Wednesday, November 11, 2015

The Thai Binh Trip ~ a wonderful experience ~ Guest blog by CEF staff Ngoc

It is amazing that I had a chance to visit all the children in a community in Tha Binh province - our children in the north, about 3 hours from Ha Noi by car. For me it is great to work with the children there so that I have more understanding about them and their lives. Obviously, there are differences in poverty in the 3 areas we work with; Da Nang, Quang Nam and Thai Binh. However, generally speaking, they are all very poor and in need of being supported by CEF. 







The CEF children and their families in this area are very honest and friendly. They make their living mainly from doing farming, raising fish, pigs and chickens. They have to work hard from early morning till late afternoon and in the evenings occasionally; however their incomes are quite low. From my point of view they are poor because they have lots of children. I was surprised that out of 30 poor families we work with, only around 10% of them have 2 children, 20% of them have 3 children and 70% of them have from 4 to 7 children. The children’s parents are not well educated, with some only attending the first few years of school. They are very religious and traditional as well, so I feel it is hard for them to know how to deal responsibly with their practical and financial needs.   Therefore many of them end up with large debts for their bills and living costs, and all their children’s education. Besides that, there is still serious discrimination between boys and girls in this area and many believe that the girls should not have much education. 


So, in my opinion, it is really important that CEF is able to support the girls there to finish their high school education and help those with great potential to have a tertiary education. It means they then have the potential to escape from poverty and change their future.  

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