About our CEF students adjusting to life far from home ~ Guest blog by CEF's Ms Vy

Living far from home to study is not easy for teenagers who are still in high school. Besides the experience having advantages such as helping them improve their confidence and create more self-awareness, there are challenges and disadvantages, like missing home, balancing budgets and their personal safety.

‘H’ is one of the children in our education program living far away from her home to be able to study. She shares a small room with another friend to be able to attend an advanced high school in Hoi An city. She was cared for by her father while her mother died of cancer over several years, but sadly he left before she died and never returned and 'H' was then taken care of by her granny. She can manage to live away from home thanks to her sponsorship that helps her with her costs, and on top of that she does a part-time job in her free time to help herself.

On the first days of living on her own balancing her budget was the most challenging thing she faced. Accommodation, food, school fees, stationery, personal costs and other related costs needed calculating and the small amount of money she had needed to be dividing carefully. In the beginning she always spent more than she had estimated; therefore, she had to skip breakfast and cut remaining expenses as much as possible at the end of the month. Gradually, she learned many things to help control her life, and her spending, making living and studying away from home much easier and less stressful.

Another CEF sponsored child is ‘Ha’, who is a freshman at Da Nang University of Foreign Languages. She was only familiar with a countryside life and had a very close and caring family; therefore, she felt depressed and stressed in the process of adjusting to her new life and environment. On the first day, she enjoyed her new life, but day by day, she missed her family and her friends a lot. In addition, she had to say goodbye to the carefree life and step into a responsible life with a lot of duties. She has to do things by herself now, from big things like managing her budget to smaller ones like doing her own housework and washing, which used to be done with her family’s help. It took her nearly two months to adapt to this new life and environment. Currently, she returns home twice or three times a month instead of once a week as she did at the beginning of term. This reduces her expenses as well as providing her with more time for her studies.

In general, facing and overcoming a diverse range of challenges in this life is not easy; however, once they can do it, their lives are much better, less stressful and they are able to be more successful. I hope that each child in our program can do like ‘H’ and ‘Ha’ have been doing and consider the challenges just as a part of adult life.

With family is where children belong ~ Guest blog by CEF's Ms Ngoc

After some visits and getting to know this family with a very ill father in Dien Ban district, I understand more about the love of family. This father of 2 CEF sponsored children was diagnosed with severe kidney failure about 7 years ago. He has been living with it for 7 years and I cannot imagine how brave he is.

Personally I think, he is able to bear the physical suffering and live optimistically because of his incredible love for his beloved mother, admirable wife and adorable daughters. It is horrible for a person to know that they will die soon, but they do not know when. He knows for sure he will leave his lovely family forever soon. He not only feels terrible pain in his body but also he is suffering emotional and is very sensitive and vulnerable.

When he took one of his lovely daughters to school, her friends teased her due to his ugly appearance. There are many black spots on his face and it has gradually turns to a dark brown-black colour which is strange for children to see. He did not feel ashamed, but he was afraid that his daughter would be teased again so he decided not to take her to school anymore. However, it is great that his daughter tried to protect him in front of her friends. She loves her father regardless of how bad he looks.

When he was aware of his disease, he suggested that he and his wife should divorce. He felt his young wife was too young to have such a hard life and to become a widow soon. Nevertheless, the young mother of the two children did not agree and wanted to stay with him, to be by his side no matter how challenging the situation and to continue to look after him, his mother and their two children. I strongly believe that thanks to the love and care and support of his wonderful family, he has been able to overcome many obstacles he faces with the help of his strong mind too. He and his amazing attitude have been the motivation for his family to be able to keep living a normal daily life.

Therefore, each of us should be aware that family plays such an important role in our lives and we should try our best to keep our family together. That is the reason why CEF always wants our children to live with their families as long as they are good ones, no matter how poor they are.

Grade 5 girl in need of educational support

This sweet girl who is in grade 5 needs a sponsor. Her sponsorship for 2016-2017 is US$225.

Her family feel she was deeply upset by the accident of her mother and her consequent death and it affected her education, which is totally understandable. She likes going to school and loves Vietnamese and math, as well as music and she joins in quite a lot of performances at school. In the past she always got 10/10 in Vietnamese and 9/10 in math, but last year in term 1, in grade 4 she just got 8/10 in Vietnamese and 5/10 in math because she was so traumatised by her mother’s death. Fortunately, we are glad to say, she is getting better, and with that improvement she made progress in term 2 with 9/10 in Vietnamese and 7/10 in math.

Dad struggles on his meagre monthly income of US$100 to support three children of school age, as well as granny and to pay off their debt from surgery from trying to save mum's life. A sponsorship for her would help dramatically!

Please contact us to sponsor: c.e.f.vietnam@gmail.com