As new school year ceremonies were organized across Vietnam last week, children receiving cancer treatment at a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City were also able to experience the special back-to-school atmosphere during an event held right on the grounds of the infirmary on Monday.

Fifty young patients, dressed in school uniforms, gathered around the playground of the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital for the ceremony along with their parents, teachers and hospital staff members in the morning.

The inpatient children are students of a charity class run inside the hospital, aimed at helping the young patients pursue education while battling their illness.

The special class, with huge contributions from teachers, voluntary students and other philanthropists, has for the last ten years allowed more than 1,000 children with cancer to learn how to read and write, despite their severe pains from radiotherapy and special treatment.

Monday’s opening ceremony for the 2019-20 academic year was solemnly held with a flag salute and anthem singing ceremonies, after which the students listened to a speech by a teacher.

The event aroused mixed feelings - excitement from the children and slight sadness from their parents.

Dinh Thi Kim Phan, a teacher who has been with this special class during the past ten years, said every school year opening ceremony ever held was a wonderful piece of memory that she would never forget.

“The ceremony always brings me both joy and sadness,” she said.

During the ceremony, each of the students was awarded a new schoolbag, stationery and a VND3 million (US$130) scholarship, which were gifts from kind-hearted philanthropists to encourage their further studies.

The event was initiated by “Uoc Mo Cua Thuy” (Thuy’s Dream) Foundation, a project of Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper to support children with cancer across Vietnam, in cooperation with the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital and the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union.

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