Vietnam takes education to the streets

It's 2am and the city of Hue is sleeping, but for Tien and her family the day is just beginning. Her home is a small boat on Vietnam's Perfume River and her task is to collect sand from the river bed. A long, hard day in the scorching sun lies ahead and 14-year-old Tien also knows she really should be at school.

But Tien, the third of five children, hasn't attended school for four years. She dropped out aged just 10 to make the long journey south to Ho Chi Minh City, the capital and economic hub, in search of work. But she quickly found out she was too young and had to return to Hue.

There she sells lottery tickets as soon as her work on the banks of the river is finished, and each day she walks past schools and sees the children learning and having fun in the playground and dreams of one day being able to rejoin them.

That was Tien's life not so long ago but, with help from Plan, her wishes have since become reality.

The turning point was an invitation to the boat communities to attend a meeting on children's education and protection issues and Tien remembers it was the talk of the riverbank among the mothers.

At the meeting, Tien discovered she could attend informal multi-grade classes and parents signed letters undertaking a commitment to allow their children to attend school regularly, agree to stop them working in unsuitable conditions and to allow them to attend the classes and children's club activities.

When Tien realised she would be going back to school she cried for joy. She still had to help collect the sand but now no longer had to walk the streets of Hue trying to sell lottery tickets.

She said, "I feel so happy that my parents now let me go to the multi-grade class and children's club which I have dreamed of doing for a very, very long time".