Gael and Steve's visit in photos

Some of the children we saw on Sunday

There are many poor families locally, and we do help some. They have many more work opportunities than families who live in the mountains. The poor families we visit and help further afield have very few employment opportunities and are less able to afford any transport to get to work.

These are some of the pictures from last Sunday when we visited some of the children in Quang Nam province who are more than one and a half hours away from Hoi An. Some of these children have been sponsored nearly a year, and some have just received a sponsor to help them with their education.

We visit them regularly to see how they are, how they are doing at school and to find out if their housing situation has changed or if their parents or grandparents health, or employment situation has changed.

Gael is in Hoi An

Gael is here in Hoi An!

Gael is one of our board members and has been wanting to come here for years to see our work in person. She is also a very good friend and I am thrilled she has come at last and brought Steve with her.

Yesterday was their first day in Hoi An and they chose to come on a rather long day (14 hours) of home visits of the children in one of our education sponsorship programs. They survived the 276 km of travel in Quan Nam province to Que Son, Nong Son, Hiep Duc, Nui Thanh and Tam Ky! They even flourished; I could see they loved being out in the countryside enjoying the scenery and meeting the children and families.

It was helpful having them with us as they asked many questions and had a different perspective to offer.

(Photos:Gael and Steve with Bao Linh and Gael with Buddhist nun Lien who are both in one of our education sponsorship programs.)

Linh from Platinum Global visited CEF

Yesterday Linh from Platinum Global (Outsourcing / Offshoring) spent the day with us visiting 15 children. Her goal was to understand CEF further, to see how she, her work Social Club and Platinum Global may be able to help support CEF.

Linh fitted in easily and was a delight to spend the day with. At the end of the day I realized I had only met her the prior evening and yet she felt very much a part of the team.

She has a huge heart and great understanding of poverty; she knows and understands poverty having spent her childhood in the south in the Mekong Delta region and also worked with an NGO in that area in the past.

She brought presents for the children from Platinum Global's Social Club. The most precious thing for the children were the books. Most poor children do not own a book!

Just sponsored

Thuong has just been sponsored thanks to Elizabeth! Thuong's mother has terminal cancer. Her family know, but decided not to tell her! She knows she is unwell but believes she will be well soon. She has been through many months of chemotherapy and now the family has a huge debt as medical treatment is not free here and chemotherapy is very expensive. This situation meant that their daughters were very likely to have to stop their education. Now they have the good news that Thuong can stay in school and complete her education.

We are in the process of introducing waiting sponsors to recently interviewed children

We are in a most fortunate position where we have sponsors waiting for children to sponsor.

With inflation affecting the poor we are getting many more requests than we have ever had before. Recently we saw many children who have asked for educational support for this coming academic year and for the remainder of their education. Now we have the satisfying work of giving each of the waiting sponsors a child in need of sponsorship.

Three of the children just seen have sponsors now and over the next two days we will be sending out bios on more of the children to the waiting sponsors. (The pictures are of three of the girls we interviewed recently)

Visit to Blue Dragon Children's Foundation

I believe it is encouraging for NGO workers to share the work they do as we can always have something to offer each other.

Last week I visited Blue Dragon Children's Foundation head office in Hanoi. They are a grassroots charity working with kids in crisis throughout Vietnam. Two staff members most generously gave of their time resulting in a very interesting visit. The work they do is most impressive and makes a large difference to many children's lives.

With education at the heart of everything they do, Blue Dragon sets out to transform the lives of the poorest children and families.

Their kids come from many backgrounds, but all are in difficult circumstances and all needing a chance to make a change.

They meet the kids on the streets, at their workplaces, or in their homes and work with them until they can stand on their own feet and live happy, prosperous lives.

Michael Brosowski, the Founder of Blue Dragon says:

"All children have the right to be children: to be safe, to attend school, to play, to be treated with respect, to be heard, to be understood and to be loved."

Women's Day - A few thoughts about women and equality in Vietnam

I can't say I have seen equality here amongst the poor, the less poor or the wealthy, but I have seen the beginning of it.

I have some Vietnamese friends who are university educated, speak excellent English, wear modern clothes, work with westerners, and have attended conferences in English overseas, and yet in some ways they haven't changed much.

The young seem very modern, cool and many are very well-dressed with all the mod cons. But when they marry most of them follow the traditions their parents followed; they just don't see that they do.

After marriage they usually have their first child within the first year and a half of marriage. Some put their foot down as they want to wait, but they have to bear incredible pressure from both parents and parents-in-law and will usually give in after two years.

The women work hard here and don't just support their own immediate family, but will often help support and help out their parents-in-law. Before heading off to work and leaving the children with her mother, she may well have to go to her mother-in-laws home, wash her clothes, clean her house, do the shopping and cook two meals for her. When she finishes work she might then cook another meal for her and sweep through her house. Then she will pick up the children, take them home, cook a meal for her husband and clean her house. When she has time off, or before work if she works every day, she will also have to help with the rice, peanut and vegetable growing (unless she lives in a city).

Her husband most likely will have no domestic skills. Most boys have been treated like princes and have rarely done anything to help at home. Some Vietnamese men can cook as their mothers worked and if they wanted to eat they had to cook. Sometimes it was their responsibility to cook a meal for the family as their mother wasn't home until after dinner time.

The difference with the educated Vietnamese from my experience is that most of them have good incomes and less children. Most of them have more choices and do make a much stronger stand when needed than an uneducated girl. They are generally materialistic and want western-style homes and furniture. They want what we have, not realizing we haven't got it right. Some want to leave Vietnam to get away from all the traditions and expectations, but know there is no coming back unless they come back wealthy, and then share the wealth upon their return.

Taoist and Confucius traditions die slowly here. More equality will happen, but maybe not much for another generation, or more.

Diem now is sponsored!

Diem was brave as she came to see us without her mother when we were in her community and asked if we could help her to complete her schooling. She has no father and mum has poor health and has to work when she can. This was a day when mum had to work. Having never met us it would have been quite challenging for Diem to come and ask for help. It showed how much she cared about completing her schooling.

We took her request seriously and thanks to Chris and his couch surfers donations he is able to help Diem complete her schooling!

Old toys and books sold to make a donation

I had a very touching email from Michaela, a past donor, with a new donation. She said that the new donation was possible as her children had sold old toys and books. They plan to come and spend some time in Vietnam in the near future too.