QUANG TRI, VIETNAM – To commemorate Vietnam’s International Children’s Day today, Cargill presented the 87th school for children, under the Cargill Cares school program, to the Ba Tang commune, Huong Hoa district in the province of Quang tri. This kindergarten was newly built by Cargill in Vietnam to provide pre-school education to over 80 children in a safe, convenient and friendly environment.
In a space of two weeks, Cargill opened two new schools for the local rural communities in Vietnam, one in the North and the other in the Central part of the country. The 86th school, called Xuan Hong kindergarten in Hong Thien commune, Xuan Hong district in the province of Nam Dinh was inaugurated on 18 May 2018 to serve 180 children aged from two to five. The school has five classrooms, restrooms, gate and fence with total value of US57,000 (VND 1.3 billion).
inpage-vietnam-studentBa Tang kindergarten is located in a mountainous area in the Central province of Quang Tri, where both Kinh and Van Kieu ethnic people live together and working on banana plantations but most of them are from low income families. The old school which was built many years ago was in a dilapidated state and had to be shut down a few years ago. This forced the children of different ages to learn together at a temporary classroom located within a residential stilt house. This newly built school with a total investment of VND 1.3 billion from Cargill has 3 classrooms, restrooms, a fence and a school yard. A water well was also built to serve both the school and local households to help address their basic water and sanitation needs and relieve them from having to go far to fetch water from the stream for their daily consumption.
“Today is a special day and we are excited to start the new fiscal year with the Cares school opening event and children’s day celebrations. We are happy to serve the local community with a new and modern education infrastructure that promises to nurture the dreams and aspirations of the children and their parents for a better future. They can now connect better through education in a conducive environment, with care and love from Cargill. Despite the current market recession, Cargill remains committed to our community work as we understand our efforts can help people have better lives through education,” said Stoney Su, Country Director of Cargill in Vietnam. “Within 12 months of the last fiscal year, Cargill Cares in Vietnam built and handed over 6 new schools in 6 provinces, benefitting 1,000 additional children. We feel humbled by the continuous improvement of these children in their academic and extra curricular performance and it bolsters our confidence in the program as we get closer to building 100 schools by 2020.” .”
On the same day of Ba Tang kindergarten inauguration, the Cargill Cares in Vietnam allocated time and resources to organize a memorable children’s day event for the local kids including Ba Tang students. The event included entertainment with various games, art balloons, clowns and a plentiful party run by Cargill Cares volunteers. The Cargill volunteers distributed new shoes, caps, school bags and toys to the students to help them better prepare for a new school year in September.
Cargill’s school building program was established in 1997 to support students in agricultural communities in rural Vietnam. It is aimed at providing students access to quality education in a safe and conducive environment. The program is part of the Cargill Cares Council which is completely employee-led. Cargill employees invest time and effort to raise the funds and to provide logistical and administrative support including working with local architects, applying for licenses and managing the construction of the schools.
Funds come from Cargill customers, partners and employees. Since 1997, around US$5 million (VND110 billion) has been raised to build schools that now provide quality education to more than 13,000 students across 46 provinces every year.
Nguyen Thi Phuong Hong, +84 8 5416 1497, Hong_nguyen@cargill.com
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