The boy is the eldest son in a poor family with four brothers and sisters in the countryside of India. His parents are farmers. Dilip is studying the 5th grade at the school that was built with Vietnamese Buddhists’ supports in a small village on the bank of Niranjana river. At 8 am everyday, along with nearly 700 other pupils from kindergarten to 10th grade, he is present at school to pray the Buddha before class.

 “I'm lucky when I passed the entrance exam and became the head of class”, Dilip said timidly. The little boy has been regarded as the best student in the class, especially in math.  

Meanwhile, many boys at the same age with Dilip in the Bhojwan village, as well as in Bodhgaya with dirty clothes often chase tourists to beg every rupee. Whenever someone gives money to a child, dozens of other children come up to such tourist for begging money. "Do not ever give alms to beggars, even children. If you want, please send money for the charity", Rajesh Tripathi, a tour guide of Top Travel & Tour Company (India) recommended.

The charities are rather common in Bodhgaya, including that of a kindergarten teacher in the village of Sujata – the legendary place where Sujata offered milk rice soup for Prince Siddhartha just before his reaching of enlightenment. This kindergarten teacher said, there were about 10,000 people in village and one third of them were children. The 20 year - old teacher introduced a photo album of kids in a charitable classroom to encourage donations and said that the children here badly need to learn letters and life skills but they are too poor to go to school.

Nun Tu Tam, with birth name as Tran Thi Cuc, is the founder of the educational and vocational school sponsored by Vietnamese Buddhists with an idea "knowledge will change the lives of children".

Nun teacher Từ Tâm and her students in front of their school  

The school was built in 2003 with 45 pupils initially. Currently the school has nearly 700 students with four branches in Bodhgaya. The Bhojwan village school teaches classes from grade 5 to grade 10. This summer, the fifth branch started to operate on the other side of Niranjana river, opposite Bhojwan village. "The children there are very poor so they need to go to school, even though they have to cross the river with some difficulties. I look forward to building a bridge across the river for children going to school easily" nun Tu Tam shared. She also informed that the cost for building the bridge is about $ 300,000 and the school is organizing a fund raising for the bridge.

This woman has dedicated to Bodhgaya and volunteer works there for 12 years. Three difficult and most memorable stages in building school in Bodhgaya were summarized by the Buddhist nun as: digging wells and building school; persuading teachers and students to come to school; the departure of the devoted Buddhists.

"I came here with $ 400 and saw many poor street children. The first job was to hire people to dig 22 wells to help people get clean water ", the founder of the school said. The memory of a poor pupil with scabies in ear walking with his mother to school still remained with her and made the nun determine to "change the fate of children."

Over time, many Vietnamese knew about the school and sent money to support it. Once time Vietnamese Buddhists from different countries contributed $ 12,000, the school took half of the money to dig wells for children. The school’s scrapbook still recorded a woman named Kim Dung living in the UK, sending her last 100 pound remained in her pocket upon her death to the school by her testament. Another Vietnamese woman in America regularly visited to Bodhgaya and made donations to the school; her last donation of $ 1,000 reached the school at the time when school’s teachers and students were informed of her death.

Vietnam Linh Son pagoda in Kushinagar builds a model of Vietnam’s one-pillar pagoda 

In Kushinagar - where the Buddha passed away, nun Thich Nu Tri Thuan also became famous after 23 years dedicating herself to this land and charity school there. Overseeing Vietnam Linh Son pagoda in sacred Buddhist land, this woman is upgrading the main hall of the pagoda used for school classes, so she has to move the school with over 400 students to a place nearby.  

The aide of nun Tri Thuan said the school remains operative till today thanks to great contribution by Vietnamese Buddhists around the world. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been donated to build the school, hire teachers, and take care of students there. The main hall is expected to be completed in early March, along with a new and larger school that can teach more poor local children.

Many students have graduated from Vietnam Linh Son school, some of them have become nurses, doctors and move to New Dehli – capital of India to work. Many other children in school also desire a brighter future for them and the community. Even the boy of Dilip in Bhojwan village said: "I have a wish to become a doctor for treating poor people".