80 year old former prisoner, incarcerated and sentenced to death by the French, opens Centre for street children.

The inspiration for the Centre came from Nguyen Quoc’s life-long ambition to provide night classes for homeless and disadvantaged children. The young children attend the classes after spending the day earning small sums of money polishing shoes on the streets.

Originally from Phu Yen, Nguyen Quoc has dedicated his old age to helping disadvantaged children in his home province. Disturbed by the sight of young vagrant children wandering the streets earning a barely substance wage with no chance of an education, Nguyen Quoc set-up evening classes designed to help lift these children out of such dire poverty.

In spite of Nguyen Quoc’s determination the Centre struggled to buy resources and attract children. Funds for text-books, notebooks and pens were secured with difficulty. Fortunately, the Department of Education and Training in Phu Yen provided teachers. Children were not however initially forthcoming in taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the Centre.

It was a common sight to see Nguyen Quoc’s distinctive white headed figure visiting disadvantaged as he spread awareness of the new opportunities which were now on offer.

The former prisoner with his street children

The Centre is now fortunate to enjoy patronage from a wide range of businesses. Most generous is Minh Trang, director of the Tai Trang Company (Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, Ward 3). Every evening she gives each child, who has spent the day polishing shoes, selling lottery tickets, babysitting, or washing dishes, a free dinner before their classes start. This “study encouraging meal” and the compassion of Minh Trang go along way towards encouraging children to frequently attend class and work hard. Other donors include Do Nhu Phuoc and Van Kim, two retired officials who contribute their modest pension, and Xieng, a small trader living in Ward 4, TUy Hoa City who provides rice and other ingredients. When we visited the school the children had just received 15 bicycles from the Fund for the Poor of Phu Yen Committee for Population, Family and Children.

The Centre teaches students of elementary level. Since its establishment, it has trained nearly 200 children. In the near future, it plans to teach them up to the secondary level. This is clearly a huge challenge and also an ambitious goal for a centre which still has a severely limited budget.

A corner of the compassionate class

Orphaned and robbed of their child-hood by the necessity to provide for themselves, the misfortune experienced by the children and the bravery with which they have faced this disadvantage is heart-breaking.

Thanh Phuong washes dishes at a restaurant during the day and during the evening she attends third-grade class. Tuyet Nhi baby-sits throughout the day and studies at fourth grade class during the evening. All the students here are of a different age but they all live in poverty and nurture a dream to go to school like their wealthier and luckier peers. Some 16 or 17 year old children are still learning at a first grade class, which make them feel very unconfident; yet with the encouragement from the teachers they are ambitious to catch-up with their peers. Thus every year tens of children graduate and the same number are enrolled into the first grade classes. For the past 10 years the centre has been receiving and teaching more than 200 street and orphaned children.

The children are live in the home built by this 80 year old former prisoner of war and from warm human love. Every evening the scene of an old man riding a rundown bicycle to and fro between his home and the Centre regardless of the weather has become familiar to local residents. I myself hope that this remarkable elderly man will enjoy good health for years to come and will continue to lead these disadvantaged children to the light of hope and faith.