Dancers entertain the guests at the opening of the Kon Ray Boarding School for ethnic minorities in Vietnam's Central Highlands. Photo by Richard Nyberg, USAID/Vietnam

USAID-Funded Boarding School for Disadvantaged Opens in Kon Tum Province

Friday, September 19, 2008

KON TUM, September 19, 2008 - U.S. Ambassador Michael Michalak today joined representatives of Kon Tum’s People's Committee and other local authorities to inaugurate the Kon Ray Ethnic Minority Boarding School. The school, which serves lower secondary students in the province, is funded through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The construction and the related programs including agricultural training, microfinance and teacher training were managed by East Meets West Foundation.

With an enrollment of 240 students from ethnic minority groups in the area for the 2008/2009 school year, the modern Kon Ray Boarding School offers excellent facilities and resources to students including special classes in both regular education and vocational training for children with disabilities. "This is an important project that will benefit many, particularly young people from ethnic minority tribes and the disabled," said Ambassador Michalak. "I look forward to supporting education programs like this that will ensure a better life for all and provide tools for Vietnam to compete even more effectively in today's global economy."

Kon Ray Boarding School was built in cooperation with local governmental agencies to help to reduce the education gap between mountainous areas and urban areas. Construction of the boarding school for ethnic minority children and children with disabilities is one of the assistance programs that USAID, on behalf of the American people, is working on to promote ethnic minority economic and social development in the Central Highlands.

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