She abandoned city life to teach disadvantaged children

“It was an intervention that would bring some change in my life,” said Ms. Le Thi Thanh Hang, a primary teacher from Krong Klang primary school in Quang Tri province. She left the comforts of the city and travelled to the remote mountainous areas of Vietnam with the aim of teaching children from poor and vulnerable families of ethnic minority group.

Starting this new job in 2010, she faced with a lot of challenges: children spoke only mother tongue, which was a tremendous challenge for Hang as they could not understand what she was saying. The students were bored and some of them were frequently absent from class. The teachers training college did not prepare her to teach and communicate with children that did not speak Vietnamese.

With the support of IKEA Foundation, in 2011, Save the Children organized training sessions for teachers at Hang’s school on how to teach children from different groups and how to support and engage them in learning activities by using interactive methods.

More importantly, Save the Children provided them with a new model of which taught teachers to look out for signs that children are struggling in the learning process and how to involve other students in peer support. She also learnt several methods on improving her daily lessons. Through the program, she has managed to encourage more children to speak up, ask questions, and engage in group discussions. This has resulted in more interaction and laughter in her classroom.

Every year, the IKEA Foundation donates €1 for every soft toy sold in participating IKEA stores in November and December. The donation goes to Save the Children and UNICEF, and is spent on children’s educational projects.