Thanking all CEF Sponsors, Donors, Supporters and Volunteers

It's now the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 here in Vietnam. Children's Education Foundation has had another year of growth with many achievements and is moving forward in its development and stability. This growth is not possible without the help of many others. We have been blessed with more help this year; from donors, sponsors, advisors and new board members and volunteers. All this support has meant we have been able to help more children to go to school to receive an education.

There have been so many who have given of their time and their hearts and I thank each and every one of you. Every single person is so valuable and essential to make CEF work. The photos in this blog are just a few of you who have been so helpful this year and here I mention only a few of the many who have helped us so graciously.

No matter how hard I, Duyen, our coordinators and volunteers work, we can't help anyone without money; without funds from you the sponsors and donors. So thank you from the children, the parents and from CEF for the much needed monetary support that is crucial to each and every child, for them to have a future with choices.

Without Duyen, my assistant, I would not be able to carry out a lot of CEF's work. Some of what she does is translate, transcribe and work with the government authorities we are required to work with here in Vietnam (in Vietnamese). She works with our coordinators to keep an eye on each project and to request letters from the children and school reports. Parents and guardians are contacted directly as well to check on how the children are doing. On top of that she drives me to the local families so we can meet with them personally.

Without our country coordinators and managers our work would not be possible too. Stephen in the USA, and Graeme in Australia, assist with supporting in many ways from phone calls, to thank you notes, receipts, as well as dealing with government authorities in the States and Australia.

Our board members have given wonderful support and wise counsel and have given time when all of them have a busy schedule. Also wonderful ideas have come from our board meetings. Our advisors have advised wisely, our volunteers have volunteered with all their heart.

Most of CEF's work is done by our volunteers. They are helping in a myriad of ways, for example our board members and advisors, our coordinators and in-country managers, including myself are all volunteers. Without our volunteers we would be greatly limited. Most of them are working from their computers and phones at home in Australia and America, with six here in Vietnam.

Chu is the busiest of our volunteer coordinators; he helps with organizing school payments, children’s letters and photos. He helps organize our trips to Phuc Le to check up on all the children. Also he coordinates a lot of the work with the local Catholic priest of the community who checks on the children regularly as well as referring children; Catholic, Buddhist and children with no religion.

Other volunteer coordinators are Buddhist nuns and the local headman from Hoa Van leper community. Their help is valuable and smoothes the path for us to be able to actually meet the children officially, help the children get into school and make the payments.

Bruce and Elaine have been invaluable volunteers in helping to keep many children from the leper community in school this year as well as last year. They also are wise and have been wonderful advisors.

Miriam has helped find educational funds and sponsors. As she is a social worker and family therapist her opinions and ideas have been very helpful. Over the last few months she also has taken on unusual duties. She took care of me when I became very ill with dengue fever, then again after I had an accident and broke my leg! Her help has been invaluable!

Without the funds raised at fundraising events we wouldn't be able to help so many children. Help with these events is always appreciated. I thank those who helped me raise funds over the last year. Lynette helped with masses of chopping and making a You Tube presentation of that event and Lori helped at another event. Both these events enabled many children to continue their schooling. Lori also put on a lovely event at her and Andy's home, which enabled three more children to be sponsored. Stephen helped with shopping and also offered his spacious apartment for two of the three events making it possible to have many attend.

Our volunteers with graphic skills this year are Shanti and Emma. Emma has created a beautiful website that will be up very soon. Shanti took richly colored photos of our children in Phuc Le, their homes, gardens and even their pets. With some of these she created a beautiful CEF calendar. I have enjoyed using it and the sale of it has helped raise funds for some of these children to have desks, chairs and lamps so they can easily do their homework.

While Shanti was in Phuc Le she also assessed each family to see if their level of help needed to change. Poverty can change for the better if they inherit a business or change work to something more lucrative. Their situations can deteriorate quickly if the main bread winner is sick, injured or dies.

Our reliable yearly volunteer Mr. Brian, who lived and worked here in Vietnam for a few years, but now lives in Darwin comes over to check on our Phuc Le education project and carries out different research each time as well. On his last visit he visited all the children that had recently been referred to CEF to sponsor. We had some basic information but he did more thorough assessments and took photos of them.

Thao Co helped with two trips to Phuc Le in the last year, leaving behind her family and work to help with this project. She is a young, strong Vietnamese woman and is a good example for the girls from the farming community to see what is possible for a young Vietnamese woman; a wife, a mother, university educated, with a good job as well as good heart and love of doing charity work.

Morwenna and Mike kindly house sat for me for two months allowing me to go away for a board meeting and several fund raising events and cared for and played with my animals too.

Lien, who cleans and takes care of,the CEF office and grounds with her husband Son, has also introduced CEF to children she knows who really have needed help. One girl's mother is dying of brain cancer and the family couldn't afford to keep her in school. In another situation the mother died from a stroke when her second child was three months old, and the father could no longer afford to keep his daughter in school. In the most recent case the child's parents have both died and she is cared for now by a grandmother and aunt. Lien comes on home visits sometimes too. Once when we were doing a home visit a toy needed mending and Lien offered to mend it there and then. She house sits for me when I can't get a westerner to house sit and cares for not only the house and grounds but, the dog, cat and fish as well.

We are all interconnected; on our own we can achieve very little, but with caring support we can achieve a lot.

I am so touched that so much help has manifested over this year and I thank each of you so much for your good hearts from my heart,

Linda


Linda Burn
Founding Director
In Country Manager - Vietnam

'Helping Girls Grow to be Women with Choices'

'Tet' ~ Vietnamese New Year

The new year in many Asian countries, including Vietnam, starts with the first month of the lunar calendar. It usually falls around the end of January or at the beginning of February.

'Tet' is the Vietnamese name for new year. I was told it comes from the French for head; 'la tête'. The story goes that during the time it was a French colony it was given this name, referring to the beginning of the year, or head of the year.

It’s a time of beginning and renewal and each person makes every effort they can to start the new year with a clean slate. Homes are cleaned and painted, old things are thrown away and new replacements bought and all debts paid off, old grievances dealt with and forgiveness is given.

They also have haircuts and make or buy a complete set of new clothes to start Tet with. They celebrate the new year with family and friends; gifts and lucky money are given and there is much feasting.

In towns the streets are lined with plants waiting to be purchased to take to ones business and home to add some of the auspicious colors; the reds, oranges and yellow-golds. Everyone should have a few different snacks available for guests; watermelon seeds, preserved cumquats, candied coconut, sweets or cookies. No matter how poor, everyone tries to have a plant and a few sweets and drinks.

Alcoholic drinks are overly plentiful pre-Tet, over Tet and post-Tet. Many men drink heavily and the accident and death rate climbs over this period. In principle this annual time of celebration, of giving gratitude and starting anew is a wonderful idea.

What does this mean in reality for the poor Vietnamese; the poor become poorer and more stressed. Stress abounds; arguments and physical abuse are more common and theft greater around Tet. This year theft of dogs has been greater too as dog meat sells for a high price to those with money; it's an old traditional dish to create warmth in the body in the very cold weather, which there has been a lot of recently. Exhaustion I see in the faces of many this Tet; not happy and relaxed ones, as they have been working more to earn extra to pay for all the expenses of Tet.

I enjoy the bounty of the brightly colored flowering shrubs and the flowers, but don't look forward to Tet, as I see increased suffering and not much joy amongst the poor. Tet is wonderful for those with, but not for those without. Each year it reminds me more and more of the western Christmas holiday season; how the Christmas trees, the decorations and lights are so beautiful and how it was an honored birthday celebration of Jesus, but how it is mainly a time of year for eating, drinking and materialism now. Suicide is greater here pre and post Tet as it is in the west pre and post Christmas which indicates something is out of kilter with how they are celebrated now.

As with anywhere there are still many here and in the west who truly express the spirit of Tet and Christmas without materialism and with true inner joy and love for their family and friends and are left with wonderful heartfelt feelings each year.

Chuc Mung Nam Moi (Happy New Year in Vietnamese)! I hope it will be a good one for you all; one full of contentment and love, compassion and care for others.
Yours, Linda

News from Miriam our Volunteer Social Worker and Family Therapist

I have been volunteering with Children’s Education Foundation for a little over three months, and in that time I have been lucky enough to see a number of children attain the dream of receiving an education with the invaluable help of CEF.

I have been coming to Hoi An over the last six years and I have helped a number of different charities in that time. CEF was attractive to me because it’s a small charity with very limited funding. I have been impressed with the careful interventions applied and the huge differences that have been made.

I have visited the far reaches of Quang Nam Province to visit children in their homes as well as those more local to us here in Hoi An. Some are living in graveyards; only the most poverty stricken will live there as they have no other choice. Many of them are very afraid of the ghosts of the ancestors who are buried in the graveyard; so our advice has been sought about the ghost's on two occasions. This is quite culturally acceptable here, as everybody believes in ghosts, especially malevolent ones.

Recently a letter was received from a little girl, aged 8. She wrote a heartfelt letter about needing help. Both her parents died when she was still an infant and she now lives with her elderly grandmother and an Auntie; or rather they live in the hallway outside another family member’s small apartment. They had insufficient bedding for our cold weather and the child had no warm clothing. The environment in which they lived we did not know about until we visited. Home assessments are so important not only to verify the situation but also to give a picture of what might be needed for a child to attend school. Most of the time paying the school fees and school related costs is what is needed, but at other times we need to consider other family members needs; ones that are important to be take into account for the child to attend school.

Another little girl’s mother has a brain tumor. How can you send a child to school when the mother needs money for medication, the child will only feel guilty, as though she is contributing to her mother's poor health because they are using money to sent her to school instead of paying for her mother's medication. There are other expenses; shoes, uniform, insurance, books, perhaps a raincoat or bike (to be able to get to school as sometimes it is too far to walk to school), and then there is tuition which is not an optional extra, but a way for the teachers to earn some extra money as they are on very low wages. Some schools provide lunch, but it is not an optional extra, and must be paid for. If the families are very poor they may not even have a birth certificate so the first thing that CEF has to do is get a birth certificate. To go to school here in Vietnam is a complex business.

In the case of the little girl who had lost her parents and wrote to CEF asking for help, we were very fortunate that the sponsor considered her situation, and sent an extra $50. With this money we were able to purchase a very warm blanket for them and also some good quality secondhand winter clothes. The aunt earns very little and has about 30,000 Vietnam dong a day for food and that is about $1.50. She feeds the three of them on that; even here in Vietnam that is not enough so their diet is very poor consisting mainly of rice and vegetables. The price of rice has more than doubled in the last few years and the poor can’t even afford much rice, which is their staple food.

Thanks to the help of the sponsor the family are now able to send the child to school, the child does not need to feel guilty about it and therefore will be able to concentrate on her studies. She now has warm clothes to wear; this is not only good for her health but also helps her self esteem. Being a child without a mother and father in Vietnam is hard as family is considered very important. Children in this situation suffer with low self-esteem due to being teased about their situation and being poor. So even if you have an Auntie who is doing her best for you it is hard without a Mother and a Father.

In CEF there are many hard decisions to make. Sometimes there are more children to help than sponsors, and a decision has to be made who to help first although they all need equal help. Sometimes medications are needed for a mother to relieve her suffering and that of her child, but as funds are only provided for education there is no one to pay for the medications. Trying to help those in need sometimes can be painful for all concerned.

However, I would like to thank all of the sponsors of the children of CEF on behalf of the children. I hope that this short addition from me will help you to understand just how invaluable you all are and what a huge difference you are making to the lives of these children.

Making CEF Sustainable

When people think of sustainability they don't have the same thoughts; some will think of ethical consumerism, permaculture, renewable energy or green building. Most don't put sustainability and charities together in their minds. Charities can apply some element of sustainability to most of their work and it's important to consider how we can do this.

Children's Education Foundation is working towards being more sustainable. The contracts for the educational support of our children so far have included a request for the parents or guardians and children to consider how the CEF student could share their educational knowledge with others. Shortly the contracts will be changed to include a list of ways they can very specifically give back. Two examples of this are that they could help a younger sibling with homework, or they could teach literacy or numeracy to a parent who hasn't this knowledge.

We want to see our families move out of poverty of course. We already have seen some of their lives change considerably simply because they don't have to struggle to find the funds for their child or children to go to school. For others it is more challenging to move out of dire poverty even when they have some help.

Internationally microfinance has been considered as one of the ways to help with poverty reduction. Some criticize it and don't feel it's the answer. I personally decided to do an experiment to see if micro loans can work. I chose to help two families and it has been a successful experiment. We gave one loan to a family about five months ago and to the other around three months ago. Both families have been paying their loans back at the required rate and on time. The most exciting aspect of the experiment is that already they are not struggling to survive to the same degree. Also each have expressed gratitude for the opportunity to take action in reducing their poverty. I felt it was an empowering experience for them, instead of the overwhelming one of survival. They now knew they had a means to change their lives.

To give this experiment the best chance of success, my assistant Duyen, and I, discussed every aspect of the loan-giving, until we felt we had some simple solutions. The families are in my local community, making it easy to keep in contact with them, as well as it being convenient and quick to collect repayments. We decided that the loans and the repayments had to be small enough so it didn't feel overwhelming for them. Also we had known the families some time and knew each of their situations well and their personalities. Already we were helping one child in one family and two in the other with educational support. We knew that they would consider that fact, and that if they didn't pay the loans back, and on time, that they risked losing that support. Everything was made as official as possible even though we didn't know if this experiment would work; we drew up a contract and had it notarized at a local government office.

Another aspect we are working with is to make sure CEF continues whether I am dead or alive. Decisions made for CEF's future included simplicity, keeping CEF small and manageable, making sure we have all our procedures and contacts recorded and that there is always someone else who can replace me or my assistant.

Considering that in the last four months I have had both dengue fever and a motorbike accident it's a very sensible course of action! And just to make it clear I don't plan on dying for several decades; but life is unpredictable and I am just making sure we can continue to give each child CEF helps a future with choices!

Duyen ~ my left-hand

Duyen is my left-hand here in Vietnam. She is a vital member of the Children's Education Foundation team. Well here in Vietnam the only permanent CEF workers are her and I. She is the only person in CEF who receives a salary. I feel very blessed to have someone so multi-talented and skilled to help CEF with its work.

Fortunately she also has a good heart, hopefully both physically as well as emotionally, which is what I am referring to. When we receive information on some children CEF has been requested to consider helping, she is very sad on reading their story and why they are requesting assistance with their education. When not looking after her own children or CEF's children she is doing other charity work. I am not sure how she fits it all in as she is raising and home educating her two young children as well. She helps CEF with official paperwork, translations and transcribing, reports, accounts, spreadsheets, arranges home visits and transport and helps create better systems and much, much more.

Well I do know how she does it; she is very organized, efficient and intelligent. She is a university graduate in IT with many skills, both life skills and business administration skills. Her CV included a long list of skills and these were just the first few:
Website builder and master of using ASP, MS Front page, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Image Ready 7.0
Proficient in installation of computer software and hardware
Proficient in Microsoft Office applications - Word, Excel, PowerPoint
Graphics software skills - Adobe Photoshop
Conflict resolution and troubleshooting skills
Well developed research, data collation, analysis and report writing skill
Office & Business Administration Management
Financial Management - Bookkeeping and Accounting skills
Accurate data entry skills
Excellent document formatting skills

But what I have found unique is that she can initiate, inspire, take a lot of responsibility and is also hard working and trustworthy. These skills are not easily found locally. I still am discovering more of her abilities and good qualities. I feel I am blessed personally as well as CEF, to have her help us achieve our work.

I recently had good news that she is able to stay on one more year and am very pleased to be working alongside her for another year!

Information on Making a Donation

How to Make a Donation


We appreciate all donations as each and every one of them makes a difference to the life of an impoverished Vietnamese child.



Donations from Americans and Canadians

Please make a check out to ‘Children’s Education Foundation – Vietnam’ and post it to the USA Coordinator - Stephen Jackel at 277 Broadway, Suite 1010, New York, NY 10007.
Please attach a note stating whether you need a receipt and what the funds for (a general donation, for a year of an ongoing sponsorship of a particular child, and please name the child, or request a child, or education funds for a non-specific child)


Donations from Australians (and everyone else except Americans and Canadians)

Preferably deposit funds into ‘Children’s Education Foundation’ account at Commonwealth Bank, Bondi Junction, NSW 2022. Account: 10955621, BSB: 062-124
Please send an email to Graeme Burn at c.e.f.vietnam@gmail.com stating how much you deposited and whether you need a receipt and what the funds for (a general donation, for a year of an ongoing sponsorship of a particular child, and please name the child, or request a child, or education funds for a non-specific child)

www.childrenseducationfoundation.org.au http://childrenseducationfoundation-vietnam.blogspot.com
Registered in Vietnam: AT 414/UB-HD & New South Wales, Australia: CFN 17865 & New York State, USA: EIN: 27-0552998

Vietnamese Women Work Hard

Many Vietnamese women work very hard mainly at poorly paid jobs. This is because they can't get well paid work as they are uneducated or partially educated due to having ended schooling after primary school.

A child in school won't be amongst the millions who are vulnerable to traffickers. She won't be one of those trafficked into exploitative work; into the commercial sexual industry.

An education means she will have good job opportunities and a much higher income when she becomes a woman. Please help give a girl an education, future work opportunities and a life to be proud of.



































For donations:
Please see our blog'Information on Making a Donation'
Or Americans can contact Stephen at cef.vn.usa@gmail.com
and Australians can contact Graeme at c.e.f.vietnam@gmail.com

Refections: Window into the World of the Disabled

I want to make it clear I am not disabled. Now I want to add I am blessed to only have a temporary disability which has enabled me to look through a window into the world of the disabled. I broke one of my legs recently which dramatically immobilized me.

I live in a part of Vietnam where there are many people with permanent disabilities. If I go into town there are workshops for those with disabilities where they make beautiful products that are sold to tourists. They have been trained and are now highly skilled, but they still suffer from discrimination and back pain due to a deformed spine or they still can't hear or talk. I see others in town who had polio, or have a deformity or who lost a leg or their eyesight in the war. They move around with various forms of assistance; on crutches, with a walking stick, or in a cart a little like a large mechanized go cart, which we locally call a 'push-me-pull-me'.

In central Vietnam many suffered dramatically from the war, mentally, psychologically and physically. Some are mentally unstable or severely depressed due to the horrors of the war. Others lost a limb, or part of their face and an eye or ear; some are suffering with side effects from Agent Orange on top of their other challenges. Some have the more known side effects of Agent Orange fallout such as depression and large wart-like growths. They also rarely give birth to a normal child. Most of their children and grandchildren are disfigured or mentally retarded. We locally wonder if the high rate of spina bifida, heart abnormalities, heart disease and thyroid problems are also due to Agent Orange.

So my disability is a blip in comparison. I remember lying on the road in an ecstatic state when I realizing I wasn't dead. I felt so grateful to be alive. Soon after the accident I was blessed with lots of help and support. Lien who helps with my garden and home brought me food and did my washing. Miriam looked after me in her home and helped me with the simple things that were now hard such as making tea, making the bed and putting the mosquito net around me at night.

I found the first week of using crutches excruciating. I struggled and stumbled a little, and my chest, arms and hands all ached from having to use them. Then my body adjusted.

My dreams and plans for the next few months were dashed and had to be abandoned; some of the changes were easy to accept but the abandoned visit to my family wasn't. I felt sad, disappointed and started to feel low.

Over the following days that lowness made everything too much, such as the showers, getting dressed and undressed. My hands were occupied with holding the crutches to stabilize me and having no free hands and only one leg to stand on made bathing or dressing hard work. I felt frustrated that I could do so little and was so dependent on the help of others and was low as everything was just plain hard to do. I then felt guilty for feeling that way. I was alive and had so much help, and that this was just a temporary disability.

In receiving a lovely supportive email from a friend and recalling lying on the road, the gratitude I felt in being alive returned and the lowness disappeared. I was truly blessed and this was just a very short term hiccup in my hopes and plans.

This whole experience started me imagining what it is like for someone who has a disability that isn't going to go away, one that they have to live with every day of their lives. They have to depend on others to help them permanently in some way. What is it like to live all the time knowing there are some things you cannot do, that perhaps you could do before, or that you see and hear about others doing? What is it like when you cannot manage unless someone else does things for you ? What is it like when you will just never be able to do what you want, no matter what? What is it like to live with that dependency on others and maybe permanent pain?

There is a group of children we help whose parents or grandparents have had leprosy. It has been treated but they are left without toes or fingers or parts of their hands or feet. They don't just have a disability but also suffer from discrimination wherever they go.

One mother whose children we help to receive an education has had breast infections and tumors as well as being affected by polio. She was too weak to even look after her children when she was ill. She is much better but still needs daily help from her husband, sister-in-law and her children. She can’t work and her husband can only work a little because he needs to help look after her. So they stay impoverished. What is it like to know your poverty is the result of your condition?

Another mother has heart disease, has had thyroid tumors and is too weak to work. She struggles to look after her children and needs a lot of help and support from her husband. Due to her health she can’t work so they consequently never have enough money and have to live with the resulting poverty.

One of the girls we help to go to school has a mother who can neither hear nor talk. I wonder what her life is like and what she has to deal with each day besides being unemployable from the Vietnamese perspective.

I have a son with a disability so this accident has also made me think about him and what it is like for him. He has had dreams of doing things, and has wanted to make career choices that he can't and never will be able to. He was sometimes disappointed when he came to that realization, but at other times was furious that his disability would mean he would be discriminated against.

Through my experiences now and what I see and hear, I understand my son's world and those with a disability just a little more, but will never truly understand. My compassion and respect for anyone with a disability has grown hugely. I now know a little of some of the challenges they have to face every day for the rest of their lives.

I feel those with disabilities need compassion and understanding, patience and tolerance and perhaps an excellent counselor who will have some knowledge and experience of the challenges they live with day in and day out. But they don't need molly coddling.

Sometimes I feel that we, non-disabled, have a view that is so far removed from theirs that we have unrealistic expectations of what people with a disability are capable of. In this way, we can create more problems than solutions for them.

Sometimes it may be just what the doctor ordered and helps motivate and support them in what needs to happen to help them become more independent and integrated in their community.

But to be honest as a person without a disability it is not just hard, but impossible to truly know what they need, how they need to be treated and supported and what their lives really are like.


For donations:
Please see our blog'Information on Making a Donation'
Or Americans can contact Stephen at cef.vn.usa@gmail.com
and Australians can contact Graeme at c.e.f.vietnam@gmail.com

Volunteering Sometimes is Not What is Expected

Well I may be wrong, but I suspect when Miriam came to help Children's Education Foundation for a short period of time she would not have anticipated how different her life and role would become.

As Miriam is a social worker and family therapist we had planned a week of meetings and home visits of CEF children who have challenging social situations. The rest of that week would be the necessary report writing. She and I only had one week free to do this.

When she arrived in HCM we talked but I felt poorly and she was too and so she delayed her trip up to Hoi An. By the time she was well again and arrived in Hoi An I felt very poorly and didn't feel well enough for the home visits and arranged for her to do them with my assistant, Duyen. I then went into hospital with suspected dengue fever.

After four days in hospital due to that pesky dengue mosquito bite Miriam took me back to her hotel and looked after me there while I regained some strength. As I recovered more we talked about CEF and I started to catch up a little. Dengue affects the brain and thinking actually hurts so I could only work a couple of hours before the pain was too much and I had to go back to sleep. Yes, any of you can use that as an excuse when you don't want to think about something!

When she could see I was well enough to leave her protective wing and get to the west for more rest, escape the remainder of the wet season and dengue infested Hoi An, she decided it was time for her to leave for her holiday in Laos.

Most of that planned visit for her had been spent looking after me! And amazingly enough she decided she would come back and help CEF further.

When she returned to Hoi An I had planned another period of meetings and home visits of the new CEF children (and of course the report writing). She also was working on developing a fundraising project with another friend for CEF.

Soon afterwards she found herself looking after me again in hospital and then in her home due to an accident I had that resulted in a fractured left fibula. Fortunately it's not serious and I am alive. Here you can have an accident and survive but then a bus or truck finishes you off! So when I realized I was alive and not in the middle of the road and without brain injury I felt so fortunate.

She has been wonderful and caring not just to the CEF children, but also to me. The worst of the pain is over and so I have reduced my pain killers and can stay awake long enough to think and work again. So Miriam has just returned from a trip to my house to pick up my computer so I can get back to CEF work.

Now I'm on Mai's bed working on the computer with the leg raised on a pillow. Mai is Miriam's house mate. Mai, a nurse has also helped CEF with home visits to a mother of one of the children we sponsor and has helped make sure she has an ongoing supply of medication for her terminal condition. Mai is back working in Australia for a short time earning money for her self-funded stays in Hoi An. She helps the local charities here when they need her nursing skills. While away she has kindly offered her room for me to recouperate in while Miriam helps care for me.

Lien, who is my security person, and home, garden and animal helper, has also introduced me to many of the children we help in Hoi An as they are from her neighborhood. While I have been recovering here at Miriam and Mai's home she has been delivering breakfast and lunch and doing my laundry,and running chores, making it less arduous for me and dear Miriam. I am very blessed and feel very loved and cared for.

It's actually overwhelming for me to be cared for by others when I am the one who is used to doing the caring. The only times I can remember being cared for and very happy to be cared for were the times when my mother-in-law came and helped look after me at home after I gave birth to three of my children. After my first and third child she she cared for me in her home. Each time she was wonderful, gentle, sweet, caring and hard working. That was very easy and natural to accept. That was a long time ago and so it's strange to need caring for and to accept it graciously as I don't want to stress my dear friend or take her away from the work she has been doing to help CEF.

A friend helped put it into perspective for me. He said that in Miriam caring for me,she is caring for and working for CEF. He said that there wasn't a more needed or better job she could do, as it was immediately needed and CEF couldn't function without it. The short term role she has ended up taking on has been more useful than anything else she could have taken on at present. It's just she is caring for CEF through caring for me, so that I recover quickly and can get on with all CEF work. He said her timing to volunteer was perfect and could not have been better. It just is not the role that either of us had planned for!

A few drawings CEF children did last week

Many of the children do beautiful drawings. When we interview children and try to find out what they love at school most of the little ones generally say art.

The drawings on this blog were done by some of the children we have just recently interviewed and agreed to find sponsors for. One of the drawings looks lovely but tells another story. In this picture Dieu, who is 5 years old has only drawn three people in her family. There is a lovely house, herself, her sister and brother in the drawing. Unfortunately her parents drowned and since then she has been cared for by her grandparents,but she has not included them in the picture. Granny and granddad are over 80 and frail; they aren't really able to do much in the way of caring for the children. When the parents died the children were put into an orphanage by other relatives and the grandparents were horrified and removed them and have tried hard to look after them, but they struggle to do so and look very tired. Her older sister of 17 is the person who has looked after her since the parents died and Dieu clings to her, rarely leaving her side.

Some of the other pictures are joyful and were drawn by children who are less traumatized than Dieu, although from impoverished families. One girl loves literature and has written a lovely poem about her life using the lotus as the image of herself.

For donations:
Please see our blog'Information on Making a Donation'
Or Americans can contact Stephen at cef.vn.usa@gmail.com
and Australians can contact Graeme at c.e.f.vietnam@gmail.com