Passionate about photography, loves the people of the highlands Le Quang Long (30 years old) is a freelance photographer from Quang Nam . When he was still in school, Long loved taking photos. At the age of 20, unable to find joy in the university lecture hall, Le Quang Long decided to stop. He began to pursue his passion for traveling and taking photos. Seeing the beautiful scenery of the country, experiencing life in the places he visited and then recording them is what Long always looks forward to. Long loves wild natural scenery, so he often goes to remote, isolated mountainous areas.
Passion for traveling and photography made Quang Long fall in love with mountain children.
"During my photography work, when I went to remote highlands, I began to meet people and children there. Each person has a different story and situation, but they all have one thing in common: difficult living conditions. Deeply sympathizing with those people, I had the idea of ​​doing charity work to help them," Long said. The first thing Long did to help them was to spend his own money to buy books and gifts for poor children. Seeing the joy and happy smiles of the children, Long realized that he needed to spread the good spirit, needed to share this life so that people with charitable hearts would know about it. And in June 2020, the charity group "Green Steps" was born. "This is a project focusing on helping children and poor workers in the highlands. This project has the participation of young people who share the spirit of volunteering and want to contribute their efforts to humanitarian and social activities," Quang Long revealed.
Quang Long loves and wants to share difficulties with children in the highlands. “The main goal of the volunteer group is to help children have conditions to study and go to school through building schools, building roads, renovating libraries, donating books, notebooks, etc. In addition, the poor laborers, people with difficult lives in remote areas are also the objects that the volunteer group wants to help. In addition, those in difficult circumstances who encounter incidents or accidents but cannot cope within a certain period of time, which can greatly affect their health or future, the group will also have appropriate directions to help depending on each case”. Quang Long said that the specific work of the group is to go to poor rural areas, provide free meals, gifts on holidays, support people to rebuild schools, libraries, roads, etc.
Volunteer group helps children have books, clothes, go to school...
During its operation, the volunteer group has always tried its best at work, sharing difficulties with everyone. Typical examples are the relief work in the flood-hit areas of the Central region in November 2020; the "Winter for Children" campaign in Lao Cai, Lai Chau, Ha Giang ; the cross-country trip bringing "Loving Tet" to the highland provinces... Currently, the group is implementing a campaign to build 100 libraries and cook community meals for children in the highlands. Although it is a long and difficult journey, Long and the group have never stopped. Each trip is a meaningful journey for Quang Long and his friends. The warm thing is that he sees the smiles of the children, sees their desire to go to school. As long as there is strength, there is work Not only is he a photographer specializing in helping poor children, Quang Long is also known for the image of a young man soaking in floodwaters for 15 days to help people in the Central region in November 2020. It is also the image of a young man who is not afraid of the epidemic, delivering free food to homeless people and people in quarantine areas due to the Covid-19 epidemic early in the morning and late at night.
Quang Long during the Central region relief mission in November 2020
At that time, Quang Long registered to volunteer for many charity groups, distributing vegetables, cakes, rice to epidemic areas and isolated areas, homeless people. The hearts of him and his friends in the young volunteer group inspired many people to share and help those in difficult circumstances. Quang Long said that in the process of doing charity work, going to the highlands, traveling was the top difficulty: "Terrain and weather are important in every trip. To get to the highlands, my friends and I in the group had to travel on bumpy mountain roads, steep rocks, sun, wind, rain and storms... which were quite dangerous. In addition, we also had to prepare gifts, food, clothes... for the children. However, there were still unexpected events that had to be managed. Preparing food and assigning people to cook were also difficult problems."
He always hopes to see children's smiles and see them go to school. In return, there are certain advantages that make Long feel warm. That is the support of friends, relatives and acquaintances on social networks. They always support Quang Long's volunteer work. "Since its establishment, our team has had very few staff. However, over time and the spread of social networks, many people across the country want to participate. The members of the group only need to ensure good health to move in difficult terrain. More than that, they must be people who want to share with others," Quang Long said. In the future, Quang Long will continue to do volunteer work, helping people in difficult circumstances. Long has never intended to stop because for him, the ultimate nature of the work is sharing. As long as he has the strength, Long will continue to do his best. Quang Long hopes that there will be more and more kind-hearted people, like-minded people, joining hands to help poor children: “The good things done by 1 or 2 people will still only be good things. But if that good thing is spread to everyone, it will become a good society, a humane and positive society.”
The young man has never wanted to stop his passion. "One day when I am no longer healthy enough to run the group, I may hand over the management responsibility to another member who is younger, more dynamic and shares the same ideals. But I will never stop sharing and helping those around me because this can always be done in many different forms," ​​the volunteer group leader confided. Photo: Provided by the character