Dorothea's Legacy continues to produce GREAT fruit. Generations are being transformed. Please enjoy the heart and writing of Lan our Chemistry and Math teacher at Dorothea's Project Legacy 2! As always I will forward any words of encouragement you may feel led to write.
It has been nine months since I first started working for Giving it back to kids, which is a short time, but I think it is enough to create many wonderful and unforgettable memories for me. Having been a student from a poor family allows me to truly understand the happiness that my lovely students feel when they can go to class and pay nothing. Their happiness actually makes me feel good and bad at the same time: I feel good because I can help them, but feel bad when they are not be able to participate in other recreational activities to fully develop mentally and physically just because their parents are poor and too busy to care about them.
One of the parents shared his thought with me: " I had never thought that I could send my children to tutoring classes after school before, since we did not even have enough money to live by. Therefore when I heard the news that Giving it Back to Kids organization was going to open a community center, I and my wife burst into tears. From the bottom of our heart we want to say thank you for what the organization and its donors are doing to better our world."
I am the Math and Chemistry teacher for the students at the 2rd Dorothea Legacy Project in Que Son district. Not all of the students are good at studying, but their passions and their positive attitudes toward studying moved me a lot. They can be the most energetic kids in the world as they carefully follow the teachers' lessons and ask questions right away when they do not understand. Additionally, we have formed some groups in which the students help each other in both studying and life.
Another thing that I could not forget to mention is that when the students come to the community center, they also have chances to take part in many extra-curriculum activities such as drawing and painting competition or Ring the Golden Bell competition in order to boost their knowledge and their creativity.
Listening to each of the students makes me feel that I was luckily born in a happy family and what difficulties I have been through is nothing compared to theirs. They indeed teach me many precious lessons on life determination and how to overcome difficulties.
One of the stories that I could never forget is Luan's story. He is the big brother in a family with five members. He also has two other younger sisters: one is in fourth grade and the other is just two years old. His dad is always away from home to earn money, but he does not earn enough to support the whole family. That is the reason why his mom has to go out to the river near their house and collect snails to sell at the market. Understanding his parents' hardship, Luan does the household chores and babysits his sister. On his day off from school he goes to the river with his mom to help her.
I could never forget the morning when Luan called me and asked: "Can I bring my youngest sister to our class?" I immediately said yes and at that time our class had another cute member. He let her sit on the floor and play with some toys. Sometimes she cried but Luan gently soothed her into obedience right away and then focused on his lesson. It seems that his difficult situation cannot prevent Luan from learning and living his life to its fullest, as I have never ever heard a single complaint from him. Last semester he got the excellent result in Math!
Luan's story is just one in many others that I have heard because there are many kids needing our help and I know that my job is so meaningful. I want to say thank you to Giving it Back to Kids for giving me a great opportunity to learn and experience some new things that I never thought that I could.
Now I can proudly say that "I love what I am doing"
Sincerely Lan!
I bet Dorothea's has a BIG smile knowing her dream continues
