Three School Kids Pulled from Local Trash Heap; More Expected
HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM | Three fifth graders were pulled from a trash dump in Ho Chi Minh City thanks to a scholarship program designed to keep them in school.
In a thriving city of more than 9 million, almost 2 million are children. The key to getting ahead is getting a good education. But for the poorest children, this is almost impossible. The first step in helping such children was opening a fine school focusing on teaching life skills, English, and art, where all children are welcome—including the poorest of the poor. But grade 5, after which many children move on to other public or private schools, marked the end for poor kids. Even scholarships to continue learning for free weren’t enough to break the cycle of poverty and lack of education. Poor parents desperately need the small incomes their 11- and 12 year-old children can earn searching through trash heaps for recyclables or selling newspapers or lottery tickets or newspapers on the streets.
But thanks to the Lasan Scholarship Project, three children were pulled from the piles of waste and enabled to finish grade 6. Not only does the project give full scholarships to the children; it subsidizes the family — providing “rice money” — to make up for the money their child otherwise would have been contributing.
Three poor kids who would have been fifth-grade dropouts were able to graduate from sixth grade. The Lasan Scholarship Project is committed to seeing them all the way through to graduation. This will raise their prospects—and those of their families—to the next level. No longer consigned to life as street scavengers, these children who graduate from high school will be qualified to find good, dependable work in factories or other businesses.
With continued support from Asia’s Little Ones, these three former drop-outs will be joined by others.
Three children may not seem like much; but the opportunity means everything to these three and their families. They have been snatched from the trash heap of life and reclaimed... transformed... renewed.
“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” — Romans 12:2 NIV