Children's Education Foundation's 2013 Beach Outing and Water Safety Day

The local children arrived early and then came a large bus load from the outlying districts of Quang Nam and a small bus from Da Nang.

They added sun protection lotion and signed papers.

They had water safety talks with question and answer sessions.

They then were divided into groups, went down to the water and played some games at the waters edge to got used to the water.

And learned to float.

And learned to swim... a little...

And had fun!

Then they had morning tea, played games, had lunch, rested, did karaoke and headed off with afternoon tea and a photo of them all in a frame....

Brian came to the mountains with us to visit CEF families

Brian, one of our Australian board members, who is also part of the Thai Binh Education Program team, visited me in Hoi An recently. He came on our end of year trip assessment into the mountains. It enabled him to see what some of the family situations are like in the more mountainous and isolated areas outside Hoi An.





The countryside is very beautiful and its very peaceful up there; I love visiting the mountains. The families we help up there are clearly poor with very little in the way of work opportunities for the parents in such isolated areas.



Two of the families we visited are very sweet and life is hard for them. One is a single, disabled mum, who does farming. She has two children and is also responsible for her mother. The other mum is also a farmer and struggles to support the two children and her husband, who has had a stroke. Both mums can pick up some seasonal work sometimes.



It's always a pleasure to work with them and to know we ease the struggle a little by helping their children with their education.

Phuong has completed school, married and has a gorgeous baby

This is Phuong's gorgeous, healthy baby! Phuong is a young mother of 19; a very good one. She was sponsored through her last three years of school by CEF.

Phuong completed school with CEF's help, and did want to do further studies, but when she got near completing school, the biological urge to marry and have a family was stronger than the desire to study.



We have offered to support her to do vocational training or to go back to studying when the baby is older, but her mother and in-laws want her to work, as they are all very poor.



We are pleased we were able to help her complete school, as when we met her about three years ago, she was going to stop school as mum couldn't afford her education. We can see although she is young, she is a very good mother. Research has shown that girls who complete school make better mothers than those who don't. She is our first school graduate who has chosen to marry and have a family, so it is a new and interesting experience for us.

We are still giving CEF children t-shirts from Duyen

Duyen gave CEF so many cute new t-shirts for the children that we are still giving them out. They are all about the same size, so when we visit the girls in our education programs who are the right size, they receive a new t-shirt. They are always thrilled, as it is a real treat to have a new item of clothing.



Although we are given many second-hand clothes for the children, they do not like to receive second-hand clothing much; perhaps it is a reminder of their poverty.

Children's Education Foundation's Australian manager visited Hau who he sponsors

Graeme and Hau

Graeme is both the Australian manager of Children's Education Foundation, as well as a sponsor.

Recently Graeme was here in Vietnam and came on two days of visits to two communities he knows quite well. Hau, who he sponsors lives in one of these communities.


Hau with auntie, granny and part-time staff member Quan

Hau lost both parents at a young age and has been brought up by his aunt, uncle and grandmother who all love him dearly. He has been most fortunate to have caring relatives to take him in.

Graeme covered all of Hau's educational costs which has helped the family hugely. Now Hau is in the process of deciding what next, as he finishes school in a month.

It has been a challenge to get him through school as he is not academically-oriented, but we are thrilled he hung in there and this year he has done better than in the last three years.


Hau with granny who is blind

We look forward to hearing what his decision is and supporting him through the next few years while he does some vocational training or gets a college qualification.

Children's Education Foundation children receive toys and clothes

Nga with her rabbits ears

Lynette visits Vietnam most years with friends and each time brings clothes and toys for the CEF children. Sometimes they come from her stash and sometimes her friends donate them. It's always a treat for children to receive a gift as they rarely do. Thank you Lynette and your friends for thinking of the children here.


Thuy with her monkey


Thuy with her little dog


Luong in his new cap

Lovely new t-shirts for some of the CEF sponsored girls

Duyen who worked with CEF for some years also had a clothing business and when she shut down and was disposing of the last of her stock she gave us some fashionable T-shirts for the girls, which have been much appreciated by them.

More T-shirts will be given to the girls over the next few weeks while we are doing home visits.

How Children's Education Foundation started, by Barbara

My dear friend Linda went on a holiday to Vietnam 10 years ago where she was confronted with a lot of poverty and met Trang and after hearing her and her sister's story, she decided to support the 2 girls in order to give them an education and with that a better opportunity in life. Now Trang has finished University and is working and supports her sister. Linda has started her own charity out of that first experience - Childrens Education Foundation - and 6 years ago decided to move to Vietnam so she can run the charity more effectively. I myself sponsor a girl who now too is at University and it gives me great pleasure to hear about her development and her joy of studying. My children too support a girl who is still at school and we realise that changing one life at a time is better than doing nothing just because we cannot change the whole world. It doesn't cost us a lot and means so much for those girls in Vietnam where a female life is not worth a lot... If you want to support Linda as well and take on a sponsor child or even only offer a one of donation for all the other things Linda does please visit her website. I am proud to call her my friend. Thanks Linda for all the good work you do.

A visit to two girls in CEF's education sponsorship program (Guest blog and photos by Kerry)

A very special day!



Today we were to get a rare insight into the world of two little girls, named Tam (14 years old in the pink) and Ngoc ( 12 years old) who we sponsor through C.E.F. in Vietnam.(www.ChildrensEducationFoundation.org.au)

Tam and Ngoc and their younger brother lost their father in a motorbike accident over a year ago.This has been a very sad situation for this young family on so many levels.
Their mother left as sole carer and breadwinner, was placed in difficult situation in regard to the continuation of schooling for the girls. Thankfully C.E.F. was advised by a local Buddhist Nun,( seen pictured here with Linda's assistant and Linda) and once their needs were assessed, C.E.F went into action to try and find a sponsor.



Linda Burn the founder of the charity and I met on a previous cooking tour of Vietnam as she sidelines as a travel guide to support herself and her charity. We stay in contact and when she alerted me of this situation last year, Andrew and I were happy to step up and take up sponsorship.

As many people do when they donate to a charity like this, beyond the initial payments, we don't often think about how our donation actually plays out in the individual's lives. As Andrew and I were to be in Vietnam and close to where the girls lived,( about 45 mins out of Hoi An), I asked Linda if we could arrange to meet, which she kindly organised and accompanied us with an interpreter.

It was such a humbling and rewarding experience to meet the girls. I wanted them to know us, and to believe we have their best interests at heart. They both study hard and their grades are excellent. English not being their first language and sparingly taught in the schools, we learned through the interpreter that Ngoc's favorite TV show is a cartoon called Tom and Jerry. Who would have thought! Tam loves Literature and Ngoc is into Physics. They are poor but proud. Their home is humble but they have a small piece of land the mother can sow and harvest rice from to earn a living, and they have 3 new piglets which makes them extremely happy as this also can bring in an income.

I can't tell you how much it meant to us to see the girls and for a short while gain an appreciation of their lives and the challenges they face and will face in the future. An education is everything to a Vietnamese as it is the only way for them to go beyond manual labour in markets or harvesting rice or worse sold off as a mail order bride. It was even a treat to play with the play dough we brought for the younger brother, who was totally in awe of this colourful moldable stuff and went to give it back to us before we left, as he didn't think it was for him. I think that's why we got the "peace sign" attempt Andrew had been working on with him in the last pic.



My praise goes to Linda and her team for the work they do. It does truly cost so little to sponsor a child here, and I am glad we took them both. They loved the small little gifts we gave them and it gave us such great pleasure to just be there.

Further down the way on the same day, Linda took us to meet another girl, Trang, who we sponsored just for her last term. Apparently it was very much appreciated as without it she would not have been able to go on and gain a scholarship to learn to be a PE teacher. She is pictured here with Andrew.

Vietnamese read less than 1 book a year

"Vietnamese read less than one book/year" was the title of an article in VietNamNet Bridge.



Children's Education Foundation started a mobile library this academic year to help increase the love of reading and literacy amongst the children in our education programs. Initially we are taking books to all the children in our programs throughout Quang Nam and in Da Nang; most of whom live in the countryside. As we have more funding and consequently more books, they will be lent to all family relatives.



Part of the article follows which helps to give a good picture of how little reading takes place here:
"Vietnamese people read 0.8 books a year on average, said an official of the Ministry of Culture - Sports - Tourism at a press conference last week. The figure stunned the press.

Preparing for the Festival of Books and Reading Culture 2013, titled "The book that changes life," Deputy Minister Huynh Vinh Ai had a passionate speech about the importance of books at the press conference on April 12.

Another official from the Ministry, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai, released some sadly information about reading in Vietnam. According to Mai, compared to other countries in Southeast Asia, the proportion of people reading books in Vietnam is quite low. On average, Vietnamese read 0.8 book/year (less than one book). The rate at public libraries is 0.38 book/person.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Thach, who initiated the project to bring books to the countryside, said that he conducted a survey in 2011. All 253 respondents who were farmers said they did not read book. Rural children read 0.2-0.8 book/year compared to 5 books/year for urban kids."