Highland Spring Festival 2020 – Yang Mao, Đăk Lăk

❤️Joy upon joy
❤️Happiness upon happiness, many times over.

This spring was perhaps a truly special one for the villagers and children of Tar village in particular, and of Yang Mao as a whole.

Y Tam had just held the inauguration and handover ceremony for the clean water project, and the villagers had held their Water Source Worship ceremony to celebrate clean water arriving in the village, when Y Tam went on to organize a truly grand and dazzling spring festival.

Tar village's community house sits on a hilltop, nestled between two rows of ancient trees and surrounded on all sides by mountains. In that beautiful setting, Y Tam added the bright colors of spring: couplets, red scrolls, apricot blossoms, peach blossoms, balloons filling the sky…

The weather was a little chilly, making Tết (Lunar New Year) feel even more like Tết and spring even more like spring. The children were all dressed up in new clothes, and the Y Tam volunteers, rustling in áo dài of every color, eagerly stepped into the spring festival.

The children got to enjoy bánh tét, play folk games, play lô tô bingo, go blindfolded to pick lucky money envelopes… and enjoy spring performances too. Every child received snacks, candy and milk, and the adults took home Tết gifts of seasonings and bánh tét.

“We have never seen any organization put on such a grand and meaningful program. Thank you, Y Tam” – one villager shared.

For Y Tam, when Tết comes, joy comes, and we want to bring all that joy and excitement to the children and the villagers. So even though it was just one festival day, Y Tam prepared every step and every detail with great care; as long as the villagers and the children had a really good time, Y Tam was happy.

Here's a look back at the activities at the spring festival:

– Wrapped 220 rolls of bánh tét to share with the villagers for Tết
– Gave 150 Tết gift packages to villager households in extreme hardship, including: bánh tét, soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, seasoning, salt and cooking oil.
– Cooked about 600 portions of bún with minced pork for breakfast for the children attending the festival
– Gave out 800 packs of snacks and candy as prizes for the children
– Ran more than 10 folk game booths during the festival

In addition, this year's spring festival included a special event: a celebration of gratitude for Y Tam's 5 years of volunteering: 2015-2020

Together with 50 volunteers and donors, Y Tam looked back on the 5-year volunteer journey and gave special commemorative gifts to everyone.

The spring festival's complete success was made possible by the shared effort and financial support of our donors, the Y Tam volunteers, the Yang Mao Commune Youth Union and the people of Yang Mao.

Y Tam sends our most heartfelt thanks to everyone and wishes you all a Tết full of togetherness, peace, happiness and every wish come true!

To see photos of the spring festival, go to Spring Festival

See photos of the clean water project inauguration at Inauguration

Sincerely.