After more than five years of borrowed classrooms, 160 of the youngest children in a remote border commune finally have a kindergarten of their own again, thanks to the work of our partner, Saigon Children’s Charity.
In Ba Chuc Commune, a border area in An Giang Province five hours from Ho Chi Minh City, the Thanh Luong site of Ba Chuc Kindergarten had served the community for more than sixty years. Over time the building fell into serious disrepair, with wide cracks splitting the walls and ceilings and a structure that was no longer safe. To protect the children, the old classrooms were taken down, and for more than five years the students studied in borrowed rooms at a nearby primary school, a temporary arrangement that made daily life harder for families and left preschoolers without a proper space of their own.
“Our old classroom had a rusted tin roof that leaked all through the rainy season, and the floor was always damp,” remembers Huynh Thi My Trinh, who teaches the five-year-olds at Thanh Luong. “In the dry months it was stifling, we were always short of teaching materials, and every time we took the children outside I worried about their safety.“
Today, the children of Thanh Luong walk into a very different school. During the 2025–2026 school year, our partner, Saigon Children’s Charity, worked with local authorities to rebuild the site, and where the old building once stood there are now three solid classrooms, fully equipped with teaching materials and enclosed sanitary facilities, alongside a 300-square-metre playground with outdoor play equipment. It is a safe, proper place for children aged three to five to learn and grow.
The parents who once dropped their children off worried every morning can now spend the rest of the day at work, knowing their children are safe.
“Before, I sometimes kept my child home on bad-weather days because I was afraid for her health,” says Huynh Bao Chanh, whose child attends the new site. “Now I feel so much more at ease. She comes to school every day, she eats and sleeps well, and she is making progress. Seeing my child happy to go to school each morning is the greatest happiness for us.”
The teachers, who welcome the children each morning at the classroom door, see the greatest change in their students’ faces. “The children are more confident and happier now, and they take part in everything eagerly,” Trinh says. “Watching them grow each day is the greatest joy a teacher like me could ask for.”
Ba Chuc Kindergarten is one of many projects under Saigon Children’s Charity’s School Building Program, which gives children in underserved communities across Vietnam a safe and lasting place to learn
