Every morning when the sky is still foggy, dozens of students in the mountainous commune of Trong Hoa in Minh Hoa District, Quang Binh Province take off their uniform, put on plastic bags and swim across Khe Rao River to get to school.
Around 7 km away from Trong Hoa Commune is Ong Tu Village with 106 inhabitants and 20 households. Of them, 14 are studying at Hung Primary School. And in nearby Ka Ooc Village, 10 students are taking class at Trong Hoa Junior High-school.
To these 24 students, Khe Rao River is their only road to school.
“In flooding seasons, school is closed for a month,” said Ho Danh, a 4th grader at Hung Primary School.
And in drier days, Danh said he and his friends had to overcome their fear to swim across the river.
“We wade across the river in winter also,” Danh continued.
It takes boys couples of minutes to get to the other side. For girls, swimming across Khe Rao is much more challenging.
Ho Thi Thoai, an 8th grader at Trong Hoa Junior High said she used to be very scared of the swift-flowing river. But she had to muster courage to learn swimming from a friend because she wanted to go to school.
According to 79-year-old Ho Nhung, who is Ong Tu Village’s chief, students here have had to swim to school since last winter.
According to 79-year-old Ho Nhung, who is Ong Tu Village’s chief, students here have had to swim to school since last winter.
The village used to have a boat to take them to school but it was swept away in a flooding season.
“No child has been hurt but accidents can occur at any time,” Nhung said. “We all dream of a bridge but it is yet to come true.”
On September 17, the Trong Hoa Commune People’s Committee gave students in this village a boat and life-jackets as a temporary solution.
Dinh Xuan Tien, Chairman of the committee, said the commune had asked higher authorities to build a bridge crossing Khe Rao River as well as a road to connect Ong Tu and Ka Occ village.
But Tien said the commune doesn’t want to move local residents to clear sites because they are needed to protect the forest.
Dinh Quy Nhan, Chairman of the Minh Hoa District People’s Committee, has also told Vnexpress newswire that the district could only urge parents to take their children to school and offer life-jackets because it would be beyond the district’s budget to build a bridge.
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