The road Hien chooses

By Chau Doan 
Communication Manager 
Room to Read in Vietnam 

At five o’clock in the morning, a young Hien would set out for school.

The road from her village to her primary school was only 15 kilometers round trip. But on a child's bicycle, over rough dirt roads and through mud that clung to the wheels, the journey could take nearly four hours. She would arrive just before 7 a.m., then make the same difficult journey home at the end of the day.

Rain made the road even harder.

Still, Hien went.

“I was tired,” she remembered, “but I never wanted to miss school. I was happy to go because I had many friends there.”

Today, Ban Thi Hien is 12 years old and has just completed Grade 6 in Tuyen Quang province, Vietnam. She lives in one of the most remote villages in Hung Đức commune, nearly 400 kilometers from where her parents work in a toy manufacturing factory. Her parents divorced when she was 2, and she and her older brother have grown up with their grandparents and uncle’s family.

For children in villages like Hien’s, getting to school has never been as simple as walking out the door.

The secondary school serving her community is so far from home that students from remote villages must live at school during the week. Hien now shares a dormitory room with 15 other girls, many from villages she might otherwise never have known. Together, they study, share meals and conversation, play and learn to navigate life away from their families.

For Hien, that independence is welcome.

By 6 years old, she was already cooking for her family. She helped her grandmother collect firewood, herd buffalo and harvest rice and corn. Her mother, who married and became a parent at 17, encouraged Hien to imagine a different path for herself.

Her mother still speaks with her every day from afar.

“She told me that because she got married and had children early, she felt a deep sense of regret when she saw her peers going to school, working and going out while she just stayed at home holding her child,” Hien says. “Because she missed out on her education, she advised me to finish high school so I wouldn't have to suffer like her. I am determined to fulfill her wish.”

That determination is reinforced by the people around Hien — at home, at school and through Room to Read’s Girls' Education Program.

At her boarding school, Room to Read social mobilizers spend time with students beyond the classroom, helping them navigate the questions and challenges that come with growing up. They talk about self-care, puberty, menstrual health and sexual and reproductive health and rights. They create space for girls to ask questions, build confidence and develop practical skills they can use in their everyday lives.

“I've become more confident, more curious and accepting of differences,” she says. 

One of her favorite lessons has nothing to do with a textbook. It is about money.

“I really look up to Mrs. Trang, the social mobilizer who teaches us life skills,” Hien shares. “She is young, energetic and confident.”

When Mrs. Trang taught the girls about income, expenses, savings and cash flow, she turned the lesson into a small marketplace. She borrowed goods from the grocery store next door so the students could practice buying and selling.

Hien loved it.

Now, when her mother sends her 50,000 Vietnamese dong each week, Hien thinks differently about how to spend it.

She separates what she needs from what she wants. She considers her choices. She saves when she can.

And she is beginning to think about a much bigger question: What kind of life does she want to build?

Hien already has an answer. 

“I want to finish Grade 12 and then go to work,” she says, smiling. “My job opportunities will be much broader than my mother’s, and I know I will make a strong living. I will have the opportunity to take care of and provide for my mother and grandparents.”

Her grandfather sees that determination, too.

Every Friday, the 64-year-old makes the journey to the boarding school to bring Hien home. On Sunday afternoon, he takes her back.

“I always fully support Hien’s studies,” he stresses.

There are 218 girls at Hien’s school participating in Room to Read’s Girls' Education Program. Each is navigating her own circumstances, challenges and ambitions. But in a place where geography can determine how easily a child reaches school, and where girls may inherit expectations about what their futures should look like, creating space to learn, question and imagine new possibilities matters.

For Hien, that space is helping her look beyond the road immediately in front of her.

She has already traveled one difficult road to get to school. Now she is thinking about where education can take her next.

And this time, she is choosing the destination for herself.

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