HUE, Vietnam (CNS) -- Out-of-school children who scavenge battlefields for old bullets and shells to sell as scrap said they hope the basic education local nuns provide will open the way to a better future.
Many children in Buong Tam, a central Vietnamese village about 19 miles from Hue, have dropped out of school to help support their families. Traditionally, they have worked in the fields, tending crops and cattle. More recently they have been scavenging scrap metal from the sites of pitched battles fought between 1966 and 1975 during the Vietnam War.
Paul Nguyen Duy Khoa, 13, told the Asian church news agency UCA News he has helped support his seven-member family by collecting scrap since the death of his father. He and a few friends use a metal detector and hoes to dig up whatever they can find around a 109-year-old cemetery and surrounding areas.
Khoa admitted he was afraid at first that old bullets and artillery shells would explode, but now he knows they "are rusty and do not work." He recalled finding an 11-pound shell that sold for 100,000 dong ($5.60). But he said he usually earns between 10,000 and 50,000 dong a day, which he gives to his mother to buy food and repair their house.
Despite Khoa's confidence, someone in central Vietnam is killed or injured every week by an encounter with unexploded ordnance, according to Clear Path International, an agency founded by aid workers in Vietnam.
None of about 70 teenagers and adults collecting scrap metal in the former battlefields around Buong Tam have had an accident. According to village leader Joseph Nguyen Vinh, the only munitions-related mishap occurred in 2000, when a man died after triggering a buried bomb while digging to build a house.
One of 172 Catholics among the 350 villagers, Khoa does not attend the local elementary school. Only one of his siblings does.
But the teenager is one of 20 out-of-school youngsters that Daughters of Our Lady of the Visitation nuns are helping with free basic education lessons. The five nuns based in Buong Tam offer literacy and basic math classes three nights a week at their community house.
Sister Agnes Luong Thi Thien, who heads the group, said the nuns also encourage families to keep their children in school by offering scholarships worth 300,000 dong ($16.80) and tutoring the pupils. She said 15 children attend school with the assistance.
Poverty is just one obstacle to an education in the village, Sister Agnes explained. The children rely on people with small boats to ferry them across the river to the school, but the trips end when the river floods during the rainy season between September and November.
Even with schooling available, earning a living remains the main concern, said Jacob Mai Van Bang, a father of three who collects 50,000 to 100,000 dong ($2.80 to $5.60) in scrap daily with his 13-year-old son.
Vietnamese government statistics show that 147,005 of 15.7 million children enrolled in primary and secondary schools dropped out during the 2007-2008 academic year to work and help support their families.
The nuns in Buong Tam support themselves by working on farms and raising chickens and pigs. When they can, they provide medicine and help the poorest families repair their homes.
Villagers are grateful for the sisters' assistance and their educational service. Yet it is the hope the sisters instill in the children that could prove to be their most lasting contribution.
Many of the children told UCA News they hope to learn vocational skills.
Khoa said he wants to learn how to repair electric appliances. He expressed gratitude to the nuns for providing him books, clothing and school lessons.
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