Mountainous School Builds Fire to Help Kids Survive Freezing Winter

Vietnam’s northern highlands is in its coldest time of the year and many primary school children are still going to school in thin clothes, bare heads and some even without sandals. Teachers at a boarding school in Son La, one of the country’s poorest provinces, have to burn a bonfire at a corner of the classroom to help their children survive the cold of six degrees Celsius. Some mountain tops in the region are covered in snow. They sit there, chanting math formulas and readings from the old books which were either donated to them or passed down from their elder siblings. Children in the area usually have the cold season off but they cannot walk kilometers home and they are not allowed to set up a fireplace at their boarding tents for safety reason. “We have blankets there but it’s not warm enough. Here our teachers make us big warm fire,” a student said, as cited by Zing. One teacher said she has contacted a charity group to bring some coats to the children but it still needs the permit from local authorities to come. (thanhniennews.com Dec 20)