Young people are encouraged to take park in a charity project called Thắp Sáng Tri Thức (Lighten up Your Knowledge) for poor children to celebrate the Christmas and New Year season, launched by a group of students from the Việt Nam-Australia International School (VAS) in HCM City. The project will donate notebooks, books and stationery to 200 poor children in Dầu Tiếng District in Tây Ninh Province. — Photo courtesy of Thắp Sáng Tri Thức

 HCM CITY — Young people are encouraged to take park in a charity project for poor children to celebrate the Christmas and New Year, launched by a group of students from the Việt Nam- Australia International School (VAS) in HCM City.

The project, Thắp Sáng Tri Thức (Lighten up Your Knowledge), will donate notebooks, books, and stationery to 200 poor children living in Dầu Tiếng District in Tây Ninh. 

Greeting cards and clothes are also encouraged. 

The project has attracted many primary and secondary school students from VAS and other schools. 

 “City students will have more opportunities to help others through our project, Thắp Sáng Tri Thức,” said 10th-grade student Phan Hoàng Thu Anh, one of the project’s creators. 

Children from several hundred families called việt kiều Campuchia who resided in Cambodia before returning home, Dầu Tiếng District of Tây Ninh Province. Many of them face difficulties going to school.  (Photo courtesy ofThắp Sáng Tri Thức)

“We hope our gifts will help poor children in Dầu Tiếng enjoy a happy Christmas and New Year.” 

Anh and her group conducted research about Dầu Tiếng children before launching their project. They learned that the children come from several hundred families of former overseas Vietnamese who resided in Cambodia before returning home.

“Local authorities have offered policies to help these families earn a living. However, many of them live in poor conditions and their children face difficulties to go to school,” said Anh.  

“We decided to donate notebooks, books and stationery, not food, cakes or candies, for Dầu Tiếng children because they’re useful for the kids’ study — the key that makes life become better.” 

“Our project is named Thắp Sáng Tri Thức because we believe that only your knowledge can change your destiny,” she added.   

Members of Thắp Sáng Tri Thức are working to collect and pack donations of notebooks, books, and stationeries into beautiful boxes to deliver them to needy children. (Photo courtesy of Thắp Sáng Tri Thức)

 According to teacher Nguyễn Lý Thuỷ, who manages the project, Christmas is a time of gifts and celebration, but also a time of giving. 

“I hope students will learn that giving is receiving after taking park in the project Thắp Sáng Tri Thức,” he said.  

Last year, Thuỷ and his students produced more than 170 solar lamps for students in the remote Ea-Rớt village in the Tây Nguyên (central highlands) province of Đắk Lắk. The children do not have enough lights for study because their village is not connected with the national power grid. 

Members of Thắp Sáng Tri Thức are working to collect and pack donations into beautiful boxes to deliver them to needy chidlren. 

More details for the project can be found at https://community.vas.edu.vn/ — VNS