A change for the better

  Photos of Tuyen with family back in 2011

CEF's Lua shares about one of our CEF families who no longer is struggling financially:

On a recent home visit we were so happy to get to know that Tuyen’s family is no longer struggling to make ends meet. 

Tuyen is one of CEF's grade 9 students living in Thang Binh and CEF has been supporting her for 9 years. 

Because her parents are blind,  we always have made sure she has enough funds for her education, as well as food or any other support needed.

Her parents used to rent a house on the main road to use as a spa, but about six months ago they had to close the door as they couldn’t earn because of Covid and Covid's social restrictions. Luckily, her father came up with a great idea that he should move his spa to their home in order to save on rent. He also lowered the price of his massages so that more of the local villagers could come to try massage and acupressure at an affordable cost. After three months of working from home he has many repeat customers. More and more people after having therapy at his home are recommending him to their families and friends as they are getting relief from their daily pain due to their spinal degeneration.

The whole family is so happy because now they can manage their finances themselves.  

Recent photo of Tuyen

Wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy Vietnamese New Year

CEF staff wish everyone a Happy and Healthy Vietnamese New Year, Tet!

We all have one and a half weeks off to enjoy the New Year celebrations and time with family and friends. Our students will be off from school and many of their parents will also have time off from work. Others will do doing double shifts in factories to earn extra while many are off and they have this opportunity. For those with little, it's a tough time of year financially, leaving many in debt. 

Tet is considered the most important event of the year. Most Vietnamese believe that how they end and start the new year influences their luck and finances. We help with food parcels with some staples but also special Tet foods to help relieve their financial burden. These we gave recently to most CEF families as most needed that support. We appreciate the donations to have made this possible. The children and families were so grateful! 

To anyone who celebrates Tet we hope you enjoy yours too!

 

A vast improvement in her results (The Vietnamese translation follows the English)

CEF's Ngoc Do shares about one of our CEF students she has known for ages and recently has seen a huge improvement in her results:

Thanh is growing up so quickly that I can’t believe she is already in grade 12 this year! I first met her when she was in grade 3 and in her old, small house, full of memories between her and her dear father. Since her father died from a heart attack, the family moved to a new house near her grandmother’s one. In the beginning, she was still shocked about the sudden death of her father and she didn’t concentrate on her studies. However, the older she gets, the more aware she gets, and she has made lots of effort to improve her school results as I can see her performance at school is getting better each year. Recently I received her good results and feel very proud of her. Through talking many times with Thanh and her mother, I know that she did try a lot and was working very hard. 

Although she doesn’t want to continue her education after high school and go onto university, I believe that she will be successful in the future as she is very determined to do what she chooses.

Thanh ngày một lớn hơn và tôi không nghĩ là em  đã học lớp 12 rồi. Nhớ lần đầu gặp em là khi em mới học lớp 3 tại ngôi nhà nhỏ và đã cũ của em, ngôi nhà mang đầy những kỷ niệm giữa em và người cha yêu dấu. Kể từ khi ba em mất vì đột quỵ, cả gia đình em đã chuyển vào ở nhà mới,  gần nhà nội. Thời gian đầu sau khi ba qua đời, Thanh vẫn chưa kịp chấp nhận sự mất mát này và vì vậy, em ấy đã không tập trung vào việc học. Tuy nhiên, càng lớn, em càng nhận ra tầm quan trọng của việc học và em đã nỗ lực rất nhiều để cải thiện việc học của mình. Và quả thực, tôi có thể thấy kết quả của em đang ngày một tiến bộ hơn. Em vừa gửi kết quả học tập cho tôi gần đây và tôi không thể không tự hào về em và sự phấn đấu của em. Nhiều lần trò chuyện cùng em và mẹ, tôi cảm nhận được em đã cố gắng rất nhiều cũng như đã rất siêng năng học tập. 

Mặc dầu T không muốn tiếp tục học đại học, nhưng tôi tin rằng, với sự quyết tâm theo đuổi lựa chọn của mình, em sẽ thành công một ngày không xa. 

(Name changed)

Families growing more food

Due to Covid, most of our families have reduced incomes, and some none at all. This has brought about creative thinking and actions to help them make ends meet. Many of our families are using all the land they own to grow food, with others borrowing land to do this and then giving produce in exchange. 

We really love seeing the effort most of the families are making towards solving this major financial issue.

 

Climate change and flooding

CEF's Thuy Dinh shares about how climate change is affecting our CEF families:

We have to admit that climate change globally has already had observable effects on the environment. Glaciers have shrunk, ice on rivers and lakes is breaking up earlier in the year, and trees are flowering sooner too. The predicted climate changes are now occurring: loss of sea ice, accelerated rising sea levels, and longer, more intense heat waves. No country is able to avoid natural disasters, including Vietnam. 

Over recent years central Vietnam has witnessed and has been suffering a lot due to bad weather that has resulted in much flood damage and landslides. Although the floods this year were not serious like the year before, CEF had to cancel home visits in order for us staff to stay safe. Moreover, the precipitation focused on the end of year, the most important time for CEF’s families to do farming and cultivation. The rice seedlings, vegetables, peanuts, and other produce got damaged. The families were very upset with this loss, as already their finances had been affected by the lockdowns, businesses shutting down and the restrictions of movement due to Covid-19.

This year is coming to an end. We are hoping that 2022 turns out to be a lot better than 2021! Happy New Year!

(Photos are on the street of one of our students in Dai Loc in October)
 

Creative thinking helping make ends meet

CEF's Thuy Tran shares about this creative family and the efforts they have been making to bring in an income, especially Kieu who was laid off due to the Covid lockdown in Da Nang:

Currently, Kieu and her twin sister stay at their home on the outskirts of Kham Duc town, a mountainous area of Quang Nam. They graduated from university last June and both got jobs in Da Nang city. Unfortunately, Kieu’s company closed down due to the Covid lockdown, so she lost her job last month. Her twin sister luckily can work online from home. So, they decided to go home to reduce their rental costs and help their parents until the lockdown finished. Although their parents have five daughters, they all work or live far from home, so they feel very happy to have the twins at home for a while. Very early each morning, Kieu helps her mother water vegetables, as well as cut some for her mother to sell at their local market. After doing all the housework, she also crochets some products to sell online. 

 

A new sponsorship

CEF's Kim Chi shares about a newly sponsored student:

Duyen is a new student we took into CEF’s education sponsorship program this year starting with grade 10. Not only is she a ‘good’ student but also caring and responsible. Living with her dear mom and grandparents in a remote area since her parents divorced, she is aware of her family’s poverty and tries harder each year with her studies. It is wonderful that she is sponsored to continue her education. Big thanks to CEF’s big sponsor, Mr Richard for making this possible. Here is Duyen’s message she wanted to share when I called to let them know she got sponsorship from CEF. 

‘I am truly thrilled to receive your support which is also of sentimental value, to motivate me to try harder in the future. I cannot choose the family I live with, but I can opt for the way to live. Although my parents divorced when I was three years old, my mother brought me up in her tiny warm hands and gave me all her love. My grandparents love me so much, and they are nearly 90 years old. Being aware of my family’s poverty, I have always try my best to attain good results over the years. My achievements will bring me a better future and also make my family proud of me. From now on, I have you who will accompany me on my pathway, so I really appreciate it. Thank you!’

School is about to start

School is about to start

It's been a strange year or so for our students with some online learning and some class time. Being in class is not what it used to be though, as now there are half the numbers in class and wearing masks. In the play ground all play has to be without close proximity and some schools don't allow play time.

Many more people have asked for help this year as many have been without employment for some time. It's been a hard time on families here, but this is not an unusual picture around the world now, due to Covid. 

We have scholarship and sponsorship students in need of help and if helping a girl to remain in school is of interest please do get in touch. 

Sponsorship costs depend on the grade the girl is in:

Primary US$260 a year

Secondary US$320 a year

High school US$385 a year

Scholarships are for high school students in the mountains near the Vietnam-Laos border and these are for ethnic students, although occasionally we help others when in urgent need of support:

US$200 a year

Reporting on the students is once a year with photos, a message to the sponsor and a report on their year. 

c.e.f.vietnam@gmail.com

Thrilled to be accepted into university

CEF's Kim Chi shares about Anh, one of CEF's high school graduates:

Anh is another student who decided to put in an application to university using her results in math, literature and English over the three years of high school instead of using her final high school exam results. She received the good news in the late evening and couldn’t sleep as she didn’t believe her eyes. She sent me this sweet message:

‘I had mixed feelings of joy and sadness receiving this news.  I had been sad and had been crying on and off as I read earlier in the day that I required a score of 26.95/30 to study Korean as Da Nang University, and my average score in the three subjects was 26.89/30. I had a strong belief that I would be able to pass this course, but unbelievably this year required a higher score!

On the same day, at 11 PM, I got an email from the university confirming that I was accepted into Da Nang University of Foreign Language Studies, to major in Korean, my first choice for my university studies. The first prize I got in the provincial merit competition in history in grade 12 was a credit which went towards my university application.  I was over the moon and wanted to let my parents know right away, but they were sleeping. I couldn’t sleep that night, so I told my elder sister and sent messages to my best friend and CEF. I am still in seventh heaven right now! It is a result of my three-years of effort and a good start for my future.’

Delays of our CEF support programs due to Covid

Sadly due to Covid and social restrictions we are not able this summer to run some programs we had planned on. At CEF we believe our students need support in many ways, not just the education they receive at school.

One of the programs we run each summer is Water Safety Day, where we teach our students all about water and the ocean and how to stay safe in and around it. We also teach them to float and swim and afterwards we take them to the movies. The children love this day for the socializing, food and movie mainly, but they do appreciate learning about the dangers of water and learning how to float and swim.