Quy Hoa, about 5 km far from the centre of QuyNhonCity, is an isolated valley, surrounded by the sea and the mountains. A leperosy  hospital was built here in 1927 to cute infected patients. Many fully recovered patients have stayed at Quy Hoa, considering this place their second homeland. They have got married, given birth to many healthy children, lived in surrounding areas not far from the hospital. Day by day, generations were born after generations. The old- day- deserted- valley valley has been now a crowded village of hundreds of households. The village was named QuyHoaLeperVillage.

VisitingQuyHoaLeperVillage in an quiet and peaceful Saturday morning, I heard voices of pupils echoing from a small room of a desolate block. Surprising at a class in the weekend, I took a glance through a window and saw a young man teaching the pupils.

"Visitor coming, teacher! " noisily shouted  the pupils. "Be quiet, please" – said “the teacher" who  was just several years younger than the pupils.

There were 16 boys and girls in the classroom. "You teach at invitation of their parents, don't you?"- I asked curiously. "No, I am just a volunteer instructor. My name is Minh" said the young man.

His full name is Nguyen Trong Minh from Khanh Hoa province. He is a freshman of Department of Mathematics, QuyNhonUniversity. Another girl teaching a class of 8th grade is Do Thi Phuong Thu, a senior of Department of Foreign Language of Quy Nhon University. Her class was over and she is waiting for Minh to come back to Quy Nhon toghether.

"3 months ago, a lecturer of QuyNhonUniversity told us that many lepers' children at the village couldn't keep up with their classmates beause of their economic difficulties and the long distance from home to school. The children need teachers to broaden more their knowledge. And, as you see, we have taught them since then" said Thu. There are also 4 other volunteer students from QuyNhonUniversity teaching classes from 6th grade to 9^th grade, namely Oanh, Hung, Van.

Regularly, every Saturday morning and the whole Sunday, the pupils' parents pick  "the teachers"  up to the QuyHoaLeperVillage and take them back QuyNhonCity. "The teachers" alternatively teach "their pupils" Mathematics and English.

"Many families in the village are too poor to afford their children's tuition fees. Besides, the way to schools in Quy Nhon is rather far and rough for our chilren to go by themselves to attend extra courses. Consequently, their study becomes worse and they can't keep up with their classmates. It is the souers of Franciscan Order who have idea of inviting teachers to teach our children. These students are volunteers. One pupil here contributes only VND 10,000( roughly USD 0.6)/month which is so-called  fee transportation to "Pupils' parents  of Association  of  Quy Hoa Leper Village" said Dinh Van Ba, a member of The "Pupils' Parents  of Association  of  Lepers' Village as well as a person in charge of taking the teachers to and fro Quy Nhon City.  

There are 101 secondary and high school pupils at the QuyHoaLeperVillage. 65 out of them are taking the courses by the volunteer students. "The student teachers teach not only effectivelly but cheerfully"- stated the pupils.

Students often have not spare time, except weekend for going on a picnic or relaxing. However, these students volunteer to spend their holiday for the lepers’ children.

 "It doesn't take us much time because we only teach half a day in a week. The more we do, the more we recognize that lepers' children at this village are leading a harder life than children who live in the centre of the city although all of them are in the same city.  However, their parents' hospitality are very special and we appreciate it" said Thu and Minh before leaving QuyHoaLeperVillage for Quy Nhon.

• Reported by Thu Ha
• Translated by Hao Nguyen