Due to the difficult living conditions, the education of many ethnic minority students has become precarious. Additionally, the distance of schools from their homes makes the journey to school even more challenging. The only thing that keeps these students in the poor villages attached to school is sometimes just a meal of plain rice accompanied by 1-2 simple side dishes. Recently, images of poor highland children timidly holding bowls of rice filled with cicadas captured in Mong village, Hamlet 12, Vu Bon commune, Krong Pak district, Dak Lak, have moved netizens.
According to the person who shared these images, during a survey in Mong village Hamlet 12 to prepare for the Mid-Autumn Festival program, he encountered four young children cooking cicadas they had just caught for breakfast (they only boiled them, not fried them due to the lack of cooking oil). While children in the city celebrate with beautiful gifts, the children in the highlands “don’t even know what round or square cakes or candies are…”
“Somewhere in this society, there are still many areas of extreme hardship that we may not know about unless we go into reality, we cannot clearly see their lives; truly, seeing this scene shocked me, but what can we do, everyone?”
Most of the children are from mountain ethnic groups, living in poverty with houses scattered on the hills. During the day, their parents work far away, leaving their homes made of thatch unguarded and unlocked.
The children are left to roam free at home. At meal times, they automatically finish the leftover cold rice from the day before, or they go into the forest or by the stream to find something to eat. Due to a lack of nutritious food, the children remain stunted and unable to grow.
Many comments from the online community express their feelings about these images:
– “I feel that I am still too lucky in this life, so I should complain less.”
– “I feel so sorry for the children, hoping for a miracle for their brighter future.”
– “Seeing the children like this makes me realize that my pressures in life are nothing at all.”
– “I hope to visit once and bring gifts to the children.”
The reality is that parents work in the fields all day and return home late, making it quite common for the children to take care of themselves. Many children are reluctant to walk to school, so they often skip classes. Thus, many netizens hope to contribute something to help the families of these children lessen their hardships and persist in pursuing their education.