A new wave in education
Cargill opens school on remote Vietnamese island
September 13, 2014
Many poor and disadvantaged Vietnamese students drop out of school. Between 2005 and 2012, only 2.8 percent of poor Vietnamese children have access to learning materials at home. The attendance rate in early childhood education among disadvantaged Vietnamese children is only 58.8 percent. Getting to school was even more challenging for the children in the remote Hon Nghe, a small island just off the west coast of Vietnam, where a school did not even exist to begin with.
Fortunately, the children of the island are now able to enjoy a collaborative learning experience within a formal school building. The school is the 67th school out of 75 schools that Cargill plans to build by 2015. Since 1997, Cargill has been working to remove the barrier to education through an ambitious, employee-led school-building program. A typical school consists of four or five classrooms, a schoolyard, a fence and restroom facilities. Each school serves about 150 to 250 students.
Representative of Cargill Vietnam Chanh Truong spoke to just how remote the island is – “Getting there for the inauguration was quite a trip as our boat fought 10 foot waves for about an hour and a half during this monsoon season.”
Cargill has so far collected over U.S. $ 3 million, supporting the building of 67 schools which benefit more than 13,000 children in rural and remote areas across Vietnam.