National High School Graduation Exams ~ By CEF staff Dung

Today has been a big day for many students throughout the country and CEF's Dung explains why (with the English explanation following the Vietnamese). The photos are of some of our students and what they hope their results will enable them to study.

                                        General Medicine

                                         Economic Law

                                       Banking or Business Law

                                    Banking or Business Law

                                              Chinese

Các em học sinh lớp 12 đã bắt đầu kì thi tốt nghiệp trung học phổ thông từ hôm quado Bộ Giáo Dục và Đào Tạo tổ chức. Các em phải hoàn thành tất cả năm môn thi, trong đó có ba môn bắt buộc là Toán, Ngữ Văn và ngoại ngữ. Hai môn còn lại học sinh sẽ tự chọn theo nguyện vọng khối xét tuyển vào đại học mong muốn, ví dụ: khối khoa học tự nhiên, các em sẽ thi lý, hóa và sinh học hoặc nếu khối khoa học xã hội, các em sẽ thi ba môn là sử, địa và giáo dục công dân. Riêng về ngoại ngữ, các em có thể chọn một trong những ngôn ngữ như Anh, Pháp, Đức, Trung Quốc, Nhật, Nga hay Hàn. Kết quả kỳ thi trung học phổ thông sẽ được dùng để xét điểm tuyển đầu vào của các trường đại học. Kỳ thi này rất khó khăn và đòi hỏi sự chuẩn bị kỹ lưỡng trong một khoảng thời gian dài rất quan trọng cho sự nghiệp tương lai của các em.

Chương trình học bổng dài hạn ở khu vực Đại Lộc mà tôi chịu trách nhiệm cũng có 3 học sinh tham gia kỳ thi này. Tất cả đều có kết quả tốt trong học kỳ hai và học rất chăm chỉ trong những tháng này cũng như không có đủ thời gian để làm bất cứ điều gì khác như năm ngoái. Họ phải học từ năm đến sáu giờ ở trường và tham gia một số lớp học thêm để mở rộng kiến thức. Tôi vẫn nhớ một sinh viên của tôi nói rằng họ cảm thấy rất căng thẳng và áp lực nhưng khi nghĩ về trường đại học mơ ước của mình, họ có thêm động lực để học tập.

Chúng tôi hy vọng rằng các em học sinh lớp 12 của CEF và tất cả học sinh lớp 12 tại Việt Nam sẽ đạt được kết quả tốt để có cơ hội lựa chọn một trường đại học mà mình mong muốn để sau này tốt nghiệp các em sẽ có công việc tốt và phù hợp với bản thân.

All grade 12 students take the high school graduation exams today which are administered by the Ministry of Education and Training. They have to do a total of five subjects which include three main subjects (mathematics, a foreign language, and literature) and the other two subjects, the students can choose which ones depending on what they need for their university entrance. For example, if they choose the natural science group, they have to take three subjects - physics, chemistry and biology, or in the social science group, they have to take three subjects - history, geography and civics. A foreign language exam can be one of the following, such as English, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Russian or Korean. The exam results of the high school graduates will be used for their university entrance exams. These exams which are very challenging and significant for their future, requires careful preparation for a long period. 

I am responsible for the sponsorships in the Dai Loc area where there are 3 students taking this examination now. They all had good results in term two and studied super hard during these months and did not have enough time to do anything else. They must study five to six hours in school and attend extra tuition classes to broaden their knowledge. I still remember one of my students said that they felt very stressed and pressured but when they thought about the university of their dreams, they had more motivation to study. 

We hope that CEF’s grade 12 students and all grade 12 students in Vietnam will receive good results so they can have a chance to choose a suitable university that they want to study at to get a better job after graduating. 

An interview trip in Phuoc Son

 Just a few photos of homes, students and their families from our interview trip in the mountains of Phuoc Son this week. 

All have challenging situations, some have one parent, or no parents, an ill parent or two, and all are without enough of an income to make ends meet, as well as keep their daughters in school. 

We are in the process of discussing each girl and her situation, and how much help she will need. There will be girls who will need scholarships. 

Li's family has four girls. Her parents are healthy but struggle to earn enough to care for and educate the girls. Mum takes the youngest, strapped to her, when she needs to work in the fields.  Dad works in a goldmine. This is a dangeous job unfortuntely.

                                                 Li's home

Li dreams of being a policewoman and needs someone to take on her scholarship for grade 11.

Hanh with her parents who sadly are alcoholics and don't care for her or support her

                 Fortunately Hanh recently received a scholarship

Ni

Ni, with her auntie who has been caring for her since she became an orphan, and her cousin. Dad has had a stroke and can't work, but auntie works as a labourer when her health is good enough. Ni has a scholarship. 

View from Ni's home

Lo with mum who has poor health and hasn't been able to work for many years, and on top of that dad died three years ago so there has been no income. All relatives are poor but when anyone has extra food or money they share it with her, so she has enough to live off, but no funds for Lo's education. Lo has been living with an aunt in exchange for housework and childcare, this unfortunately has meant she has had little study time. Now she has a scholarship, this will provide her with extra tuition in three subjects which will help her grades come up further.  

Fortunately Lo has a scholarship.

                                        Lo's home

Our interview trips are always interesting and enable us to learn so much about the girls their families and living environment. More importantly they help us to know who needs urgent help to remain in school and what help we could provide the family with to reduce the pressure on their daughters to leave school and work. 

Art work donated for the ARTEA auction

And some more wonderful art work CEF has been donated for raising funds for our new Scholarship Program in Dong Giang, 'Educating Ethnic Girls'. These pieces have been donated by professional artists. 

Funds raised will go on Scholarships which won't just cover education and education related costs, but also provide monthly support for personal hygiene. Any urgent situations with their farming families will be provided, reducing the risk of the girls needing to leave school to work to help the family.

'Educating Ethnic Girls' keeps them in high school! We believe in them receiving a full education, delaying their marriages and childbearing, which normally happens early, in their teenage years. Also for every year of education a girl has, she has the potential to earn an extra 20% when she goes to work. 

All funds will be matched by Healing Hands Foundation and the site to deposit is here: https://doterrahealinghands.org/.../educating-ethnic-girls

One of CEF's new Scholarship Programs ~ By CEF staff Kim Chi

 CEF's Kim Chi shares about a new Scholarship Program which we are raising funds for at present in Dong Giang, in Quang Nam province. 

All funds raised will be matched, through doTERRA's Healing Hands Foundation, enabling us to help twice as much!

'CEF has done research trips to set up new Scholarship Programs for the next academic year, 2022 - 2023. We would love to help more ethnic girls to finish high school and take further education if possible.

One of the programs I am working on, which we’ll start next term, is to help 20 ethnic girls in Quang Trung High school of Dong Giang district, providing them with a scholarship each term and any urgent family support that is needed. In second term of 2022-2023 we will help more girls and run a ‘Career Guidance’ workshop for them. 

We hope that the girls will be able to go to university to have more choices in the future, broaden their thinking and change their lives. As a result, they will be able to break the poverty cycle of their families.'

This is the link for donations to be matched: https://doterrahealinghands.org/.../educating-ethnic-girls

On the way to the school

    

                                            The school

The boarding facilities 

The school's vegetable garden

One of the girl interviewed was Dien, who lives in a small wooden shack with a seperate one for the kitchen. Due to an accident dad can't do much, but sells some candies and cakes from home and mum is a labourer on acacia plantations when there is work. She's the brightest student in her class. 

U, was one of the students we met and sadly dad is a violent alcoholic. She loves school and dreams of being a teacher with the goal of being in a position to escape poverty.

Interviewing Vi for the scholarship program in her home. Her father passed about when she was five and mum has poor health making it hard to cover the basics. She wants to be educated and become a teacher. 

Names changed

New Scholarship Program

It's an exciting time for us at CEF!

What makes us excited this time? It's a new Scholarship Program we are preparing for that starts in August 2022! This program is based in Dong Giang about three hours away from our base in Hoi An, a trip that takes one through beautiful lush mountains.

The school we will be working with has predominently ethnic students, about 90%, mainly coming from Co Tu communities. There are about 69 girls who are doing well in school and are ambitious, these girls we will be considering for our Scholarship Program.

Also! Yes also! We have another smaller Scholarship Program we will be starting at the same time. The high school we will be working with is in Hiep Duc where there is a small number of ethnic girls who are doing well in school. 

We have some funds for the Scholarship Programs, but not enough, so we are fundraising over May and June to ensure all the students we wish to help are supported with a scholarship which will cover costs they have for their education, uniforms and school supplies. As well as that we wish to raise funds for urgent support for the girls and their families too, such as major health issues and accidents and unfortunately poor families rarely have savings to deal with these issues.

These funds will be MATCHED, so this is an excellent time to donate for the Scholarship Programs!

If helping and having your funds MATCHED appeals, write to us and we can give details on the account to use: c.e.f.vietnam@gmail.com

(The photos are by Graeme Burn from this trip)

A change for the better

  Photos of Tuyen with family back in 2011

CEF's Lua shares about one of our CEF families who no longer is struggling financially:

On a recent home visit we were so happy to get to know that Tuyen’s family is no longer struggling to make ends meet. 

Tuyen is one of CEF's grade 9 students living in Thang Binh and CEF has been supporting her for 9 years. 

Because her parents are blind,  we always have made sure she has enough funds for her education, as well as food or any other support needed.

Her parents used to rent a house on the main road to use as a spa, but about six months ago they had to close the door as they couldn’t earn because of Covid and Covid's social restrictions. Luckily, her father came up with a great idea that he should move his spa to their home in order to save on rent. He also lowered the price of his massages so that more of the local villagers could come to try massage and acupressure at an affordable cost. After three months of working from home he has many repeat customers. More and more people after having therapy at his home are recommending him to their families and friends as they are getting relief from their daily pain due to their spinal degeneration.

The whole family is so happy because now they can manage their finances themselves.  

Recent photo of Tuyen

Wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy Vietnamese New Year

CEF staff wish everyone a Happy and Healthy Vietnamese New Year, Tet!

We all have one and a half weeks off to enjoy the New Year celebrations and time with family and friends. Our students will be off from school and many of their parents will also have time off from work. Others will do doing double shifts in factories to earn extra while many are off and they have this opportunity. For those with little, it's a tough time of year financially, leaving many in debt. 

Tet is considered the most important event of the year. Most Vietnamese believe that how they end and start the new year influences their luck and finances. We help with food parcels with some staples but also special Tet foods to help relieve their financial burden. These we gave recently to most CEF families as most needed that support. We appreciate the donations to have made this possible. The children and families were so grateful! 

To anyone who celebrates Tet we hope you enjoy yours too!

 

A vast improvement in her results (The Vietnamese translation follows the English)

CEF's Ngoc Do shares about one of our CEF students she has known for ages and recently has seen a huge improvement in her results:

Thanh is growing up so quickly that I can’t believe she is already in grade 12 this year! I first met her when she was in grade 3 and in her old, small house, full of memories between her and her dear father. Since her father died from a heart attack, the family moved to a new house near her grandmother’s one. In the beginning, she was still shocked about the sudden death of her father and she didn’t concentrate on her studies. However, the older she gets, the more aware she gets, and she has made lots of effort to improve her school results as I can see her performance at school is getting better each year. Recently I received her good results and feel very proud of her. Through talking many times with Thanh and her mother, I know that she did try a lot and was working very hard. 

Although she doesn’t want to continue her education after high school and go onto university, I believe that she will be successful in the future as she is very determined to do what she chooses.

Thanh ngày một lớn hơn và tôi không nghĩ là em  đã học lớp 12 rồi. Nhớ lần đầu gặp em là khi em mới học lớp 3 tại ngôi nhà nhỏ và đã cũ của em, ngôi nhà mang đầy những kỷ niệm giữa em và người cha yêu dấu. Kể từ khi ba em mất vì đột quỵ, cả gia đình em đã chuyển vào ở nhà mới,  gần nhà nội. Thời gian đầu sau khi ba qua đời, Thanh vẫn chưa kịp chấp nhận sự mất mát này và vì vậy, em ấy đã không tập trung vào việc học. Tuy nhiên, càng lớn, em càng nhận ra tầm quan trọng của việc học và em đã nỗ lực rất nhiều để cải thiện việc học của mình. Và quả thực, tôi có thể thấy kết quả của em đang ngày một tiến bộ hơn. Em vừa gửi kết quả học tập cho tôi gần đây và tôi không thể không tự hào về em và sự phấn đấu của em. Nhiều lần trò chuyện cùng em và mẹ, tôi cảm nhận được em đã cố gắng rất nhiều cũng như đã rất siêng năng học tập. 

Mặc dầu T không muốn tiếp tục học đại học, nhưng tôi tin rằng, với sự quyết tâm theo đuổi lựa chọn của mình, em sẽ thành công một ngày không xa. 

(Name changed)

Families growing more food

Due to Covid, most of our families have reduced incomes, and some none at all. This has brought about creative thinking and actions to help them make ends meet. Many of our families are using all the land they own to grow food, with others borrowing land to do this and then giving produce in exchange. 

We really love seeing the effort most of the families are making towards solving this major financial issue.