1002 – RISE Project – ECO Vietnam Group

Rise is the 14 day charity project in Phuong Thinh – Cao Lanh – Dong Thap which Eco collaborated with the NanYang girls high school to organize.

On 16/11/2010, an early flight from Singapore landed at Tan Son Nhat airport in the excitement of everyone.

The hard volunteer trip started when the team arrived at Phuong Thinh – an underpriviledged region of Cao Lanh district, Dong Thap province. The works in the starting day is a lot and full of obstacles. Everyone must be very flexible to change plans and to work out in time. This project started by remodeling a school for the children at Phuong Thinh. The volunteers have to shave lime, paint the walls, and to tidy up the bushes, … After remodeling, people still have to clean the dust on the table, dais and scrub the classroom floor, this serial work there seemed to be endless.

Moreover, the volunteers had to walk for hours to reach the site of the fixing road under the severe weather’s condition. After finishing the road, they continued to plant trees around the new residential area.

The difficulties for Nanyang girls, maybe, was teaching Vietnamese for the children, because they cannot speak Vietnamese fluently, they were also not good at the pronunciation, but they took pains to learn and overcome. The happiness and learning enthusiasm in the eyes of the children were the greatest motivation for them to deal with any problems.

Rise was not only give them the experience of team working, how to take actions to the difficulties, but also show them the unfortunate lives, which built a fire of passion and enthusiasm to serve the community in our volunteers and the Singaporean girls.

Before leaving, the team organized Culture Night to exchanges and give the gifts to Phuong Thinh students and celebrate for the achievements. Singaporean girls, Vietnamese volunteers performed their unique and attractive item, people in the village also joined