Written by Ms. Huynh Thi Kim Loan – staff of Getting Ready for Work programme.
As a social worker, this is not my first time going to the field, but it is probably a trip that leaves me with the most impressive and meaningful memories. It is meaningful because I had a chance to witness the heart-warming care of disadvantaged children to those who are even less fortunate than them. That is a small child carrying a bag of toys that he had collected from his friends in the neighbourhood, or a child saving up allowance money to buy two beautiful stuff animals to give others, as well as carefully-selected gifts from teachers at Thang Long school. Yes, that is from the field trip to Tin Thac shelter for abandoned children of 42 students and teachers of Thang Long school from 29th November to 1st December 2019.
Not only visiting children of the shelter, in this trip, Thang Long students also helped the shelter with picking coffee beans even after a tiring 200km-trip from Saigon to Lam Dong. The love for the children at Tin Thac shelter helped our students able to pick 1.6 tons of coffee beans. Never have I witness our students worked so hard. Observing the conversations, the heand-holding, the good-bye waving, and even the tears of our students, I knew that it’s not just tears of farewell, but also tears of shared encouragement between our students and the shelter children.
On the way back to Saigon, I overheard the students talking about how they liked this trip. They saw how meaningful this experience is to them, making them understand the value of love and labour. I hope that all the lessons from this trip will remain with them along with the beautiful friendships that they had made with children from Tin Thac.
