In November 2012, STEP UP is the initial campaign of the year in the Overseas Community Involvement Project (OCIP), a cooperated annual activity between EVG and Singapore educational institutions. This is our third time to hold Nanyang Girl’s High School in Phuong Thinh rural area, Dong Thap province.
This time, EVG was pleased to collaborate with 6 teachers and 39 students from Nanyang Girl’s High school. Before departing to Phuong Thinh destination, our local volunteers together with participants from Singapore were warmed up by some interesting activities in Ho Chi Minh city.
The first place in the city tour was the War Remnants Museum, a renowned attraction that contains exhibits relating to the American phase of the Vietnam War. In addition, in order to give our Singaporean fellows an insight into Vietnamese school life, we decided to visit Ba Dinh Secondary school in district 7 and indeed had a cozy culture exchange there. The city tour in HCMC was not only enjoyable but also gave the foreigner volunteers a great chance to explore more about Vietnam.
Step Up team in War Remnants Museum
Memorable time with Ba Dinh Secondary students
In the dawn of November 19th, after a two-hour car trip, we arrived at peaceful Phuong Thinh rural area.
From November 20th-24th:
With the intent to reach the targeted goals, all tasks were divided up among 6 different groups. In other words, each group was in charge with a main duty such as building houses for a poor families, teaching English for young children, planting trees along roads, preparing meals at home and consolidating the road surface. In addition, tasks were switched between teams everyday so that everyone could experience and contribute to different parts of work. Through daily life, the local people here and our Step Up team were getting closer to each other and somehow, we felt like we were living in another big family!
Who says girls cannot build house?
After 4 days straight of hard-working and devotion, we were surprised by our own achievements, remarkably was the reinforcement of 2 houses, 150 planted trees along the road, the consolidation of village roads and above all was the happiness of Phuong Thinh citizens. Little was our contribution to the wealth of this needy remote area, yet we have brought here the belief for a brighter future.
Young children were very fond of studying English with us!