Food
“The type of assistance Minors provides, such as rice scholarships and food raising projects, aimed at the very poorest and at-risk students, has been successful year after year in keeping those children from dropping out of school”.
- Mr. Tran Ngoc Hung Deputy Chairman, Viet Nam Association of Education Promotion, Dien Bien Province
Rice Scholarships
Fish, fowl, animal and vegetable raising projects and training are supported by Minors to provide sustainable nutrition for boarding students at the commune schools, whose diet is often only the hill corn or rice they can carry once a week from home, and greens foraged. As of this year Minors has supported Food Raising Projects at 134 schools in the northern mountains of Viet Nam.
Boarding students bring their own food, usually only corn or rice, and cooking pots from home.
Above, children arrive in town on a Monday morning on their way to school with their weekly food supply.
For exceptionally poor children who are faced with leaving school to help their parents forage between crops, we provide rice scholarships which enable these boys and girls to remain at school until the end of the term.
Boarding students at many schools have no lunchroom and eat wherever there is floorspace or a place to sit, and often that is only found on their beds.
Fruits and Veggies
Boarding students at Lo Van Gia Junior High School, Phong Tho , Lai Chau
Junior High boarding students growing their food at Tuan Giao District, Dien Bien
At a center for orphaned and abandoned children
Limited garden space outside the classroom, a common challenge in the mountains
Bees to Buffaloes
The garden and beehives with food raising project in Pa Thom Junior High School
Deposits and Withdrawals at the Minors' Buffalo Bank, Branch at Tan Tien Commune, Bach Thong District, Bac Kan
Minors' Cow Bank provides support for orphaned and other severely disadvantaged students at risk of dropping from school; So far 553 cows and buffaloes have been provided, throughout Laos and Viet Nam, not to mention porkers.
Biogas
Boarding students gather cooking fuel from increasingly distant sources, expending time away from studies, and encountering considerable risks and hardships in their never ending quest for firewood.
To date we have implemented ten biogas projects, initially at two orphanages, and now eight schools; all projects so far are in Ha Giang and Lai Chau Provinces.
The manure from the pigs and cows being raised by the children (previous support from The McKnight Foundation) at the schools and orphan centers is combined with the output of the children and teachers as well, and the methane produced is used as cooking gas.
This saves a significant amount of time, energy and wood.
"Through this project, students in Nam Xe school have been cooking by gas supplied by the system, saving hundreds of kilograms of wood each month. .......this project gives the students an understanding of the production process and storage of Biogas, sanitation, use of clean water, and our garden (for boarding students) has improved with the natural fertilizer for plants and vegetables."
- Mr. Nguyen Vuong Hung, Deputy Head, Division of Education and Training , Phong Tho District, Lai Chau Province
Step 1
The Way In: Tank Construction
Where the system begins to produce methane; the newly constructed holding tank where the cow shed's manure will combine with the contribution of the school/ orphanage toilets. This system is at Lo Van Gia Jr high School at Ban Lang, Phong Tho District in Lai Chau Province.
Biogas tank under construction at Nam Xe Junior High School in Phong Tho District, Lai Chau Provinc This is the first school to request and receive this type of sustainable support from Minors
Manure holding tank under construction at Dao San Junior High School, also in Phong Tho District
Step 2
The way Forward: The Supply Chain
Cows head to the shed to make their donations to the biogas system.
Cows head to the shed to make their donations to the biogas system.
Boarding students raise and cut grass to feed their cows, here happily eating in their stalls.
Step 3
The way up: The journey begins
When the methane forms there will be enough pressure for the gas to flow out of the holding tank when needed and begin its journey to the kitchen.
Tube carrying methane heads towards the kitchen, back past the shed and toilets where it all began at Na Nhan Jr. High School in Dien Bien District, Dien Bien Province
Step 4
The way back: Returns to the scene
End of the green line, at Na Nhan Junior High School kitchen
The biogas burning clean in the kitchen at Nam Xe school Phong Tho, Lai Chau
Step 5
The Way Down: The process begins anew
Boarding students eat where they can find space
Boarding students line up outside the school kitchen built by their parents
