Patient education why is it important

A special library has been opened in a flood-prone village just outside Hanoi, working to develop a love for reading among children, as well as keeping them safe whenever the area is inundated.

The library is located in Nam Phuong Tien Commune in the outer district of Chuong My, one of the floodplains in northern Vietnam.

Nhan Ly is also known as the center of floods during this period as the village always suffers greatly when nature starts pouring rain in summer.

During this period of time, it is rather dangerous for children to spend time outdoors as there is a high risk of falling into water, leading to drowning, or being swept away by the stream.

Hence, in the summer of 2018, Hallo World Library was established so as to ‘keep’ the children indoors without boring them, but rather ensuring their safety, according to its founders.

‘Inspired by floods’

During the flooding season in October 2017, co-founder of Hallo World Library Nguyen Quoc Tuan came to Phung Xuan Truong, an ‘unofficial’ teacher of the village, to propose the idea of creating a small reading corner for children in the neighborhood.

Phung Xuan Truong, who only finished eighth grade in Vietnamese 12-year education system, teaches local children, thus considered their teacher, even though he has never taught at school.

The two began a ‘trial mode’ for Hallo World in early 2018, and officially opened the library on March 16, 2018, shortly after the founders obtained the permit from the village’s authorities.

Ever since, the library and its supporters were always doing their best to provide children with books and make books more accessible.

Hallo World Library was inspired very differently from what most people would expect.

It was inspired by floods.

Having grown up in the village, Truong has experienced countless flooding occurrences.

Whenever flood reappears, the electricity is cut, leaving children in boredom within four walls of their own house as schools close during this period of time.

“There have been many children who unfortunately drowned because of carelessness, which inspired me to do something so as to keep these children indoors,” Truong said.

In 2015, a charitable program run by national broadcaster VTV came to the village, and Truong told them that he wished the neighborhood would have a bookshelf.

“VTV realized my wish and my house then turned into a place where children would gather to read,” he recalled.

It was that single bookshelf that has become the Hallo World Library today, following the meeting where Truong listen to, and quickly agreed on, the proposal by Tuan last year.

“That’s how Hallo World came to live at my house,” he said.

Building the love for books

Just like any other library, Hallo World aims at teaching children to love books and find pleasure in indulging in reading as the founders believes it is a matter of habit.

Most Nhan Ly children cannot afford buying books they are interested in, so it should come as no surprise that they grow up being ignorant towards books and not having a reading habit.

According to Truong, it is crucial to develop the habit of reading for children from the very beginning, even though one cannot just give children these books but also needs to have tricks to lure them into the world of books and stories.

Hence, during the first days of the library, the two founders had to use their own money to hold activities, such as painting competition, weekly “Read and Tell stories” sessions, and English camps, among others, to attract children to visit the library.

Most books at Hallo World are donated by charities and social organizations.

The supporters of the library not only aims at helping children in Nhan Ly, but also have a desire to help as many children of other poor villages as possible.

According to Truong, it is important for books to achieve their “destiny”, meaning they need to be read and used by others rather than just be put away in storages and boxes.

Hence, Hallo World also has plans to give away as many books as possible so that public reading corners could be opened in other villages as well.

For instance, before the flood came to the village, the library gave away seven bags of books, which contain over 1,000 textbooks contributed by charitable organizations and members of the society, to other villages in northwestern Vietnam.

Supportive community

Hallo World Library’s activities have been receiving significant support from community, volunteers, and other individuals.

Organizations, as well as individuals, have donated textbooks, books, stationery, and money, to the library.

Nhan Ly villagers, on the other hand, contributed by providing necessities such as rice, beverage, or vegetables.

For instance, a local teacher named Hiep donated pork and tofu when Hallo World Library was holding summer activities.

“We are farmers so whatever tasty we make, we give it to Truong and the library for support,” he said.

“He is disabled but has a great heart.”

On the days with high levels of flood, one can easily find a great number of children having their heads in books at Hallo World.

Even though the library is yet to celebrate its first birthday, it has already experienced one of the most severe floods in the history of the region, which lasted from end of July until early August this year.

Books from Hallo World library brought to children’s houses while the city was suffering from severe flooding. Photo: Hallo World Library

When the water only reached ankles of pedestrians, the library was still opened and welcomed children of the neighborhood to come over and read.

On July 22, the water level was too high for the library to open, or for children to be able to come.

However, the unfavorable weather conditions could not prevent volunteers from delivering books to children during that day. Instead of having children look for the books, Hallo World Library supporters had books looking for children.

On those days when the water level was too high, Hallo World Library would stack books on boats and carry them to children’s houses so that they do not get bored.

“We usually say the books ‘sneaked out of the house’ to hang out with the children,” Tuan said.

“The volunteers are from the village so every morning and every afternoon they have to cross the flooded streets to bring books to children.

“We believe that wherever children are, there will be Hallo World books!”

A unique ‘librarian’

Having been diagnosed with muscle entropy, a condition in which patient loses great masses of muscle, Truong, born in 1979, had to give up his studies right after finishing Grade 8.

Being surrounded by nothing but four plain walls, the young Truong asked his parents to open a shop where he can sell some necessities so as to make his life slightly more eventful.

It was during this time that the unfortunate teenage Truong learned to write with his mouth to be able to keep record of the money others owe him while he was selling the goods.

After spending days, weeks and months practicing, his teeth managed to hold the pen still and the neck adjusted to the right movements required for writing, helping him to attain beautiful ‘handwriting.’

Having found his own interest, he started thinking about unfortunate children in his neighborhood who did not have anyone to help them with their studies.

Hence, he gathered children in the neighborhood and offered them with free lessons to read, write, and do math whenever they have free time.

Some parents from other villages also bring their children to “teacher” Truong after hearing rumors about his wholeheartedness and dedication to teaching children.

Many students have difficulty following the lessons at school, but thanks to the help from Truong, they quickly learnt all the necessary skills.

In some cases, students are disabled and unable to attend school so Truong offers to come straight to the children’s houses to teach them everything he knows.

For the past year, with Hallo World Library, Truong became both a teacher and a librarian of the children.

Right after math, reading, and spelling class, the children look for books they might enjoy or receive textbooks donated for students.

Even though being a librarian is usually not a simple job as it requires constant categorizing of the books, Truong enjoys his relaxing ‘job’ as he already instructed the children to categorize the books.

Hence, even if the room might seem messy with different books lying around the room, all of them are put in their place at the end of the day under various categories including education, comic books, science, and geography, among others.

“Librarian” Phung Xuan Truong reading books with children from Nhan Ly Village. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Truong not only is a great teacher, he also contributes greatly to society.

However, as Truong’s health is getting worse, he is already thinking about how to sustain the library when he can no longer be there on daily basis.

Truong believes that the best solution would be to seek help from the local culture house, or the elderly in the village.

Even though Hallo World Library is adored and favored by children in the village, Truong still has hopes and plans to further develop it.

“I really want for the library to become a place for farmers to come to if there were other categories like law or agriculture,” he elaborated.

“I also desire volunteers good at foreign languages to come to help children of this poor village so that they can know little English and not fall behind the developing society.”

The events were selected from the following areas: policies and mechanisms, natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, applied research, international integration, and prominent scientists.

This is the 15th year of the vote for the top 10 S&T events, attracting the participation of more than 60 journalists who cover the S&T sector from 25 press agencies. The nomination was assessed by prestigious managers and scientists.

Below is a list of notable S&T events in 2020:

1. Prime Minister approves Programme on national digital transformation

The Prime Minister on June 3 issued Decision No.749/QD-TTg approving the National Digital Transformation Programme by 2025, with an orientation toward 2030.

The approved program has the dual goal of developing a digital government, economy and society while establishing Vietnamese digital technology enterprises that have the potential to go global.

The digital transformation in Vietnam has seen more strong developments than ever, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has had such a strong impact on the socio-economic situation, trade, education, culture, administration and transport.

2. Successful research on SARS-CoV-2 virus

* Successfully cultivating and isolating SARS-CoV-2 virus

The National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology announced on February 2 that it had successfully cultivated and isolated the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the laboratory, enabling quicker tests for the virus.

With the achievement, Vietnam was then able to test thousands of samples a day when necessary. This also served as a basis for the development of a vaccine against the virus.

* Researching and manufacturing quick test kits for the SARS-CoV-2 virus

The Ministry of Science and Technology declared on March 5 the success of a research on a test kit for SARS-CoV-2 virus, making Vietnam among very few countries in the world to have succeeded in the research at that time.

The real-time RT-PCR research was conducted by the Vietnam Military Medical University and the Viet A Corporation as directed by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The project’s success is important at a time when the COVID-19 epidemic remains a global threat. Results also confirmed Vietnamese scientists’ high levels of professional skill and the ministry’s determination to have effective epidemic prevention and control.

3. Successful development of technology for flight control and balloon retrieval in the stratosphere

This is project VT-CN.04/17-20 on ‘Research to Approach the Technology to Use Balloons in the Stratosphere, integrated with Information Transceivers, to Monitor, Give Direction, Rescue, and Calculate Physical Parameters in the Atmosphere’ was carried out under the National Science and Technology Program on Space Technology in the 2016-2020 period.

The project was directed by Associate Prof. Dr. Pham Hong Quang from the Center for Informatics and Computing.

The project uses an IoT network at an affordable cost level for deploying sea and forest rescue tasks, monitoring off-shore fishing boats, floods, landslides, and forest fire data.

4. Science ministry receives draft Vietnamese history

The Ministry of Science and Technology held a ceremony in Hanoi on November 12 to receive a draft of Vietnamese history after five years of its compilation.

The draft history comprises 25 volumes of general history and five volumes of event chronicles.

The project, funded by the National Foundation for Science and Technology Development, was carried out by nearly 300 scientists from research institutes and universities, mostly in Hanoi, Thua Thien-Hue and Ho Chi Minh City.

5. Viettel makes first 5G call with locally produced equipment

Minister of Science and Technology Chu Ngoc Anh (left) and Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hùng make a call on January 17 with a Viettel-made 5G device (Photo courtesy of Viettel)

The Military Telecommunications Industry Group (Viettel) successfully conducted the first call using fifth generation (5G) technology in Vietnam on January 17 with Viettel’s gNodeB transceiver.

The gNodeB transceiver, made by Viettel, includes both software and hardware. The device was developed in six months, starting in June 2019.

In May 2019, the carrier used a foreign-made device to make a call via the 5G network. After 8 months, Viettel has helped Vietnam master 5G technology.

6. Locally-developed tracing app Bluezone launched

Bluezone, a locally-developed app that helps determine if a person has come in contact with a COVID-19 patient, was launched in Hanoi on April 18 by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) and the Ministry of Health.

Developed by tech firm Bkav, the app uses Bluetooth Low Energy, a wireless personal area network technology, to link smartphones within a two-meter distance.

As of mid-November 2020, more than 23 million Vietnamese people had downloaded the app.

7. Completion of Hoan Kiem Lake’s embankment using advanced technology

On August 20, 2020, the Vietnam Science and Technology Joint Stock Company (Busadco) announced the completion of the 1,500-meter embankment around Hoan Kiem lake in Hanoi. It took 65 days to complete the project, and it was completed 2 months ahead of schedule.

Remarkably, this construction project applies non-metallic reinforcement technology, previously applied in the project on building technical infrastructure systems in rural areas to prevent natural disasters and climate change, which won the Ho Chi Minh Science-Technology Awards in 2016.

8. Vietnamese scientists become affiliates in important physics research published in Nature

For the first time, Vietnamese physicists have become affiliates of a breakthrough research project published in Nature – a prestigious global scientific journal.

The international experiment, named T2K and described in the article ‘Constraint on the Matter–antimatter Symmetry-violating Phase in Neutrino Oscillations’, was published in Nature on April 16, 2020.

It was carried out in Japan with a collaboration between around 600 physicists and engineers across more than 60 organisations from 12 countries worldwide.

Vietnam is the second country in Asia besides Japan to have neutrino research appear in the Nature Journal. This Neutrino group is working at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Education (IFIRSE) – a member of the International Center of Interdisciplinary Science Education (ICISE), located in Quy Nhon City, Binh Dinh Province.

9. Successful operation to separate conjoined twins

The twins, their parents and doctors pose for a photo on October 7, the day they are discharged from hospital (Photo: VNA)

Nearly 100 doctors and nurses from leading hospitals in Ho Chi Minh on July 15 successfully carried out an operation to separate twins born conjoined at the pelvis.

This success of the operation demonstrated the qualification of Vietnamese doctors and advanced development of the Vietnamese healthcare sector.

This is the second complicated operation to separate twins in Vietnam, following the first 32 years ago.

10. Assoc. Prof., Dr. Do Van Manh receives Asian Innovation Award 2020

The Hitachi Global Foundation on October 30 granted the 2020 Asian Innovation Award to Assoc. Prof., Dr. Do Van Manh from the Institute of Environmental Technology (under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology).

Dr. Manh is highly lauded for his research on the implementations of advanced biogas to exploit sludge from beer and sugar manufacturing plants to produce energy and organic fertiliser. The research contributes to environment protection and sustainable development in the Central Highlands and South Central regions.