my father; he works as a hired labourer. We are also taking care of my grandparents who are over seventy and can no longer work. The house we are living in is small, shabby and leaky.

wishes for the future: I don’t know.

student: Le Thi Cuc
gender: Female
age: 13 years old (born in 1992)
school level: 6

location: Phuoc Minh Commune, Duong Minh Chau District, Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam.
year: 2005

my family: My parents, who can not read or write, do the work of catching fish to be able to support the whole family of five pepple. My eldest sister quit school before finishing primary education because my parents couldn’t afford to send both her and me to school at the same time. We all live in a small mud hut built on my uncle’s land. An old bicyle is the only valuable property in my house.

wishes for the future: I have no idea.