Graeme will be helping with Australian sponsor communication

Growth is a wonderful thing to happen in a charity when it means that more children are being educated.

One of the challenges of growth is keeping in touch with all the children's sponsors as well as doing everything else that needs to happen for them to get their educational support and other help they sometimes need, and to also work along side our government partners with whom we have to do everything in accordance to their requirements. Staff too are busy and it takes them quite a while to get all their thorough end of year reporting done, to type up school results and to translate the children's letters.

There are now many wonderful sponsors for the children and the end of the academic year is the time we like to get information out to them. The holiday period for the children here is very short  and now it is no longer long enough for us to communicate with everyone before school starts again.

Graeme will share sponsor communication with our Australian and New Zealand sponsors. This is wonderful as it is very hard to write to everyone at the end of the school year in the small gap of time we have between doing end of year home visits and assessments and term 1 payments and home visits.

As we have grown considerably and are helping more children with each year this means that with the two of us on sponsor communication we will be able to be in touch with all our sponsors over June, July, August and September each year. I am most grateful he has made this time available to help with this important part of our work and is very happy to help.

I am happy to say Graeme will also help with putting together short newsletters with links every three months to help keep each of you up to date with some of our work and events.

These are two important new steps as we want to keep in touch more with our sponsors as they are precious, as they make it possible for the children to have an education. 

                     Graeme with one of the children he sponsors

International Women's Day - a few thoughts

I feel there is so much more consciousness these days around the challenges that women and females  face around the world, especially females in developing and third world countries.

It is now internationally being questioned whether is it right for an 11 or 12 year old girl to be forced into womanhood and marriage, and what can be done for young girls whose health and lives are at great risk in having to give birth before their body is developed enough and is ready, and what can be done to protect girls and women from being gang-raped, as well as looking at legislation that allows men to beat and rape girls and their wives.  Much more is being questioned and challenged gradually bringing about a better life for girls and women around the world.

The right to education is being pushed internationally too. CEF has been working to enable impoverished girls to be educated and to receive some vocational training, a college or university education. I am very happy that 10 girls have now completed school, 2 have completed university, 2 completed college, and we have about 200 in school, college or university allowing them all now or in the future to have better lives with higher incomes. They are, and will be able to be meaningfully employed, enabling them to help support their families. These young women will be more respected and have more self-respect than those who have been deprived of an education.

On this day I reflect on all the amazing work that so many NGO's are doing around the world to help girls be able to be children, to be wives and mothers when ready and for women to be respected and treated fairly and as equals.

I am most grateful for all the people around the world helping this to be possible and to our board, donors, sponsors, partner organizations, staff, friends and family who help to improve the lives of the females we help in Vietnam.

Pam has joined our CEF board recently

Welcome Pam!

Pam is our most recent board member and we are thrilled she was able to join us, as her enthusiasm, compassion, love of life, life experience and her many skills are wonderful gifts for CEF. 

Besides being a lovely, multi-talented woman, she also is a sponsor of two girls with challenging situations. She knows Vietnam well and understands the challenges that girls have here in Vietnam. she understands our work well.
 

Guest blog by Graeme - One of the girls in Children's Education Foundation's sponsorship program

With her Granny

I have met L and her Granny a few times and the time before I took this photo I remember going to her house. Granny, clearly in some pain, was welcoming. She seemed both strong, determined and at the same time not really coping with the task of caring for a young girl whose father was dead and whose mother had left her for another man and is never in touch with her. I don’t really know how they get on together but I guess it must be hard for them both. Granny with not long to live and L with most of her life ahead.

When I saw L two weeks ago she was not happy, as you can see in the photo. Granny was sweet but still in pain. I thought, why should L be happy, so I just accepted it, and she got on with what she had to do too answering a questionnaire and signing the contract to receive her payment for this term's school costs. How was I to know what was going on for her? Life’s hard enough as it is without me expecting her to be a certain way. She didn’t smile that day but I did, knowing that at least she’d be finishing school if she wants and that Granny knows that too.

Graeme Burn

Help girls to flower: Educational sponsorships make a difference

Help girls to flower

 www.ChildrensEducationFoundation.org.au

Tet Parcels for the poorest of the families we help in central Vietnam

We were so happy to be able to give *Tet food parcels to the poorest of the families we help in central Vietnam over the last two weekends. It was a relief to know that over the Tet holiday they would be enjoying some treats and would have enough food to share with their family and friends.

Donors were most kind and made this treat for these families possible. Thank you so much to all of you who helped make it possible for many families to enjoy Tet.

(*Tet is the Vietnamese New Year)

Five girls now sponsored for three years with funds raised from the Hoi An Charity Christmas Bazaar

These girls from poor rural families now are in school and will be for three years as the Hoi An Charity Christmas Bazaar raised enough funds to help them with their education and education related costs.

This is such a wonderful gift for them; it will relieve the financial stress for their families, and give the girls three more years of education and help keep them safe.

Her mother is responsible for three children and elderly relatives on a very low income

Her mother works, but is also the sole carer for her three children and elderly parents-in-law

Her mother is responsible for two children and hardly earns enough to feed them let alone anything else. Fortunately she grows some vegetables so that helps hugely.

Her parents have a large family who they are determined to educate well, but now can't borrow any more funds for their education; therefore requested educational help for their youngest.

Her parents have poor health and disabilities making it impossible to afford the education costs for their two children.

We are thrilled that they have this wonderful support which was raised from the Bazaar and are guaranteed of an education for the next three years.

Thanks to all involved with putting the Bazaar on and all those who helped on the day and attended as you all helped make this possible!

Snippets of a little girls letters to her sponsor

This little girl lost her dad from a heart attack while the family were all sleeping together in the family bed. It has affected her health and emotional well-being hugely.

As you know, my father died of a heart attack a year ago and it is a loss not only spiritually, but also in a material way. Everything is on my mother’s shoulder now. She has to be the breadwinner in my family and also the stable person for all of us to lean on.

My health is not good. I usually get sick with fevers and coughs and it also takes my mother‘s time and money. I sometimes hate myself and just want to be healthy and mature quickly to help my mom.



At school I am fond of art, which attracts me a lot. I do not know the reason why, but when I draw, I feel that my dad, who died, is next to me. Maybe, it is due to the fact that I usually draw about my happy family from when I had my dad.

I also like learning English because it is so interesting. My teacher shows me how to read and write a new word. I think it is quite exciting to know a new language and use it. I do like English so I will try my best to study well.

When I have free time, I often help my mom with things such as feeding the chicken and sweeping my floor. I am very happy because I can help my mother a little bit.

Thuong needs a sponsor; would you like to sponsor or give a gift of a sponsorship?

Thuong, who needs a sponsor to stay in grade 2, is from a poor family in Quang Nam province. Her father died of cancer 4 years ago. Mum's inability to earn much and the medical debt from dad's treatment have brought her family into poverty.

When the weather is good, mum can earn $2 a day going door to door selling vegetables she grows. She can't afford Thuong and her brothers education with such a low income.

Would you like to sponsor Thuong, or give a gift of her education to someone it would be meaningful for? Let us know if you want to help Thuong; we will send you more information.

Thank you, Linda c.e.f.vietnam@gmail.com

Ha needs a sponsor; could her sponsorship be a gift for someone this would be meaningful for?

Ha needs a sponsor to stay in school and continue in grade 7 this year. Ha who is a good student, lives with her mother, younger sister and brother.

They were a happy family until their father drowned in a boat accident. The sadness is gradually lifting, but Ha's mother struggles to earn enough to look after the three children, let alone pay for their education. She works as a builders laborer but her income is erratic due to the poor economy and the rainy season.

They have a home thanks to the local government: it is a typical very small Vietnamese brick and concrete home.

If you are interested in sponsoring Ha or would like her sponsorship to be a gift please do get in touch.
Thank you, Linda c.e.f.vietnam@gmail.com