About CEF home visits in the mountains near the border ~ Guest blog by Ngoc

Last weekend, I had a chance to go to Phuoc Son district, a remote area far away from Hoi An. I have been there three times; however this is the first time I had a chance to pay visits to such poor families and it made me immediately want to help them. It was an interesting trip and I think that if anyone has an opportunity to go there, you too will be keen on supporting children there. 

We met many lovely girls who are from poor families with good school results. I really admire some of them who are just in grade 10 or 11 and yet have to cover all their school fees and living costs to continue their schooling. However, they still manage to always be ‘good’ students at school without even having extra tuition. There were some other girls that are working hard all time in the family farm and only have time to study at night but they still do well at school and have good results. 

I was impressed by a lovely girl, ‘T’, whose mother left home many years ago and she is currently living with her father and younger brother in a small house. Her father has been mentally ill since her mother suddenly left home and his health is not as good as before. For this reason she has to care for everything in the home including all financial issues. Fortunately she has a paternal aunt who lives next door and sometimes supports her a little bit. However the aunt is a hired laborer and her income is very low. As a result ‘T’ sells fruit in the market in order to make a living and support her family.

Her aunt told us while crying that she was unable to support ‘T’ if she passed the university entrance exam although she has been an excellent student for many years. Being asked about university, ‘T’ seems very keen on going to university; however, she realized that the chance for her dream coming true is very tiny. She also has to look after a grade 10 brother, at least until he finishes high school. Her opportunity to have tertiary education seems impossible now, but she would love to have that chance. 

Please See Children's Education Foundation's New Website

Our CEF website was very old and needed updating. I didn't have the knowledge or skills to do this work. CEF now has a completely new website to keep everyone abreast of our work here in Vietnam.

Two wonderful new friends encouraged me to take on the challenge of creating a new site.  Liat and Ziv very kindly showed me a website package and taught me how to use the tools so I could create a simple website that I could maintain.

Their knowledge and support has been hugely appreciated and I certainly would never have had the confidence to taken on this task without it. The website will be easy for me to maintain and I will be able to keep our donors, sponsors and supporters up to date with our work.

The link to the website is: www.ChildrensEducationFoundation.org.au

Please read about our work and we hope you will join us in our efforts to help impoverished and vulnerable Vietnamese girls to stay in school and complete their education.

Linda

Linda Burn
Founding Director and In-Country Manager - Vietnam
Children's Education Foundation

Challenges in Learning English ~ Guest blog by Thuy, who is one of our university students and also part-time CEF staff

I’ve been learning English at university in my local province for 3 years. Although I’m keen on English, there are many challenges to master the language. 

While my major at university is English, I hardly communicate with English-speaking foreigners. I study lots of new English vocabulary but I have little chance to practice it. Also, since I rarely practice my English with native speakers, I feel nervous and scared to be wrong.

Fortunately, CEF has not only supported my education but also given me access to an English environment. Sometimes, I have a home visit trip with Linda and CEF staff. This is a good chance to communicate with Linda. Also I must write reports in English about the home visits.

And in this summer, I have been learning English with a volunteer (Mai-Thi) who is from the US. She is friendly and enthusiastic. She helps me improve my pronunciation skills.

I would like CEF to have more English volunteers so that the university students of CEF, like myself, have the opportunity to communicate in English. This would help improve listening skills and speaking skills as well as increase my confidence in English. 

Helping People to Help Others ~ Guest blog by Graeme Burn

It’s not that easy to raise money. but it’s not that hard and it can be fun into the bargain. It’s partly about making it easy for people who want to give to dip into their pockets and part with a moderate sum. It’s also about giving them a good reason to do this. And at the University of Technology, Sydney we have been managing to do both for a number of years.

I work with English language examiners and support staff and every two weeks or so we get together at UTS to work. Its only for four hours but there’s enough time to pitch to them the latest reason why we need their help and give them an easy attractive way to part with their cash.

The latest reason was CEF’s water safety day - a fun day of games and activities for 80 children where they also learn how not to drown.

I have found that raffles are a good way to entice my colleagues to give and there are always a few people who have great prizes they like to donate. This last raffle was no exception. Nicky donated a getaway weekend by the ocean, Frank came up with a bottle of Mumm champagne and there were two other desirable prizes: some Spode pottery and an incense burner.

I spread the raffle out over at least two weeks to give everyone who wants to the chance to buy tickets and by the time we got to the draw not only had we raised over $600 but there was quite a degree of excitement as the winning tickets were drawn.

It was delightful to see the delight on the faces of the winners and also to feel the warm support of all those who had participated in some way to raise enough to cover over half the cost of the water safety day.

A big thank you to everyone who gave so that children in our programs now know what to do if they get into trouble in the water.

Selling biscuits keeps two CEF girls in school each year

The father of one of our CEF girls has died

Today is the funeral of the father of one of our CEF girls and our staff will be attending.

I was sad and not prepared to hear of his death, as only recently he was well and up and around. We have known him over the last five years, so we  knew he possibly didn't have long for this world, but as his health sometimes picked up dramatically due to traditional herbs I kept positive and hoped he would recover. The herbs helped reduce his pain and on and off his vitality increased so much he cycled, rode his motorbike and went to family celebrations.

He will now be able to rest in peace and no longer suffer; this is good for him, but also for his family, as they have suffered too over the years.

Breaking the Shackles ~ Guest blog by Brian

On our recent round of visits to the supported students of Phuc Le Village we stopped by to say hello to the mother of one of our young students who has now progressed to university.

I have to say that never have I seen anyone more proud, than this mum is of her daughter, 'T'.   With support from a CEF sponsor, 'T' has just completed her second year of a Business Studies / Economics Course at a Hanoi university; and is doing very well.

                                                  2015

                                  In her first year of college - 2014

                            In her final year at high school - back in 2013

The Strength To Go Forward ~ Guest blog by Brian

We generally think of the support provided to the CEF students as being to give them a chance in life that was not afforded to the generation that preceded them.  It come to me on my most recent visit to the students of Phuc Le, that in circumstances where adversity has been particularly cruel, that the same support could well mean the ultimate survival of a whole family.

When I struggled with how to convey this little story, our founder, Linda, provided me with some words of wisdom, which helped set me on the path.  Quote:- “our work is not all fun and joy, there is fear, anxiety and worry for some and there is sadness about some situations.”

The case in point concerns a family that representatives of CEF, myself included, have come to know well from numerous visits over the past eight or nine years.  A family of five; mum, dad, two girls and a boy.  Lovely people; but plagued by mental health issues afflicting the twenty year old son and the father, who suffers from serious memory lapses.

The girls of the family, 'Q' and 'L', are both CEF students.  They have responded to the help provided by producing excellent results and are two of the most promising students in the Phuc Le group.  Q has just completed Year 12 and seems assured of a place at university.

Until recently the mother has been the lynch pin of the family, being the primary bread winner, caring for her son, assisting her husband during his bad times and encouraging and supporting her daughters to do well in their schooling.

                                       The girls mother ~ October 2014

One should never have favorites in the type of role the writer has filled, visiting these families over the years.  But I must confess to having really warmed to this family.  Hence, I became concerned two years ago when informed that Q and L’s mum had a serious health issue; alarmed at the deterioration in her condition last year; and devastated to learn in my visit in June that she had only weeks, if not days to live.

                                    L & Q with mum  ~ May 2014      
                          

Whilst I was very affected when invited by the girls to say my goodbyes to their mum, and by the actual experience of doing that, I was subsequently uplifted by the strength shown by those same young women in the face of such cruel circumstances.

                                           Q and L with mum  ~ June 2013            

There is the ubiquitous grannie living nearby to assist; however, it is evident that the future of the family now rests in the hands of Quynh and her younger sister.  Were it not for the support rendered by generous CEF sponsors, which will enhance the income earning capacity of these young people, the family would be facing a dire situation.  There will undoubtedly be many hurdles to be overcome; but thanks to you, the sponsors, the family has been endowed with the strength to stay together and carry on.    

Budgeting lesson for some of CEF's tertiary students ~ Guest blog by Kim Chi

The budgeting session this afternoon for the CEF tertiary students went very well and it was exciting to do this for them and with them. I taught them at CEF’s home office and there were only six students because the others live too far away to be able to get here. They were very serious about the session and listened carefully. 

At the beginning they didn’t even know what budgeting was. But after half an hour of working on questions and answers they understood what budgeting was about and how important it was and why they needed to do know how to budget. They then made budgets for themselves and shared them with each other.

It was quite easy for some of them to do a budget in theory, but in fact there are many changing aspects in life which they can't know in advance. I explained to them how to make their budget more realistic by looking at it sometimes and altering it if there has been something normal (such as flu) or something dramatic (like a death in the family)  happen to them, as this makes their budget change. 

The budget is not only to help them to make plans for paying their education fees, but it is also very useful for their life. I was very pleased with our tertiary students’ attitude about the budgeting session, as well as being very happy to share with them about my real life experience of budgeting.

About First Aid Training for staff ~ Guest blog by Thuy

First Aid lessons are very useful and important for CEF staff because we often have activities together with the children. Also we do not just work at the CEF office but also in remote areas; in the mountains. 

Even though all of us already learned First Aid when we were at school, it is not enough as we do not remember it all and some of that information has been updated since we studied it before.

 Jane, our nurse-volunteer who currently works at Dong A University taught us very interesting information which helped us retain it, and she updated all our First Aid information.

Nurse Jane teaching CPR

We learned a lot of helpful theory like CPR and about how to help with First Aid at accidents and with common injuries. What we learned included how to give basic First Aid and how to do some treatments of some common injuries such as treatments for bruises, cuts, sprains, broken bones, burns, bites, stings, rashes, and how to deal with allergies and anaphylaxis, choking and electrocution. Besides teaching us First Aid Theory, Jane didn’t forget to teach us the practical with us then practicing applying bandages for sprains, slings for broken bones and sprains, bandaging for bites. applying splints, doing CPR and putting the ill or injured person into the recovery position.

Kim Chi putting Thuy into recovery position

                                                           Thuy practicing CPR

We also shared our experience and knowledge of traditional First Aid with nurse Jane. Of course, some are the right thing to do and some are the wrong thing to do, but we wouldn’t know if we didn’t talk about them, so it was very good to be able to do that.

Nurse Jane with CEF's full-time staff

We really enjoyed the lessons! Thank you very much Jane!

The Grannies of Phuc Le ~ Guest blog by Brian

The village of Phuc Le in the northern Province of Thai Binh is really a microcosm of rural Vietnam. And nowhere in the village is the culture of the nation more represented than in the families of the 35 students supported by CEF.

On my most recent visit in June of this year, I gained full realization of what a major role 'the Grannies' play in the lives of these families.  It is quite common for three and sometimes even four generations of a family to reside in the same dwelling and the role that 'the grannies' play is generally not a passive one.

Despite advancing years and the ravages on bodies of a hard life, those still in good health play an active role in the daily lives of their family.  When one arrives to visit a student it is not unusual to find a granny caring for the children while the parents are working in the family rice plot, or absent from home working at a distant factory.  On other occasions one cannot help but notice these beautiful oldies pottering in the kitchen or performing other household chores while we are interviewing our student with mum or dad in the living area.  But it is also evident that ears are cocked and granny doesn’t miss a thing of what is being said with regard to her treasured grandchild.

           
In the Vietnamese culture this caring is also reflected in the respect, bordering on adoration, shown to the older generations.  Those who are ailing are treated with great tenderness and indeed on their passing photographs and tributes to them appear and remain on the ever prominent family altar. Ancestor worship remains an important element in Vietnamese culture.

As an aging guy myself I find it very easy to interact with the village grannies.  Through our translator we share some laughs.  But how I regret my laziness over the years in not becoming fluent in the Vietnamese language; for I could think of nothing more pleasant than sitting in a village garden listening to the wonderful life stories that these great people could tell and boasting about our respective grand kids.