Reflections on working with ethnic students in Phuoc Son ~ Guest blog by CEF's Thuy Dinh

Working with ethnic minority girls to help them with their education is really challenging for us. At first, communication is always difficult because they have their own language and have to learn Vietnamese at school when they are young children but this does not mean they can understand all of the Vietnamese vocabulary, so we have to use basic words to talk with them and exchange information. Sadly in some cases we are unable to help them because we cannot communicate with them sufficiently or because they are hesitant to talk with us.

Secondly, helping them with careers advice is also another challenge because there are not many job opportunities for them after high school graduation to match their abilities. To be honest, I have become more patient since I started working with them. I learned not to always expect too much from them or for them to have good school results. Over the two years that I have been working on this project, I can see the progress they have made, although it’s sometimes slow. I smile to myself as it makes me happy to see this progress.

Previously, the majority of the young ethnic generation dropped out of school before completing high school due to poverty, pregnancy, or child marriage, then did farming like their parents. This kept the poverty cycle going, but now it is gradually changing. So far this year, most CEF scholarship students want to take a vocational training course to be a tailor, a hairdresser, a baker, a bartender, a waitress or work in a factory to earn money and support their family. I think at least they have started to change their mind about what is possible and dream of a brighter future.

(Staff photos)

Hoi An and some of our CEF students

Hoi An is an old trading town, and once the largest port in South East Asia, but that was a long time ago. It has been a popular tourist town for the last twenty years. Our NGO is based on the outskirts and some of our CEF students reside on the outskirts too.

It looks like an affluent town with it's lovely homes, it's tempting shops and restaurants, but there still is a lot of poverty here.

I share here a few summaries of situations of a few of the local children. Tien's parents and grandparents have all died. Her sister who is a young mother with a very low income is responsible for her. She can just about feed Tien, but needs help with that and needs us to cover Tien's education costs. 

One family we help has three young children who mum is trying to support on her own as dad died fairly recently. Mum is creative and finds ways to earn small amounts, but with reduced domestic tourism her income is way down. CEF helps with education and food costs.

Another sweet child in our sponsorship program is an orphan cared for by her grandparents and her extended family. One of her aunts who is dying from cancer is under granny and grandad's care too. The main person earning is granddad who is a fisherman. He says that the area has been overfished and they have to go further out to see to find fish. So his income from fishing is down.

Linh is a young girl living with granny. Dad has vanished and doesn't care and mum has died. Granny has no income except help she receives from a son depending on how much he earns. Another is an orphan who is cared for by granny and aunty. Neither have an income except from any family who can contribute. Both these girls have sponsorships. 

One student's brother was a gambler and gambled so much mum had to sell the family home. Fortunately they had a little left, and could get a loan to buy a tiny piece of land and build a small home in an abjacent district, but now they have no friends there, a large debt which they can't pay off, and it takes her 45 minutes to get to school now.  As she has lessons at night after school has finished she has to stay in town and eat at a friends home as her's is too far to come and go from in the day.

Another girl in the sponsorship program has parents but mum is dying of cancer and so the only income is from rice they sell and dad giving tourists rides on their buffalo, but with no tourists there is not income besides from the rice.

Their situations sound depressing and they are very challening ones. But they smile effortlessly when we see them, they are able to laugh and joke besides sharing their challenges. It rarely is depressing as they all have hope and they all have help and care from CEF to keep their daughters and granddaughters in school.   

A past CEF sponsorship student gets married ~ Guest blog by CEF's staff Ngoc Do

Ngoc Do who was responsible for Van over two of the six years she was in CEF's sponsorship program shares this good news.

Van, one of CEF’s past students sent me a sweet message to inform us about her wedding day. 

‘On June 26, I am getting married. I won’t do a big celebration so I am sorry that I cannot invite you, Ms. Linda and CEF staff to attend my wedding party. I am writing to you to let you know about this great news.

On this occasion, I would sincerely send my big thanks to Ms. Linda, my sponsor, Mrs. Morwenna and CEF staff for helping and caring for me over my most difficult years. I hope Ms Linda will stay healthy and happy to help many more disadvantaged children.’

She was one of my favorite children because she tried very hard to stay positive and overcome many obstacles in her life. Congratulations Van! I wish her all the best.

Thank you letter ~ Guest blog by CEF's staff member Kim Chi

Van Anh has been in our education sponsorship program for nine years (photo below of her when we started sponsoring her).

CEF staff member Kim Chi shares a thank you letter about the her final step at university for Van Anh:
One of our university students has done her final dissertation to graduate from university. In the final thank you letter which she wrote to her sponsor, she would like to share her feelings from that day which was a very important and special day for her.

“Last Monday, I finished the final exams of term two and ended my four-year university course with a final dissertation. I had to present the final dissertation in front of many lecturers of my faculty. One day before, I had to prepare my presentation on PowerPoint, prepare my uniform, and drink and fruit for the lecturers. I wore Ao Dai which is our traditional custom when presenting a dissertation.

Although I did prepare it very well, I was nervous and couldn’t talk fluently. When I finished my presentation, the lecturers questioned and I answered most of their questions very well and naturally, and that made me became more confident. I was thrilled because the lecturers assessed my presentation at a high level. They also made some comments and suggestions which helped me to recognize my mistakes and improve the next time. It was a good result for my effort and I was very pleased about my presentation. I was even more delighted when I got a score of 9.4/10 for my dissertation.

It was the best memory of my student time. Doing the final dissertation was not only a novel experience but also a remarkable moment during my time at university. I gained a lot of experiences and made some good relationships which are related to my work of the future.”

Today one of our past CEF students is getting married

Van's story was tragic, with dad poisoning her mother, then himself. Leaving her and her brother orphaned, her grandparents then brought up the children, but as they were elderly they had no income. It certainly wasn't a happy household as it was very stained as her grandparents were too poor and too old to take on this responsility.  

We took Van into the sponsorship program and helped her have a high school education and then helped her study to become an art teacher. After four years of working she met the man she wants to marry and today they were married.

She wrote to us about this special day (translated by CEF's Ngoc Do):‘On June 26, I am getting married. I won’t do a big celebration so I am sorry that I cannot invite you, Ms. Linda and CEF staff to attend my wedding party. I am writing to you to let you know about this great news.

On this occasion, I sincerely send my big thanks to Ms. Linda, my sponsor, Mrs. Morwenna and CEF staff for helping and caring for me over the most difficult time in my life. I hope Ms Linda will stay healthy and happy to help many more disadvantaged children.’

Morwenna her sponsor helped change her life and enabled her become an educated and employable young woman. She met Morwenna her sponsor, and Morwenna's two children, two years after graduation. They were thrilled to be able to meet each other at last. 

We wish Van a happy life as she certainly deserves it after all the challenges she has had to face.

Home visits in Dai Loc ~ Blog guest ~ Graeme Burn ~ CEF's Australia Manager

It was getting hot even at 5-15am when I left the CEF office in Hoi An to join two of our staff, Thuy and Ngoc to travel to Dai Loc district to visit students and their families. We reached the first house while the sun was quite low and the view from the family’s garden across the rice fields to the hills in the distance was still fresh and clear.

We visited eight families that day. It was lovely to see some children I hadn’t met for a year or two and to learn how they were getting on and what their plans for the future were. We spent time with one family whose two high school girls are quite new in CEF’s program.

Thuy and Ngoc interviewed the two young women and talked to their mother about how things were going for them all during COVID 19. We sat in their father’s tailor’s shop and he worked at his bench ironing and cutting cloth the whole time we were there. We learned that business was slow because not many customers had the money to have clothes made but they were managing with father’s income and a monthly gift from donors who had given to CEF’s COVID19 support fund.

While Thuy helped Tuyet Mai with her university application, mum told us how her husband had stopped working in a garment factory to set up his tailoring business in the front of their home. He had been travelling 1 1/2 hours to the factory on his three-wheeled motorbike, renting a room near work, staying the week there and returning for a day or two at the weekend. Disabled from birth he found the travel and factory work exhausting. it was special to see him together with his wife and daughters. His broad smile told me that he was very happy no longer having to ride so far for work and being able to spend so much more time with his family.

Home visits to our families in and around Hoi An

Due to Covid19 all of CEF's home visits had to be delayed until a time when it was safe and permitted.

This page is just photos from home visits locally, of families and scenery and a kitchen. We caught up with our children and families and discussed the education of the child who is in the sponsorship program.

We found everyone well and a few only in a challenging financial position because they are unemployed or have no customers to take up the services they offer, and that has come about due to Covid19. 

Post Covid19

We have been most fortunate here in Vietnam as the government has dealt very responsbily with the recent outbreak of the virus Covid19. There weren't many cases and there were no deaths. They worked very hard to ensure this at a great cost to the countryas they made their people the priority.

We have been blessed to have received some donations which have helped us to help our students and their families during this challenging time of very little or no work. For many now things are getting better, as some factories have reopened due to receiving orders. Some hotes, restaurants and cafes catering to the domestic tourists are open and have mainly weekend business when the tourists arrrive for the weekend.

For many their lives have changed little as they support themselves by farming and by selling their vegetables at the market.  Some of the farming families now are having to support a son or a daughter who is now unemployed though. In most of the areas CEF works there is no tourism, but family members might work in tourism away from their homes.

As our base is in Hoi An, a tourist town, we can see that Covid19 has greatly affected the local community. Many businesses have permanently shut down and a few can afford to stay shut and wait until international tourism resumes. But the town is a little like a ghost town on weekdays when there are no domestic tourists.   

We have all been warned there may be a second wave and we hope this doesn't happen.  Vietnam is working to ensure it doesn't. They were going to open the borders to more people next week, but have announced they have changed their minds due to new cases in China, one of our neighbors.

We thank everyone who has donated to help families during this challenging time and those who have received help are very grateful.

Photos are of a few of our CEF students with Covid19 support funds they have received. 

No blogs for a long time

Hello everyone,

I am sorry there have been no blogs for a long time, but I could not access my blogsite as it was blocked.

I will resume doing blogs now it is accessible and hope you enjoy our posts.

Please take good care of yourselves and your families,
Linda

Photo of myself with CEF staff in February, after our last face to face meeting for three months due to Covid19.

Thank you from a CEF student ~ Translation by CEF's Kim Chi

Dear CEF,

I hope this letter finds you in good health. 

I am very lucky to receive your care and your support. I am the youngest child in a family with three children. When I was born, my mother was diagnosed with brain cancer. My father had to take out a bank loan to cover her treatment and pay for our education expenses. Being aware of our difficult situation, three of us always tried hard to be good students. Unfortunately, my brother had mental illness straight after sailing through the university entrance exam with a score of 29/30 and had been accepted into the Hanoi University of Science and Technology. We were very shocked. My parents’ hope of him breaking the poverty cycle of our family was dashed at the time as my brother was not capable of attending his university course. My mother was very upset, but she always encouraged my elder sister and me to study hard and take care of our health. Although she was very ill, she still worked really hard farming, putting aside her earnings each day to pay for our expenses. 

She finally left us forever on the day when my sister had her university entrance exam. I was in grade 7 at that time, and I understood that I would lose my mother, her love and her care from then on. My father became the sole breadwinner as well as being responsible for the children and the house. He had a work accident a few years ago when working on a building site and since then has had a lot of pain due to the injury and his spinal degeneration, so he can’t do any physically demanding work. But he has been working sometimes far from the family as a construction laborer and sends money home. My father was worried a lot when he worked far away because my brother is still on medications and sometimes is difficult. He borrowed a lot of money to take my brother to many places over the years for treatment in the hope that his mental health would be more stable and he would stop annoying our neighbors. My father is getting old so his health is deteriorating as he has also developed ulcerative colitis and often lacks sleep. Sometimes, he has to stop working for a while due to his poor health. My father has a lot of responsibilities for someone who is getting old. 

I am well aware of my family situation, so I wish I could help my father more. Although I have to deal with many challenges, I will never stop my schooling. I always try hard to be a good student. I’m soon to start a new important journey in my life, which is taking the final high school exam which will also decide if I will get into university. I want to go to university so I can have a good job in the future, and then I can help my family.

CEF has been helping me from when I was in grade 7, and this helped a lot to reduce the financial burden of my family. I am very grateful for this sponsorship and support so that I could continue my education, and it has helped me be more confident to make my dream come true.

I wish you good health, happiness and success.

Once again, thank you so much for your support!

Best regards,

Bui Thi Huong Lan

Vietnamese follows:

Thái Bình ngày 30/2/2020

Kính gửi CEF,

Lời đầu thư con xin gửi lời thăm hỏi sức khỏe tới CEF.

Con thực sự may mắn khi được Qúy hội quan tâm giúp đỡ. Nhà con có 3 anh chị em và con là út. Khi sinh con ra mẹ con đã mắc phải bệnh u não. Gia đình phải đi vay mượn để chữa bệnh và có tiền lo cho con cái ăn học.Ý thức được hoàn cảnh gia đình 3 anh chị em luôn phấn đấu học tập trở thành con ngoan trò giỏi. Nhưng thật trớ trêu niềm vui khi biết anh con đỗ đại học Bách Khoa Hà Nội 29 điểm chưa bao lâu thì gia đình con lại nhận được cú sốc khi biết tin anh bị tâm thần. Bao hy vọng thay đổi hoàn cảnh gia đình bỗng bị dập tắt, ước mơ đành bỏ dở khi anh con không thể bước tiếp con đường học tập. Buồn nhưng mẹ luôn động viên chị em con học giỏi và dặn dò nhắc nhở giữ gìn sức khỏe sao cho tốt. Mẹ bệnh tật hằng ngày vẫn chắt chiu từng đồng rau,nai lưng làm ngoài đồng để lo cho gia đinh và con cái. 

Ngày chị con thi đại học là ngày mẹ con ra đi mãi mãi, là khi con học lớp 7 và biết được rằng mãi mãi không bao giờ còn cảm nhận được tình  yêu thương quan tâm chăm sóc từ mẹ nữa. Bố con trở thành trụ cột chăm lo cho con cái và nhà cửa. Bố con vốn bị đau lưng do một tai nạn trong lúc làm việc.Bố bị ngã giàn giáo từ trên cao xuống thật may thoát nạn nhưng để lại biến chứng.Bố bị chùn cột sống lưng và thường xuyên chịu cơn đau nhức không làm được việc nặng. Tuy vậy bố vẫn phải đi làm khắp nơi dù xa nhà nhưng vẫn cố gắng để kiếm được từng đồng tiền gửi cho gia đình. Những hôm đi làm xa nhà vẫn không khỏi lo lắng hai anh em ở nhà bởi anh con vẫn phải dùng tuốc hằng ngày và chỉ mong sức khỏe được ổn định để bố yên tâm đi làm. Bố lo bệnh anh con thất thường có thể bỗng dưng bị tái phát quậy phá gây rắc rối khắp nơi. Bố đã phải đi vay mượn để nhiều lần đưa anh đi chữa bệnh. Công việc cũng không được ổn định khi tuổi bố ngày càng cao bố con lại mắc bệnh đại tràng và bị mất ngủ thường xuyên. Có nhiều lúc phải bỏ dở công việc vì bệnh. Bố con đã gánh vác quá nhiều gánh nặng khi mà giờ đây bố đang ngày càng già yếu. 

Hiểu được hoàn cảnh gia đình, con mong muốn bản thân có thể giúp đỡ bố, gia đình nhiều hơn. Mọi thứ dù khó khăn nhưng con tự hứa sẽ không bỏ dở việc học. Con luôn phấn đấu trở thành học sinh giỏi và giờ đây con đang đứng trước một ngã rẽ quan trọng trong cuộc đời. Kì thi đại học là một bước ngoặt của cuộc đời. Con muốn học đại học để sau này có một công việc ổn định để lo cho gia đình. 

CEF đã giúp con từ khi con học lớp 7, học bổng đã giúp gia đình con trang trải được gánh nặng tài chính cho việc học của con. Con thực sự rất cảm động và biết ơn Qúy hội đã giúp con có thể trang trải việc học tập của mình, giúp con tự tin hơn trên con đường thực hiện ước mơ, biến ước mơ thành sự thật.

Cuối thư con xin chúc Qúy hội luôn dồi dào sức khỏe,hạnh phúc và thành công trong cuộc sống

                                                                            Con của Qúy hội

                                                                                    Lan

                                                                          Bùi Thị Hương Lan