Kon Tum the Little Things Huh?

Today’s note is written by our extraordinary and very special Southeast Asia Director. As always, if you feel led to send out a note of encouragement, I will forward to her. 

Typing this journal when I and GIBTK’s team just finished a three-day trip to Kon Tum province in the central highland of Viet Nam. It was a very tired trip for us because we spent 6-8 hours in van each day but surely it was a fun and meaningful trip. 250 bikes were distributed to orphans and poor kids in 5 areas, including Kon Tum city, Kon Ray, Dak Glei, Dak To and Ngoc Hoi district. 110 families with kids now can access clean water thanks to the water filters they were given. 

There is a saying “Doing what you like is freedom and liking what you do is happiness”. I dont know how you define happiness but to me it is seeing the kids having big smiles when they got the first bike in their life, seeing kids excited to ride the bike they have dreamed of and seeing families access clean water to improve their health ...

Y Bich, a girl I met in Dak Pek commune, Dak Glei district said to me with a beautiful smile, “I am so happy to have this bike. It will help me to get to school and get home faster. I don’t have to be afraid of the stream when the water level is up in the rainy season. 

Y Bich continued, “to take the shortest way to school, I have to walk for 45 minutes along the stream. I am so scared when it rains. But now with this bike, I can take another safer way each day. This is my first bike and I like it so much. I have dreamed of having a bike as my friends and I told my parents about it. They promise they will buy when they have money but I dont know when they will have money because a shortage of food for three months in a year is a normal thing in our family. Our family have to borrow rice from relatives and neighbors and then pay them back when our crops are harvested. And my parents work in the burnt-over land to take care of five kids so we have no money. In my village, some kids have bikes so they said unkind things to me and looked down on me when I walk to school. I was sad to hear that but I wont from now on since my dream has come true. Thank you so much. “

“Grateful people are happy people” is another saying that I like so much. I am grateful for the work I am doing. I am grateful for such a great team we have in Viet Nam and in Cambodia. I am grateful for opportunities to reach poor children and help transform their lives. Sometimes, we think little things wont help much but with poor kids, every little support counts and goes along the way. Bike is a very simple thing that any kid from good families or rich families can get any time, but for poor children it is such a big dream for years. 

Another story is about Y Thuy Thiet and Y Hua - friends in same village. They both dont have bikes. They come from poor minority- ethnic families with many children. It takes them 2 hours to walk from home to school. If their friends give them a ride, it will take them an hour. And they have to walk to school couple times a week when friends don’t show up. When their school ends at 5 pm, they wont be able to be home till 7 pm. They both had dreamed of their own bikes but their families had no way to provide. When they knew that they would be given bikes, they could not wait for the nights to get over so that they could see and touch their bikes. They smiled a lot and could not stop because they were so excited to ride their new bikes. Now, they can give their friends a ride instead of waiting to get a ride every day. They could not say a lot to me but the happiness in their eyes and smiles say it all. 

With Love

Tam Tong

Robert Kalatschan

Giving It Back To Kids

www.gibtk.org

robert@gibtk.org