{"id":6888,"date":"2016-09-05T09:17:40","date_gmt":"2016-09-05T02:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/?p=6888"},"modified":"2016-09-05T09:17:40","modified_gmt":"2016-09-05T02:17:40","slug":"nguoi-con-dat-viet-nguyen-quang-thach-tam-guong-ve-su-tan-hien-cho-xa-hoi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/nguoi-con-dat-viet-nguyen-quang-thach-tam-guong-ve-su-tan-hien-cho-xa-hoi\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam\u2019s Nguy\u1ec5n Quang Th\u1ea1ch \u2013 A Model of Dedication to Society"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having devoted the past 20 years, and possibly the rest of his life, to \u201cBringing Books to the Countryside,\u201d Nguy\u1ec5n Quang Th\u1ea1ch became the first Vietnamese recipient of UNESCO's King Sejong Literacy Prize in 2016, an award honoring those who open minds.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"nguyen<\/a>Mr. Nguy\u1ec5n Quang Th\u1ea1ch fights day and night for his dream<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u2018Bringing Books to Rural Areas\u2019 program was the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training\u2019s sole nominee for UNESCO\u2019s King Sejong Prize. On 1-9, UNESCO officially announced winners from Vietnam and Thailand. Nguy\u1ec5n Quang Th\u1ea1ch (41) received the award representing \u2018Bringing Books to Rural Areas\u2019 and the Center for Knowledge Assistance and Community Development, which he founded and directs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFarmers are determined to change\u2014surely the education sector can do the same?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the award notification letter, Qian Tang, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Education, said: \u201cThe jury highly appreciates the program's initiative to focus on building libraries in disadvantaged rural areas to help literate people practice reading.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Moreover, the program has established more than 9,000 libraries across rural Vietnam over the past 10 years with very limited funds and reliance on book donations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On 2-8, just 15 minutes before UNESCO called to inform him of the award, Th\u1ea1ch had sent a letter expressing his hope to implement \u201cBringing Books to Rural Communities\u201d in India. The letter was sent to the Indian Embassy in Vietnam, the Indian Library Association and the director of India\u2019s Pratham Books.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As soon as he received UNESCO's notification, his first thought was a trip to India, where 200 million children had never owned a book because prices were too high.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beginning to reflect on rural children's \u201cright to read\u201d at 20, Th\u1ea1ch spent his youth developing the \u201cBooks for Rural Areas\u201d plan. Years of tireless work in Th\u00e1i B\u00ecnh building the first properly organized book collections, followed by his walk across Vietnam in 2015, attracted domestic and international attention. Yet he was dissatisfied because the results fell short of his expectations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Deprivation, skepticism, ridicule, and occasional discouragement\u2014there is no hardship Th\u1ea1ch has not faced. Yet over more than 10 years, \u201cBringing Books to Rural Areas\u201d has never lacked companions: D\u01b0\u01a1ng L\u1ec7 Nga, the teacher who established many bookcases with him in Th\u00e1i B\u00ecnh; U\u00f4ng H\u1ea3i Minh, a bright, book-loving schoolgirl who contributed 240.000 \u0111\u1ed3ng\/year; the family of his close friend U\u00f4ng Minh Th\u00e0nh, who hosted him for four consecutive years in Th\u00e1i B\u00ecnh as he expanded the bookcase models; and Nga Thi, a woman who sold b\u00e1nh m\u00ec every weekend in Canada to contribute 40 million \u0111\u1ed3ng for bookcases\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

So many people held his hand through hard times. Today, more than 9,000 bookshelves have been established across many provinces, with more than 7,000 additional ones planned in Nam \u0110\u1ecbnh alone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nguy\u1ec5n Quang Th\u1ea1ch brings not only books to rural areas but also a love of reading to farming families previously unfamiliar with books. Advocacy at different levels appeared successful, but the \u201clibrary revolution from within education\u201d he has long nurtured remains a very difficult path.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTens of thousands of farmers have each contributed VND 50,000 per year to build thousands of bookcases for their children. By staying in rural areas for the sake of children's reading, I have seen farmers act decisively to change. How could the education sector fail to do the same?\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joy was immediately followed by sorrow<\/span><\/p>\n

Concerns followed immediately after the joy of winning the award, Th\u1ea1ch confided:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe countries receiving the King Sejong Prize are all developing nations. Developed countries instead aim for awards recognizing more significant contributions to humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before my joy had faded, my heart filled with deep sadness, because if programs like \u201cBringing Books to Rural Areas\u201d had been implemented earlier, decades ago, Vietnamese people today could aspire to greater contributions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDo not only ask what Vietnamese people do for their country; also ask what they do for humanity,\u201d he said of an aspiration.<\/span><\/p>\n

And while many people still see Mr. Th\u1ea1ch as a \u201csavior\u201d bringing books to rural areas, UNESCO highly values \u201cBringing Books to Rural Areas\u201d precisely for its community character, rather than as an individual's effort.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018In keeping with the principles of sustainable development, every community must take responsibility for itself rather than wait for a savior. I have always believed that we must awaken the community's conscience so that each person brings books back to their own hometown,\u2019 Nguy\u1ec5n Quang Th\u1ea1ch said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The King Sejong Prize targets literacy programs worldwide, while \u201cBringing Books to the Countryside\u201d aims to \u201ceradicate reading-culture illiteracy.\u201d According to Th\u1ea1ch, it is time to redefine \u201cilliteracy\u201d in modern society.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cToday, literacy should be understood as helping people acquire knowledge so they can keep pace with development. Knowing how to read but refusing to read books will not enable anyone to contribute much to society,\u201d he said. The logo of Rural Books features footsteps carrying books to remote regions. Those footsteps belong to none other than Nguy\u1ec5n Quang Th\u1ea1ch, who walked 1,750 km from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City to awaken the community.<\/span><\/p>\n

His emerging dream is to walk 1,300km from New Delhi to Bombay to bring reading opportunities to millions of Indian children. Asked skeptically, \u2018Are you healthy enough for this arduous journey?\u2019 Th\u1ea1ch replied: \u2018Even if I die along the way, I will have no regrets.\u2019 Few people speak so lightly of death.<\/span><\/p>\n

Collected<\/span><\/p>\n

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D\u00e0nh 20 n\u0103m qua v\u00e0 c\u00f3 th\u1ec3 l\u00e0 to\u00e0n b\u1ed9 ph\u1ea7n \u0111\u1eddi c\u00f2n l\u1ea1i cho \u201cS\u00e1ch h\u00f3a n\u00f4ng th\u00f4n\u201d, Nguy\u1ec5n Quang Th\u1ea1ch tr\u1edf th\u00e0nh ng\u01b0\u1eddi Vi\u1ec7t Nam \u0111\u1ea7u ti\u00ean \u0111o\u1ea1t gi\u1ea3i Vua Sejong v\u1ec1 x\u00f3a m\u00f9 ch\u1eef c\u1ee7a UNESCO n\u0103m 2016 – m\u1ed9t gi\u1ea3i th\u01b0\u1edfng t\u00f4n vinh nh\u1eefng ng\u01b0\u1eddi khai tr\u00ed. Anh Nguy\u1ec5n Quang Th\u1ea1ch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6890,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6888\/revisions\/6890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}