classroom under the canopy of the green forest

Mr. Vo Huy Thong (68 years old) and Mrs. Nguyen Thanh Lon (64 years old) – Owners of Nhat Trang Forest – Nhat Trang Farm (Ham Tan District, Binh Thuan Province) It was difficult to meet, it was difficult to persuade them to attend Internet But journalism is even more difficult.

For the past 26 years, the couple has chosen to “go into hiding”, quietly regenerating the green forest, caring for the young forest to recover, and preserving what’s left so the forest is not destroyed.

take the kids to the woods

“The area of ​​natural forest is decreasing day by day, there is a danger of getting extinct, so it needs to be restored. Can we do it? This is a story on a national macro scale, but also on a smaller scale .. Our children, we feel the need to answer this question from our own right on our own land,” – Ms. Lone began the story.

Following the philosophy of green agriculture involving the educational model of teaching and learning in nature, the owner of Nhat Trang Forest Farm decided to deploy the “classroom under the forest canopy” model. The goal is to create an environment for children to experience reality, build love, and be close to nature.

From the city, the children step into the woods, free to work under the shade of the green forest. Unlike a park or a resort which is always clean, children go to the forest to get hands and feet covered in mud, to experience digging, planting trees. The children also learned survival skills and experienced the night time in the jungle.

Under the forest canopy, the class talked about the life of the green forest and the meaning of planting trees, the regeneration and restoration of the forest ecosystem, and the diversity of the forest. Coming back to the forest, the students also learned to recognize the balance in nature, the balance in life.

After the planting session, the children gathered in groups of five and seven and chatted under the canopy of the green forest, recording beautiful memories in the lush green space. “You have to feel nature in order to survive when you face obstacles. Coming to Nhat Trang jungle, you feel freedom when you return to jungle” – assures Ms. Lone.

In more than 20 hectares of forest, Nhat Trang Forest Farm is implementing a multilevel forest project, specifically a project to preserve and regenerate the forest ecosystem. The vast endemic deciduous forests in the land of Haim Tan provided food for the people here, creating a land of unique beauty.

However, at present, due to over-exploitation and destruction, the leaves of the tree have remained only a “legend”. Faced with that situation, the grandparents decided to restore and recreate the forest ecosystem with a desire to bring the forest back into resonance with nature.

Notably from 2020, they started experimenting with growing the world’s rarest wood – sandalwood and continue to grow in numbers year after year. The Nhat Trang forest also contains native rare and valuable woods of various groups and more than 200 different types of medicinal plants.

forest of resurrection

Thanks to the caring hands of people, the jungle has slowly regenerated, and there are signs in the Nhat Trang jungle that the land is slowly recovering. They are natural reishi mushrooms that grow deep in the woods, leaf buds that grow from fallen leaves that have been destroyed in the past.

“There is no life more precious than natural life! The forest is not the number of trees but the quality of the forest, it is also the ecosystem of rivers and streams and the life of many other species.

Natural forests can take hundreds of years, but with human understanding and efforts, forests can recover 90% of their biomass in about 60 years,” Thong said.

To create the forest as it is today, 26 years ago, Mr. Thong and his wife decided to “leave the road to the forest.” Being in the city with a stable career, the grandparents chose a deserted land, where there was nothing but the characteristic “sunshine”.

“Because of that sunshine, we named the forest Nhat Trang. “Trang” is the field, “japan” is the sun that brings the morning sun. Home is Mother Nature, the place where we restore our vitality and teach us many life lessons” – believes Ms. Lone.

Thong, on the other hand, insists that choosing the forest is the right direction as it helps his family and community live in a fresh and green environment. But both Mr. Thong and Mrs. Lone acknowledged that Jungle’s “tuition” was also very expensive, and “going up and down the field” had to be done to get today’s results.

At present, developing a sustainable education model, building a “school without division”, “classrooms under the green forest canopy” is also one of the main goals of Nhat Trang Forest Farm. Making it possible to connect people with nature, including organizing picnic events to help students understand the forest and foster a love for nature.

fun class for kids

The oncology department of Children’s Hospital 2 (District 1, Ho Chi Minh City) has a class called “Happy Class” for children. The classroom is approximately 16 square meters wide, each lesson welcomes 20-25 children in the classroom.