Tou is at kindergarten with 51 other lovely children from 3 to 5 years old at a two classrooms, in Ben Tre Province, Mekong Delta Vietnam.
Every day the parents take children to the classroom at 7:00 AM and pick them home on the way back from rice farm jobs. After a lunch at home, children will be taken back to school at 1:30 PM and stay there till 5:00 PM when the parents absolutley finish day job and take them home. The children have around 8 hours at school everyday except Sunday.
Life seems so peaceful. Nevertheless, could you imagine what they are facing every day?
This means they have 8 hours without going to toilet. Exactly they have four hours without toilet, and they go home, and return to the status of nearly four hours more without toilets. Some of boys can go to the bush when they can’t stand holding the pee water. However, girls feel more sensitive for bushing toilets and they rather keep the pee water.
What is a foreseen future of Tou and her classmates?
- They will have problems of kidney as well as fertility.
- They will keep the routine of drinking little water, among the heat of Mekong. This will lead to the possibility of dried skin.
- The memory of their school time can make nightmares.
- They do not have strong sense of environment protection.
So, how can you share a life opportunity?
- Join a community service project in Mekong Delta with us.
- We stay at homestay and everyday we cycle or boat to the school sites to build toilets.
- We will work hard with brick and mortar, with the instruction of the master builders.
- We also visit around to see the local life, to experience floating markets, to enjoy folk music and other amazing things of Mekong Delta. However, building is our main mission.
