The Tra Vinh Province is near to the Mekong River Delta in the South of Vietnam. It shares the border with Ben Tre and Vinh Long provinces in the North, with Soc Trang province in the west and possesses a long coastline of 65km with East Sea on the East. Tra Vinh province is divided into a coastal plain, alluvial deposits, mounds and sand caves, and complex network of rivers and canals. Tra Vinh City is 205km (5hours) from Ho Chi Minh City. Tra Vinh is a home of Khmer culture and architecture and Dai An commune is home to the Khmer people.
Dai An is known as a handicraft village where one of the poorest hamlets in Tra Cu Dist, Tra Vinh province is located, near Cambodia’s border which has a big community of Khmer people. People at Dai An commune mainly make big products for daily use such as bamboo basket, dustpan, etc… Until now, the products are renovated and replaced by plastic products so the price was pretty low, the cost of material price is from 75% to 80% on product’s price. Many households have to change their career to be construction workers or go to other provinces to find jobs to earn money for daily life.
Having to go to this place to understand the life of people was a difficult journey. Their houses seemed like ones in movies because they are very tiny and old. To get to their houses, we had to cross the complex network of rivers and canals. Most of people are facing old age, weak health and illnesses. Most of them cannot speak Vietnamese fluently but they tried to remember the greetings and wishes in Vietnamese to wish us “health and happiness throughout life.”
After we surveyed and found the situation to be quite unfortunate, we decided to give some gifts to 30 poor elderly families that would support their life as well as their spirit and encourage them to take care of their health in order to overcome the difficulties in their situation. We sincerely hope that the small gift on behalf of SEN can help their daily life become less difficult and we hope that all will have good health and happiness!
