Projects

SUMMER ENGLISH COURSE

One very important fact that we notice during our recent trip to Vietnam is the students’ earnest wish to acquire a decent proficiency in English. As a result of this observation, Education For The Poor starts a pilot program to send Vietnamese-American college students to Vietnam to teach English during the summer of this year. The students pay for their own airfare while the organization is responsible for their room and board expenses during the period. The program is designed to provide to the students in Vietnam an opportunity to learn the language and to strengthen their oral as well as writing skills. This is also an opportunity for the young Vietnamese-American generation to learn about their motherland and for us to foment a connecting link between them and their counterparts in Vietnam.

XUAN LAM, NAM CAT TIEN

This is one of the poor areas where the soldiers of the South regime were sent for reeducation in 1975 and later years. It would be quite difficult for the children in this area as well as further remote areas to have a decent education without the help of the parish in Xuan Lam. The parish has rented and set up 25 used computers in a classroom for all children, whether catholic or non-catholic, to use free of charge. The classroom is quite old with cracked walls and is quite hot during the summer.

CENTER FOR THE STREET CHILDREN - GO VAP

The center was created by the Man Coi nuns 5 years ago to help the homeless or street children from the age of 5 to 16 who are currently shining shoes, picking recyclable trash or begging…for a living. Everyday, the nuns provide dinners to them and classes for academic schooling would follow during the next 3 hours. This is done to erase illiteracy among these less fortunate children and to help them conduct better “business” in their daily life, i.e. not being cheated by the people they have to deal with everyday

DON BOSCO- BAO LOC

This is a vocational center run by the Don Bosco Salesian mission. The main trades taught here are motor repairs, air conditioning, computer, soldering and sewing. The number of students attending this center is around 500. Most of them come from poor family and have no skill to earn a living, and 80% of them did not finish the 10th grade.

DIEU NGHIEM PAGODA - HUE

We had an opportunity to visit Tu Hieu pagoda and talk with Thuong Toa Thich Chi Mau who wholeheartedly agreed with us that the only way to help the country move out of poverty and improve the life of the poor in the long run is providing a good education to the young people. Because Tu Hieu pagoda does not provide help in education, Thuong Toa Mau referred us to Dieu Nghiem pagoda after giving us a tour of his pagoda and talk to us about the Buddhist teaching.

Dieu Nghiem pagoda is currently providing educational assistance to the poor and handicapped students through its scholarship program besides running many other charitable projects for the poor and elderly in the area. We had the opportunity to talk about Education For The Poor's goals and we offered to lend a helping hand to the center by granting scholarship in the future to the students that need its help.

TAY LINH PAGODA - HUE

This center provides training in computer, sewing and embroidery to the mute and deaf students in Hue in a very pleasant environment. The building looks new and is pretty well equipped, and the students look quite happy. Currently, the center is serving 72 students; some of them have other disability besides being deaf or mute. Free training and also lunch are provided to the students since a lot of them come from 10 kilometers away everyday. The center partly finances its operations by selling the art products created by the students.

TINH NGHIEM PAGODA

At the request of Ni Su Tinh Nghiem, we spent the whole morning with her to shop for school supplies for the poor children in My Tho. We arrived at Tinh Nghiem pagoda around 2:00PM and had just enough time to make gift packages from our purchases. Over one hundred students from grade 1- 9 showed up to receive the gift package that will help them start the next school year in an atmosphere full of anticipation and joy. We learned that a number of other students were not able to attend the event since they were still trying to sell goods in the street to help their families.

DON BOSCO - CAN GIO

Can Gio is the poorest town of the city of Saigon. Don Bosco center is currently offering training courses in computer and English to about 300 students. When we visited the center, we were asked to test the English proficiency of the students and were very pleased to see that they speak better English than any student that we have met so far. They loved to practice their English with us, and we had the feeling that they would be ecstatic if we could spend much more time with them. Two hours talking and listening to us were not enough.

The center's management staff wants to train the local students with the goal of turning them into future teachers of the center, and they asked for our help. Seeing the good results of their work, we agreed to lend them a helping hand.

DON BOSCO VOCATIONAL CENTER - PHUONG CHINH

This center conducts free computer and sewing classes for poor children in the area. The center has about 20 computers; and to accommodate all the children, it holds 4 computer classes in the morning and 2 classes in the afternoon. The computer room is very spartan yet decent. However, the sewing classroom is very old with a ceiling that is in bad need of repair.

LASAN - DUC MINH & PHU SON

We visited Lasan - Duc Minh in Saigon. Half of the school facility now belongs to the government. To accommodate the rising number of students and to fulfill their needs, the brothers at this facility added additional stories to the rest of the building and transformed the top floor into a dormitory. About 60% of the students receive free training in computers and 80% of the students receive free training in motor repair due to the financial condition of their families. We also visited Lasan - Phu Son which is currently in the process of being renovated and expanded. The buildings currently in standing are in very poor shape and the equipment at this vocational center is very scarce. We saw 10 old computers (four of which are not working), a few sewing machines, and only one motor equipment. The majority of the students in this area is very poor; therefore, the training of a higher percentage of the students will be offered free of charge.

HUONG KHE, HA TINH

This is a remote and poor area in the central part of Viet Nam . Despite the prevalent poverty level of the population, parents still struggle to put their children through school. Three out of the four parents, that we had the opportunity to talk to, have children who just graduated from high school with a very strong desire to go on to university to continue their education. One mother told us that she will sell everything to fulfill her daughter's wish to attend university. They asked for our help to keep the village's children in school because the desire to learn is very high in this area.

CO SO KHIEM THI BUNG SANG

This center was created in 1985 to help the blind students by Mr. Ðào Khánh Tru?ng, a blind person himself. The center currently takes care of 50 children. They are the third group of children under the care and supervision of Mr. Truong and his staff. The first two groups already reach maturity, are able to take care of themselves, and already left the center to live an independent life.

Besides receiving a standard academic education at school, the children also receive training in music and musical equipment, in computer, in the art of oriental healing. that will help prepare them for an independent life when they reach maturity. Since the majority of the children are orphans or come from poor families, they are provided free room, board and education by the center.

MAI AM KHIEM THI HUYNH DE NHU NGHIA

The nuns at this center are currently taking care of 32 girls who are affected by blindness. This year, seven out of the 32 girls graduate from high school. This is a well equipped center; unfortunately, the sisters were asked by the local government to relocate the center to another area to leave room for future city development projects.

The children receive a very good training at this center. Besides the academic education that they receive at school, the nuns also train them in computer, music, musical equipment and swimming (the children have won many medals in the local swimming contests) to prepare them for an independent and decent life when they reach maturity. This is an ideal facility for blind children.

MAI AM HOA MAU DON

This center was created by Ms. Ph?m Thiên Ðon to take care of children of homeless people. Most of the times, the homeless parents just abandoned their kids at the center and disappeared from their life. Currently, the center has 34 kids ranging from 4 months to 18 years old. Besides, providing them with the standard academic education, the center also gives them training in certain vocation such as painting, music... to give them extra skills to build a decent life once they reach maturity.

MAI AM THIEN AN

This center was created by Mr. Nguyen Quoc Phong, also a blind person. The facility is pretty crowded, but well run by Mr. Phong. The facility is adequately equipped with manpower and equipment. Mr. Phong, along with the help of volunteered graduated students, has created a number of software that can be used to facilitate the learning of blind students. The center also has equipment to translate regular academic books into Braille books for the students.

Like the other blind center, Thien An also provides training in computers, music and musical equipment, art of oriental healing. to the residents besides a standard academic training at school.

NHA TINH THUONG THANH GIUSE - VAN GIAO

This center was set up a year ago by Sister Phuong Lien to take care of orphans or children who are abandoned by their parents. Currently, the center is sheltering 19 boys and girls; two of them have severe mental deficiencies. Because the center is new and is located in a poor and remote area, Sister Phuong Lien often has a tough time taking care of the children. However, despite the difficult financial condition, she still wants to give the children a good education so that they can take care of themselves when they reach maturity.

Many times, when she was behind in paying school tuition, the children were severely scolded or forbidden from attending school until full payment was received. Because, the children were already psychologically affected by the loss of their parents or by the fact that they are abandoned kids, Sister Phuong Lien is very concerned about this issue. She asked Education For The Poor to lend her a helping hand, and we agreed to give scholarship to all the children until they graduate from high school or college.

BICH HOA HUMANITARIAN CENTER

This center is located in Thach Bich. This is a rural area where a lot of rice fields were converted into manufacturing centers for many facilities such as the 3 sewing plants in close vicinity to the center. To respond to this drastic change, Bich Hoa center is currently providing training in English, computer and sewing for poor students in Thach Bich as well as the surrounding areas. The tuition that the students have to pay is very minimal and is only enough to cover the electricity expense of the center.