Bookcases That Crossed a Rainy Season to Reach the Children of Lao Cai

July rain washed white over the hillsides of Lao Cai. Water ran in streams across the road, mud caked thick around the wheels, and one bend after another stretched the journey beyond what anyone had planned. Through that curtain of rain the volunteers’ van pressed slowly on towards the satellite schools, carrying new bookcases, notebooks, school supplies and one plain hope: that highland children too might have a reading corner close enough to reach knowledge every day.

On 9 July 2026 the team carried on with its programme of giving 100 bookcases to highland children. The stops this time were Yen Hop Kindergarten and Dai Son Kindergarten — the fifth and the sixth satellite schools on the journey. The bookcases were set neatly in place and stacks of books were carried into the classrooms, opening a reading space that is small but genuinely useful for teachers and children alike.

For a young child a book is never only an object on a shelf. It can be the first time they see the ocean in a picture, learn the name of another animal, or find out how to retell a story in words of their own. Once books are present in the classroom, reading stops being something foreign; it can begin in the few minutes after class, in an afternoon when the teacher reads aloud, or in the moment one curious child tugs a friend over to the bookcase.

The book-giving journey was also a chance for the team to step beyond the schoolyard, to visit families in especially difficult circumstances and to listen to what they actually needed. Surveying the cases that call for scholarships takes the campaign further than a single hand-over: from immediate help with learning materials to the search for lasting support so that the children can keep coming to class.

Within the same project “Books sow love — books give wisdom”, books, notebooks and school supplies were also presented at Quang Phuc pagoda. Every destination has its own circumstances, yet all of them meet at one basic need: children have to be able to reach knowledge in a space that is close by, safe, and shared with someone who walks beside them.

The campaign does not stop at two satellite schools or one van ride. The target of 100 bookcases is still being pursued, which means there are more roads to travel, more books to sort and more satellite schools to reach. Yet through the bookcases already standing in place today, the journey has begun to change something: knowledge now sits closer to small hands, and dreams have one more place in which to sprout.

What changed

Bookcases were delivered to Yen Hop Kindergarten and Dai Son Kindergarten; books, notebooks and school supplies were presented at Quang Phuc pagoda; and cases in need of scholarship support were surveyed. The campaign is still under way towards its target of 100 bookcases.

Source: the original article