A helping hand for disadvantaged students as the school year begins

Sharing care

From the first days of the new school year, a range of initiatives to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds have been rolled out across the city.

In early September 2026, Hoang Duc Trieu, a Grade 11 student at Bach Dang High School, became one of 25 students receiving support from the Hoa Binh Ward Women’s Union through the “Sponsor Parents – Supporting Students on Their Educational Journey". Aware of his difficulties, Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Hoa Binh Ward Party Committee, agreed to sponsor Trieu with VND1 million a month through a program coordinated by the ward Women’s Union.

On Sept. 11, 2026, the DCI Vietnam community in Hai Phong, which runs a 5K program based on daily contributions of VND 5,000, carried out the “A Million Vietnamese Dreams” project, presenting 22 gift packages to 22 disadvantaged students at the Viet Khe Secondary School branch. The gifts included bicycles, electric bicycles, iPads, mobile phones and clothing.

Two months earlier, to select gifts suited to the students’ needs, the DCI Vietnam community in Hai Phong, working through the school, visited the homes of all 22 students to learn about their backgrounds and hear about their dreams. At the start of the new school year, gifts linked to those dreams were handed directly to the students, supporting them as they work to turn their aspirations into reality. Over the past four years, the community has also sponsored two students who lost both parents at the Ky Son branch, helping them stay in school.

At Tan Hung Secondary School in Tan Hung Ward, the principle of “leaving no student behind” was put into practice from the start of the new school year. Through the school’s “Sowing the Seeds of Knowledge” scholarship fund, 11 disadvantaged students who have overcome difficulties and made progress in their studies at the Hai Tan and Ngoc Son branches received scholarships of VND200,000 each.

Support has also come from the Navy. On Sept. 11, 2026, the Naval Region 1 Command assigned a garment workshop to directly sponsor Tran Sy Phuc, a Grade 2A4 student at Hai Son Primary School. He is the son of a fisherman in Do Son Ward. Phuc receives VND 6 million a year, helping him overcome difficulties.

The approaches may differ, but they share a common goal: providing support that matches students’ needs and circumstances and giving them better conditions for learning from the beginning of the school year. More importantly, the support reflects a belief in the students’ ability to overcome difficulties and succeed.

Supporting future aspirations

The value of the gifts goes beyond their material worth. The care and encouragement from schools, organizations and the wider community give disadvantaged students greater confidence and motivation to work harder in their studies and in life.

Nguyen Thi Hong Duyen, Vice Principal of Viet Khe Secondary School, said the school has 36 disadvantaged students, including 22 at its branch in the remote Ky Son area. Support from the wider community is a source of encouragement for the students to overcome challenges, work hard in their studies and personal development.

With the same goal of encouraging students to overcome difficulties and make progress, Tran Quoc Bao Secondary School in Bach Dang Ward has focused on mobilizing social resources to support students from the start of the school year. Principal Bui Cong Doan said the school currently has 2,071 students. Last school year, more than 80% of students who took the high school entrance examination were admitted, while 62 students won city-level academic awards, many of them from disadvantaged families.

At the start of the new school year, organizations and individuals presented gifts to 54 students from near-poor or disadvantaged families, 13 high-achieving students from poor families and 13 students entering Grade 10 with a combined score of at least 27 points. Each student received VND 500,000.

The gifts will give students and the school added confidence and motivation to move forward and improve the quality of education following the merger of Minh Duc Secondary School and Ngu Lao Secondary School.

Hai Phong News