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.  

Wishing everyone a healthy and fulfilling 2021

 I know worldwide many have had a challenging year, more than most. It is a sad situation to hear of and see the suffering over the last year here due to Covid19, floods and landslides. We have been deeeply touched by all the wonderful support we have received internationally and locally.  We hope for is that 2021 will not see so many suffering. 

Here in Vietnam many suffered due to Covid19, not because they got ill and died, as deaths were very few and only from the second bout, but due to the results of our very strict social distancing rules and the gradual stopping of international flights, reducing tourism to just some local domestic tourism. It has meant large scale unemployment with many reinventing themselves, to find a way to bring in an income to support their families. The employment situation now is a little better with some having low incomes and domestic tourism has increased and consequently more restaurants, cafes, homestays and hotels have reopened. Sadly too late for many which shut down permantently and have been on the market for six months or more.

Tropical storms brought flooding and landslides with many in low lying lands and in the mountains losing their homes and all worldly possessions. They now are trying to start life from scratch, which is hardest on the middle aged and elderly. 

We at CEF are incredibly grateful for the wonderful support we have received to help bring relief to those suffering. We received funds to give families who needed support during a time of no income due to Covid19 and Covid lockdowns. We received flood and disaster relief funds for those in the mountains and low lying plains to help with damage to their homes or to help give temporary shelter 

and later to give towards their new permanent homes.

                                    

We are most grateful for all the care we received to help others less fortunate, when things have not been easy for many of you too. Thank you so much.

The support of sponsors and donors has been wonderful and without your help very little would have been possible over this year. Girls stayed in school, and we had none drop out even though things were tough for their families. Being sponsored and having Covid support during the toughest months made a world of difference. 

Thank you to all who have helped in various ways over this last year which includes my board, advisors and volunteers as well as all the local people who raised funds too. Together we can make a big difference. Thank you.  

We all wish you a healthy, fulfilling and good 2021,

Linda

Linda Hutchinson-Burn, the CEF staff and CEF management

Children's Education Foundation - Vietnam 

Disaster Relief December 2020

 Over the last 6 week we raised funds for disaster relief for families who lost everything in Phuoc Son district, a mountainous area inhabited mainly by ethnic communities who live in simple homes. The following photos show the results of the disaster to homes.  

We thank all who supported this project to help bring some relief to the suffering. I can't imagine what it is like to lose everything except what I am wearing. 

 

Home visits with photographer Manus Campbell

Every term we visit all our CEF students at their homes, but some university students come to the office when they are available for their updates. 

It's a chance to see how they are, how the families are, the condition of their homes, to see if their finances have increased or decreased. We also discuss their education and provide suggestons to deal with educational challenges. 

Our older students from grade 8 receive mentoring on home visits too. This is important as they frequently know of few careers except what they see in their lives, such as shopkeeper, bank clerk, teacher, doctor, nurse, waitress, cook and tailor.  If none of those appeal or are realistic, they often are stuck on choosing a career. In this case we introduce the Holland Test that accesses their interests and their abitilies and gives a long list of potential careers, that our students then researches. As in many countries if the student focuses on the university requirement for that subject, they have a much greater chance of entry so it is important to try to choose a future career when in grade 9 before entering high school. As many of us didn't know what we really wanted to do until our thirties or fourties, this clearly is a challenge for them.    

Manus who is sponsor, board member and part of our marketing team, as well as a professional photographer, loves to come on home visits to see his children, as well as the others and to take photos for us.  We appreciate having these photos to share with sponsors and for the stories we write.  Below are some photos he took on recent home visits.

Home visits accompanied by photographer Manus Campbell

 Every term we visit all our CEF students at their homes, but some university students can't be there so they come to the office when they are available for their updates. 

It's a chance to see how they are, how the families are, the condition of their homes, to see if their finances have increased or decreased. We also discuss their education and provide suggestons to deal with educational challenges. 

Our older students from grade 8 receive mentoring on home visits too. This is important as they frequently know of few careers except what they see in their lives, such as shopkeeper, bank clerk, teacher, doctor, nurse, waitress, cook and tailor.  If none of those appeal or are realistic, they often are stuck on choosing a career. In this case we introduce the Holland Test that accesses their interests and their abitilies and gives a long list of potential careers, that our students then researches. As in many countries if the student focuses on the university requirement for that subject, they have a much greater chance of entry so it is important to try to choose a future career when in grade 9 before entering high school. As many of us didn't know what we really wanted to do until our thirties or fourties, this clearly is a challenge for them.    

Manus who is sponsor, board member and part of our marketing team, as well as a professional photographer, loves to come on home visits to see his children, as well as the others and to take photos for us.  We appreciate having these photos to share with sponsors and for the stories we write.  Below are some photos he took on recent home visits.

                                                                

This last one I tool on Manus's camera

Some Quang Nam payment day photos

On Sunday we had our term 1 payment day for our Quang Nam sponsorship students. We thought we would have to do what we did last term and that is just meet with 20 students at one time and 20 parents. Although there has been some loosening of our Covid restrictions, we still met in quite small groups, and had strict instructions to wash hands with sanitizer and to wear a mask. So we all wore masks except for photos and speeches. 

We could not help our students if it wasn't for the funds from all our wonderful donors and sponsors, all working together with us to keep our students in school and university. Thank you so much! 

A few of the 300 photos follow from the payment day of some of the groups of students from Dai Loc, Hoi An, Dien Ban and Duy Xuyen, students reading their contracts, speech giving and presenting two payments with the Dai Loc Red Cross, and one family photo of a dad with three of his four daughters. This is a super wonderful dad as he works so hard to support these girls and his wife who has serious mental health issues, so had to include this sweet photo of them.