“Kenh Tong Lon” bridge is located in hamlet 7, Tan Binh Commune, Cai Lay Dist, Tien Giang Province, 100km from Ho Chi Minh City. The bridge is across over Tong Lon canal. It has been built by wood in 2002 to connect Tan Binh commune where has 1600 families and Binh Phu commune where has 90 families whose use this bridge daily to get school, farm, market and the provincial highway.
Tan Binh Commune is in Cai Lay Town, Tien Giang province which takes approximately 2 hours driving (100km) from Ho Chi Minh City and it is a province in the Mekong Delta region of southern Vietnam and which have a dense network of rivers and canals and fertile soil, the country’s largest fruit producer is expanding fruit farming since it is lucrative for farmers and has great potential. Here are growing specialty fruits such as Hòa Lộc mango, Ngũ Hiệp durian, Tân Phong rambutan, and Lò Rèn Vĩnh Kim milk apple those are not only popular in Viet Nam but also export to other countries.
Tan Binh Commune comprises 9 km² with 1.600 families (4 hamlets), 77 poor families and 125 near poor families. There are 2 levels of education facilities; primary, secondary. Tan Binh Commune doesn’t have kindergarten and high schools. Therefore, if the pupils live there wish to get school they must across “Kenh Tong Lon” bridge to get to school. But when we get there to do the survey, we were surprised too much with the bridge that’s been built by wood in 2002 to serve 1600 families in Tan Binh and 90 families in Binh Phu to use daily to get school, farm, market and the provincial highway. After renovating many times, this bridge is temporary closed because it’s in heavy deterioration status and not safe anymore.
After a survey and investigation, the SEN Charity decided to fund and build a new concrete bridge during May – June 2019 to welcome pupils to school on the new school year 2019-2020. Besides that, we have also installed 2 lamp posts on the 2 ends of the bridge so that people can move safely in the evening. The people and especially the pupils are very excited because from now on they are relieved, no longer fidgeting when the weather is bad.
The grand total of bridge project is US $15,334. SEN has received a sponsorship from People’s Committee of Tan Binh Commune, VK Group and other personals with US $7,347 donation, and together with the funding from the SEN Charity Fund. The bridge was completed on the end of Jun after 2 months of work and we did grand opening ceremony on Jul 13rd 2019 to welcome the local people and pupils whose wish to use this bridge with big joyful!
The construction detail of new bridge:
| # | Information | Detail |
| 1 | Long | 40 meters |
| 2 | Wide | 2.5 meters |
| 3 | Withstand the load | 1 ton |
