Going against the flood to save people
On the occasion of this year's Vietnamese Teachers' Day, in addition to the affection of parents and students, teacher Nguyen Chi Anh - Vice Principal of Ban Mu Primary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities (Tram Tau District, Yen Bai Province) also received many congratulations from local people. They were the people he supported during the most critical moment of storm No. 3.
Teacher Nguyen Chi Anh said: "It rained heavily for many days, so snakes and centipedes crawled into the house to find shelter. At that time, my wife was cleaning outside and heard our 4-year-old daughter screaming. My wife ran in and saw that our daughter had been bitten by a snake on her hand, so she rushed to the hospital."
On the way, due to heavy rains for many days, Tram Tau district had many landslides. The authorities on duty at the landslide sites had to ask the people and mobilize excavators to clear the way for the ambulance.
At Nghia Lo Town Hospital, because there was no suitable anti-venom serum, the doctor transferred the child to Hanoi.
“I feel more secure thinking that my child has been sent to a frontline hospital for treatment. As for the flood, no one can stop it and it affects more people, so I decided to return to support and provide supplies to the villagers,” said the vice principal, born in 1989.
Going against the flood current to the village, before Mr. Chi Anh’s eyes was a vast white space, the village was submerged in water. At that time, people’s houses were submerged in water, their belongings were floating everywhere. Seeing everyone in the village crying, his tears also flowed…
After borrowing a boat, one person and one boat, Mr. Chi Anh swam from Tien Phong village (Minh Quan commune, Tran Yen district) to the highway to ask for relief supplies and then swam back to deliver them to the villagers. The items he asked for were water, instant noodles, milk, life jackets, cakes, flashlights, etc. All were loaded onto a small boat to cross the flood waters to return to the villagers.
“It was around 1am. By the time we got back to the village and distributed necessities to everyone, it was already 6am…”, Mr. Chi Anh recalled.
Carrying students across the stream to school
After his daughter recovered and was discharged from the hospital, teacher Nguyen Chi Anh continued his work, going to each village to help students go to school.
“Most of the students here are Hmong ethnic group, the farthest village is about 18km from the school. After planning to pick up the students, the school divided the teachers into 3 groups to go to 3 villages, each group of 5 people divided into motorbikes to go to each house to persuade the students to come to school,” said Mr. Chi Anh.
Mr. Giang A Henh, Head of Giang La Pan Village, said that many families of students live on the hillside, which is at risk of landslides. Hearing that their children were encouraged by teachers to go to school - a safer place than the village area, the parents immediately agreed.
"The children were taken by their parents to the Hang La stream area, about 5km from the village. The water was still high here, so motorbikes could not pass, so teacher Chi Anh took on the task of carrying the students to the other side so they could continue walking to school," Mr. Henh confided.
At the Hang La stream transfer point, teachers carried students across the large section of water. When about 30 students were gathered, the school assigned a teacher to lead them on foot for another 8 km to return to school. Upon arrival, the remaining teachers were assigned to take care of the students.
Just like that, from noon to around evening of September 23, 27 teachers of the school worked together to bring more than 300 students back to school safely. The first class after Typhoon Yagi began the next day.
Ms. Nguyen Hong Sen, the school principal, shared that before planning to welcome students, teachers considered the weather conditions and the road conditions so that the students would not be too dangerous. The students had been absent for more than a week due to storms and rain, so they needed to return to school early to catch up with the program. Moreover, if students were absent for too long, it would be more difficult to get them back to class.
Having worked in the education sector in Yen Bai for many years, Ms. Hong Sen and Mr. Chi Anh said that going to students’ homes to encourage them to come to class is not a rare thing. This year is the first time the school has welcomed many students during the most difficult time and has also received the most affection from the people and parents on the occasion of Vietnam Teachers’ Day.
