Cow raising is family work

Mrs. Trinh Thi Quyen in Nui Be village (Chuong My district, Ha Noi) received a project cow in 2017. She shares that her family is very happy with their cow because the mother cow is going to deliver a calf for them.  When we came to visit her family, we could feel a good atmosphere of in her family. Her son told that their parent went to work very early in the morning, so he and his sister fed the cow with the grass which the parent had cut from the field the day before. Sometime in summer, his older sister also takes the cow to the field near their house for several hours while he playing around with the other children from his village. Quyen is very proud of her children of their helping looking after the cow, which she hope it can teach her children about the value of labour as a family. Each member of the family can do a little work and contribute to the improvement of the family living conditions.

“Our Students looked very contented and happy in their class”

There were totally 14 workshops on reproductive health held for 690 secondary school children for the last 4 months. The workshops were conducted according to grades and each session is averagely about 45 students for 2 hour length. For students of grade 6 and 7, the workshops covered different topics for boys and girls as separated groups.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Dung, Nam Phuong Tien A secondary school headmaster, admitted the lack of sex education in their curriculum. Therefore, he very much appreciated what we brought into his students. Also, Mr. Dung indicated that school teachers reported to him that they saw changes in their students by their observation just after few sessions. I (Saralen) asked Mrs. Nguyen Thu Hoa, a teacher in charge of school extra-curriculum, what they were. She said “Our students looked very contented and happy in their class; I think because they had space to talk about things which are considered private and sensitive and they were able to put their unnamed concerns about their reproductive health in words. At home, their parents avoid talking about sex because they don’t know how. At class, their teachers told them to ‘learn by themselves’ because teachers are not professional trained.”

Her answer brought me back to our first workshops, it was when Mrs. Hoa gave us a surprise look “How could you keep them stay still for about 2 hours?” It was her who stood at the back of classroom watching me at the first session and also her, later took initiative to join in our teaching session. She helped to calm students and supervised group discussion, and distributed leaning materials…

Life is more fun with Women Club

Last December, there were 2 women club meetings have been conducted for 54 women in Hanh Bo and Nui Be hamlets. Followed by the session on “Women’s Value and Identity” during the 20/10 Campaign (Vietnamese Women’s Day), these meetings were associated with games, sharing personal concerns and self-reflection. Interactive conversation and participatory discussion allow everyone take their part of speech.

These women love to be with women clubs. They first thought the meeting would be boring like the other usual formats in which they had to sit down and listen for whole session. Some decided to stay home when invited and others showed no interest at the beginning. However, what happened made them surprised. As they had chance to participate in games and felt accepted while sharing their thoughts, most of them just wanted to stay longer after the session. During workshop, some even gave a live stream for those who stayed home could follow and felt sorry for those who missed the session.

Mrs. Hoang Thi Xuan, 49 years old, brought her grandson to the women club in Nhan Ly hamlet. She could not leave him at home since nobody was there to take care of him. She said “The topic covered tonight is very interesting. I am glad that I can come. Before coming to the club, I hold strong anger towards my neighbor who humiliated me at the market. When you (Saralen) asked me to smash an apple while speaking out what in my mind, I did and it’s was a relief to my negative emotion. I am happy and laughed a lot.” The other women added on “We will sleep well tonight and look forward for more meetings like this!”