• SPRING HORSE Project
• Time : 9/3/2014 – 22/3/2014
• Place: Gia Bắc Commune,  Di Linh District, Lâm Đồng Province.
• Participants: 24 students of Ngee Ann Polytechnic with two teachers; 4 Vietnamese volunteers and others members of ECO Vietnam Group.
• Achievement:

– Knitting the doors of the Library,

– Lifting the floor of the Library

– English Teaching

– Book Fair

Spring horse is the first project in 2014, in association with Ngee Ann Polytechnic- Singapore, the official participation of 4 Vietnamese volunteers and the help of other EVG members, to improve the standard of living of the villagers, especially the children in Gia Bac commune, Lam Dong province.

The main activity of the project can be considered as lifting the floor of the Community Library, Knitting the doors of the Library, teaching English for the student in Gia Bac primary school, visiting poor houses, organizing Book Fair and Culture Night for the children and the people there.

About knitting, in the 3 first days, we did it in the morning, then also in the afternoon. This work was not so hard, but it required patience and responsibility, also the ability of working together as a team. The participants needed to observe, analyzed and followed the instruction of the workers. We had some convenience in work thanks to wide work-space, enthusiast workers, gloves to protect our hand, and “non la” with masks for not getting sun burn. However, working under direct sunlight made us tired very easily and needed a lot of water. Thanks to Mr. Ok, we had big water bottle everywhere for everyone, this meant a lot to us.

Starting for those first days of the lifting work was to clean the library to get the space, we moved the bookshelves and others accessories outside, then break the old cement. A lot of efforts and strengths had been spent to crush the old surface. It seemed like over-hard for girls, but they wanted to try and they were very keen on this work. We finished it without spending too much time.

Many days after, our main works were moving sands for the workers and inside the library. A brilliant thing that happened to us was that the workers had their own machine to mix the cement, so we did not have to make it by our own. But in next day, the electricity was off. Our volunteers had a chance to try it.

Besides, they participated in paving tiles too. After making the tiles inside the water during 15 minutes, they moved them to the workers.

One day after, we helped to fill the empty space between tiles with white cement and cleaned the library again.

Results:Even giving a lot of strength, both Vietnamese and Singaporean volunteers  took back something precious: patience, attention to the work, the way to assign work for the members of the team, attitude toward working, proactive spirit, and the fundamental knowledge like how to use spades, mix the cement, pave tiles…

Our Book Fair plan was carried out to reality with some success which we were very proud at. The children had a chance to participate in games, where they could run and move a lot with laughing on their face. They also could color and decoration pictures and paper sheets. The materials like color pencils, markers and the little sparkling things to decorate were which the kids rarely have a chance to use it, because their families are so poor for buying that. The Reading Corner also attracted a lot of kids sitting in their place and reading books they get from the shelves. Bringing them joy and books made us very happy and feeling a little proud of our kids, because no matter how hard their life would be, they are still innocent and optimist and always have the smile on their face.

Culture night

The culture night was on stage from 6.30 pm to 7.45 pm, included 3 spectacles from Gia Bac primary school, 2 from the library and 3 from S-team, finally one spectacle with the performance of the V-team and the kids. We ended the show by the giving candy and cookies for them.