Sorry If the Photos Below Make You Sad…

I hesitated for a long time over whether to post this here, whether to tell you about something that has been happening for so long, every single day, to the little ones at Y Ngông Primary School.

Until now, Y Tam has always wanted to bring joy to everyone through cheerful, radiant, happy pictures.

But today, please allow me to post some real, very real photos. They show the children eating lunch at Y Ngông Primary School. The photos were taken spontaneously, without any preparation.

Children eating lunch at the Y Ngông school site

Most of the children are from ethnic minority communities and live far from school. At noon they cannot go home, so they have to bring rice from home to eat so they can stay for afternoon classes.

Just look: their lunch is plain white rice, nothing but white rice. Some have a few lumps of sugar or a few boiled greens to go with it. To make it easier to swallow, some pour plain water over it.

A teacher at the school told me that some children bring packs of instant noodles. At break time they pour cold water over them and wait until class is over for the noodles to soften so they can eat them. Otherwise they chew the noodles raw. They eat like this every day!

I couldn't hold back my tears, and the friends with me were just as deeply moved. Every morning before school I have to coax my own child to eat. One moment he wants this, the next he wants that, and some days he turns his nose up at everything and finds fault with every dish, eating only if it's delicious.

Thinking about that, my heart aches for these children. For them, whether food tastes good or bad is a distant concern; all they need is a full stomach.

I wonder where these children find the strength to study when they eat like this. With empty stomachs and poor nutrition, how can they focus on learning? How long will they be able to keep going to school if poverty still surrounds them?

That these children travel such long distances to get here is something precious. It is just a pity that the school has no canteen, no cook and no funding, so it cannot give them a nutritious, filling meal that would let them study with peace of mind.

Y Tam can bring the children clean water for daily use, toilets and playgrounds, but their lunches still weigh on our minds. Until this is solved, my heart and all of Y Tam will remain troubled.

We shared our concerns with Mr. Chính, the school's principal. He said the hardest part right now is finding someone to cook for the children, because providing meals at a school seems easy but isn't: without great care, it could harm the children's health. Things like kitchen equipment, bowls and plates, or funds to buy vegetables and meat are easier to raise.

Y Tam also told him that if he can find a cook for the children, Y Tam is ready to work with the school to provide them with completely free lunches.

Shared by Ms. Nguyệt Đình Khôi, Head of Y Tam, after recent field trips to Đăk Sa