BASF helps renovate Hau Giang’s schools in need

Children playing at their newly-built playground

The project, co-sponsored with a group of leading companies and facilitated by Saigon Children’s Charity CIO, has renovated a total of five classrooms and a 239-square-metre playground, equivalent to approximately 650sq.m of school space. It enables about 140 students to enjoy better learning facilities as well as improved hygiene and safety conditions.

The beneficiary schools include Long Thanh 3 Primary School in the remote area of Long Truong 3 Hamlet, and Tan Long Kindergarten in Long Phung Hamlet, both located in Phung Hiep, the poorest district of Hau Giang.

In these districts, about 20 per cent of the population earns less than VND400,000 ($18) per person per month. Located approximately 240 kilometres away from Ho Chi Minh City, the schools were constructed more than 20 years ago. Prior to the renovation, the schools have become heavily run down and inadequate to maintaining children’s health and safety standards.

Along with funding for the renovation, BASF has donated waterproofing solutions to make the building structure more durable against water damage. The two schools are painted with low-odour products using BASF ingredients which minimises impact to human health and the environment.

The renovation project features nearly 300sq.m of Tonmat polyurethane roof panels, which keep the school thermally insulated, especially in hot weather, and quiet even during heavy rains—thereby improving the study environment for schoolchildren. The panels are sponsored by Vietrust, a leading manufacturer of polyurethane roof panels in Vietnam.

According to UNICEF Vietnam, approximately 77 per cent of kindergarten-age children and 13 per cent of pre-primary school age children do not attend any formal preschool programme. Insufficient classrooms and improper school conditions in many regions, including the Mekong Delta, are a pressing issue for the local education sector, preventing many children from attending school.

“At BASF Vietnam, we focus our corporate citizenship activities on providing quality education. We believe every child deserves fair access to education. Providing sufficient study facilities and a quality learning environment is important for their future success and country development,” said Tanachart Ralsiripong, managing director of BASF Vietnam. “By supporting this project together with partners like Vietrust, we want to help address this issue and allow more children to benefit from learning opportunities.”

“Supporting those in need is a long-standing tradition among Vietnamese people. We, therefore, want to take part in community projects to demonstrate our corporate social responsibility. We are pleased to collaborate on this renovation project to improve the facilities and learning conditions for the schools, thereby contributing to enhanced education quality in this remote area,” said Tran Van Son, managing director of Vietrust.

Schoolchildren singing and dancing in their new classroom

Since 2015, in partnership with Saigon Children’s Charity, BASF has renovated three schools in Tra Vinh and Hau Giang provinces, offering enhanced facilities and improved hygiene, safety conditions for about 350 students in the region.

In addition, BASF has offered scholarships to nearly 20 disadvantaged university students for four years of studies. The company recently worked with the world’s leading paint manufacturer, Nippon Paint, to offer a paint sponsorship that redecorated over 7,500sq.ms of school space in the Mekong Delta, benefiting almost 1,000 children.

BASF contributes to science education in Vietnam through its interactive and fun-filled experiments at BASF Kids’ Lab, in collaboration with the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training. Since 2011, almost 3,000 primary school students have participated in this annual event to explore the role of chemistry in daily life.

Teacher Nguyen Thi Ut and her students enjoying the new building