A businessman coming from southern Vietnam will spend almost US$2 million from his own pocket on a project to build a dormitory and let poor students stay there free of charge.

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On April 17, representatives of the Co May company in Dong Thap Province and the Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry attended a ceremony to sign an agreement on constructing Co May Dormitory for poor students on the school’s campus.

Pham Van Ben, the 66-year-old owner of Co May, had stunned his family when revealing his project of building such a dormitory.

The dorm will be located on a 4,000m² area at the university – situated in the city’s Thu Duc District – and able to accommodate 432 students with 54 rooms and a hall for community activities upon completion. 

Construction of the Co May dorm is expected start in May and it will be put into operation in the academic year of 2016-17.

In Vietnam, an academic year usually starts in late August or early September, and ends in late May or early June the following year.

Under the construction plan, which Ben nurtured for over two years, the businessman will spend around VND40 billion ($1.855 million) on the dorm construction and each year he will earmark roughly VND15 billion ($695,732) for paying for meals and school fees for those students living in his dorm.

Freshmen will get full sponsorship but the grant will change from their second year onward, depending on their academic performance while staying in the dorm.

The dorm will reserve 20 percent of the rooms for students from the university, besides welcoming disadvantaged students from all schools in the city.

Businessman Pham Van Ben. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Ben also plans to provide students who will stay in his dorm with necessary life skills.

“I will invite experts to teach them skills in terms of communication, teamwork, independent working, presentation, dance, and more,” the businessman said about his plan. “I will give them all soft skills that young people need.”

“My ultimate purpose is training dynamic, talented, and devoted youths to serve the country and our people,” he added. “I’d prefer employers to come here looking for their employees. Students here would not need to go apply for jobs like the way jobseekers are doing now.”

Ben confirmed that he will consider students in the dorm his relatives and will stop by regularly to make sure that they will be living well.

“I’m counting down to the day when they achieve success in their life and hold important positions in many enterprises,” he said. “Then I will feel fulfilled when I die.”

The businessman said he has done many charity activities before, but he thought that those could only help poor people in a short term.

So he came up with the idea of building a place for students to stay for free and paying for their daily expenses.

“It’s just like you give people a rod so that they could go fishing themselves, not giving them fish for eating in a short time,” Ben said.

Pham Van Ben (R) visits the land plot where the dorm will be built. Photo: Tuoi Tre

‘To repay this life’

One of the reasons why Ben wants to build the dormitory for poor students is he has been obsessed with his unfinished studies.

Another special reason which encourages him to do so, as he said, is the cirrhosis he had in 2002 at the age of 52.

Since doctors at that time said his disease could not be cured, he returned home and tried as many methods of treatment as he could.

Amazingly, he felt better and better later on. In 2008, he came to a hospital for a health check and was told that his disease was gone.

“I beat my disease thanks to the treatment people told me to apply. So I decided to build the dormitory in the hope of helping students with their studies, telling them about love between humans, and most importantly the love and responsibility for our country,” he said.

“That’s also a way for me to repay this life,” he added.

Ben now is the owner of a series of six companies having the name Co May, specializing in producing food and offering tourism services.

He also has an office in Singapore for exporting rice produced in a plant in Dong Thap to the city state.

The businessperson has recently cooperated with Dong Thap Community College in researching and making products from local materials in order to improve the provincial economy. Ben has also called on his children to do charity work with him.

Pham Thi To Uyen, the oldest daughter of Ben, said she and the family were stunned by their father’s idea and worried that they could not afford to support more than 400 students per year.

“My family has sponsored many poor students before but we had never thought of such a big plan,” Uyen expressed. “It’s a long-term plan, and we are worried that the university and hundreds of students will suffer when our business is in trouble.”

However, Ben expressed his faith that he can afford to execute his plan as long as people still support him.

“We have to keep our prestige in business if we want people to support us,” Ben told his family. “If we earn one [Vietnamese] dong of profit, we should share half of it with the poor. That’s our responsibility toward this society. I believe you can do it,” he emphasized.

“After I die, I want you and your children to continue running my dormitory,” he added.

Love spread

Since his plan on building the dormitory was announced, Ben said many enterprises and authorities have contacted him for donations.

“We have received many text messages, phone calls, and emails from those people who want to make donations to help implement my project” he said. “I am deeply touched but I refused them all.”

“I just hope that what I’ve done will be multiplied and more dorms will be built for poor students,” he said.

Representatives of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry hands an embroidered picture of the word “Heart” to say thanks to Pham Van Ben (R) for his project at a ceremony to sign an agreement on constructing the dorm on April 7, 2015 in the city. Photo: Tuoi Tre

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