Student Hang Thi Cha reads from a Grade 1 Vietnamese-language textbook under her teacher’s guidance. (Photo: VNA)
Teacher Luong Van Duong is one of two instructors teaching literacy classes for the learners. (Photo: VNA)
Teacher Lo Van Huan has been attached to the Lang Sang school site for more than 15 years. The oldest learner in the class, Song Thi Ly, is nearly 50 years old. (Photo: VNA)
The class is special, with some learners already grandmothers and others carrying their children on their backs to attend lessons. (Photo: VNA)
Every evening, H'Mong ethnic women in Lang Sang village gather to attend literacy classes. (Photo: VNA)
Special literacy class empowers ethnic minority women in northwestern province
Deep in Son La’s Ta Xua special-use forest, the road to Lang Sang village is barely wide enough for a motorbike. But each evening, the forest comes alive with the sounds of H'Mong ethnic women learning to spell and write for the first time. For years, the village’s brightly lit literacy class has offered new hope to women long accustomed to holding hoes in the fields, not pens in a classroom.