Life of Vietnamese children in Tonle Sap Lake area - Cambodia

When I received the information about a charitable trip to visit Vietnamese children are living in Cambodia, many questions arose in my mind. I want to know how their live is. That’s why I left everything behind and took part in the trip with Thien Tam group.

 

Thien Tam Group

We went around 500 kilometers more than 12 hours on a 30-seat bus from Hochiminh-Viet Nam to SiemRiep-Combodia. Then took a boat over an hour to get to a school in Tonle Sap Lake area, where Vietnamese families was living.

In this season, Tonle Sap Lake was very shallow, even a 5-6 year old child could walk in it. Our boat got stuck sometimes and had to asked for help from the other boats. The water was muddy, but residents here still used it mostly for their daily activities

More than 3000 Vietnamese are living under temporary roofs on islands and nearly isolated from the rest of the world. They are almost people without nationality, who spending their whole time on this water. They are discriminated and cannot integrate in to society. They do not have land for plantation, castle raising. For them, vegetable are luxurious. They can do fishing in water rising season, but are unemployed in water lowering season. Their life is very hard and there seems to be no way to escape. Those people rely on aid from charitable groups from Vietnam.

314 students, who were studying at a school built by Vietnamese People Military – region 7, waited for and welcomed us. There are 5 classrooms constructed in the middle of the lake. In the lack of facility, the voluntary teachers were still dedicated to bring knowledge to their students. This made us feel cosy. However, those children only studied until grade 5 (this mean they are out of illiteracy), because their life situation does not allow them to learn further. When the children went home, they had to make and meet with their parent. A nine or ten year old boy can do a hard work with self awareness and high responsibility.

I chat with a boy named Đời. Đời was in grade 4. Although he was 15 years old, Đời looked like a 10 year old boy. He was quite meek and mild when we were chatting with him. He said 3 generations of his family had been living in Tonle Sap Lake. His parents even could not tell where there hometown was in Vietnam. His family did not have a chance to return to their hometown. when I asked Đời what he wanted for his future, he hesitated and could not answer. Maybe “Future” is very strange thing to him and other people who is living here. Working for daily meals are hard, let alone thinking about future.

Đời - the boy who I talked with

The trip helped answer my questions, and wishes arise in my mind. I wished lives of Vietnamese in Tonle Sap Lake will be cared and improved. I wished the children would have a brighter future with better jobs.

                                       

Thank you for taking time read this. I hope my article will help you understand more about life of Vietnamese children, who is still living in isolation in a strange country. If you have a chance to go to Seem Riep, do not hesitate to visit them!

Hoàng Thái Phương