Red dirt roads wind around the green hill’s of Van Han, our Sponsored Child's Commune. People wearing conical hats or “non la”, the traditional hat of Vietnam, work growing rice, maize or tea. The general green of the landscape is punctuated by dashes of colour: orange, red and black butterflies flutter lazily in the dry, hot sun and bright tropical flowers of yellow, purple and pink give off fragrant smells. This is also an area where lychee are grown and the fruit can be seen hanging from trees or gathered in bundles at the side of the road.
The Cummune People’s Committee is responsible for. Every aspect of Commune life, including such important things as health education, livelihood and so on. The Committee comes under the district People's Committee, which, in turn, comes under the Provincial Government People's Committee. The latter then links with the National Government. Plan's projects are carried out in partnership with the Commune People's. Committee.
The population of Van Han Commune is about 9,OOO. People live in 17 villages, the population belongs to 9 ethnic groups: the Nung, Kinh, Dao, San Chi, Khome, Cao Lan, Thai and Hoa. These groups each have their own individual languages, customs and cultures. When children attend school, however, they have to learn and have classes in “Tieng kinh”, the official language of Vietnam. Teachers, too, are often from the Kinh ethnic group. There are two primary schools in the Commune and one high school. The long distance from some student's homes to school is sometimes a problem in Van Han. Some children have to travel 1Okm along rough hilly roads to reach their school. Those are lucky have bicycles, but for children from the poorest families, walking is the only option. During the rainy season or when parents need their children's help at home, such as at harvest time, this distance can act as a deterrent to going to class.
Among some groups, it is tradition to send only boys to school. Some say they would like their daughters to be educated as well as their sons and more girls are coming to school than in the past But, when forced to choose due to limit finances, Most families still see the boys' education as being More important. This means that many girls and women are illiterate and their knowledge of the “Kinh” Language is limited. Consequently, they are prevented from having access to information about such things, as health and nutrition, which would otherwise help them in their daily lives.
Children can be seen everywhere in Van Han. Many tell us that they have six or seven brothers and sisters. In Vietnam in general, an increased awareness of family panning methods has caused the average number of children born each year to decrease. But traditional ideas are difficult to change in Van Han. Reasons for families producing several children include a lack of knowledge of family planning, a need for labor on each family farm, fears of parents about having no one to care for them in their old age and the desire to have sons rather than daughters.
