Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Children in need of sponsorships and scholarships

Due to poverty there will always be children in need of help whether it is shelter, food, medicine or education.

At CEF we give educational support to girls, as well as food or medical support when needed. We work to keep girls in school, get them through, and help the most capable receive tertiary education.

At present we have many girls on our waiting list. The following pictures are  just of a few of the girls and a little about them. If you would like to take on a scholarship or a sponsorship please let us know. More information about the scholarships and sponsorships can be read on the website: cef-vietnam-usa.org


Thanh Thao (above) needs someone to give her a scholarship @ US$150 for each of her last two years of high school.

She is a hardworking and clever student. She doesn't have a family home. “I don’t have my own house. This is not my mother’s friends’ house. I and my younger sister are living with them. My mother lives alone very far from here”. Hardly had her parents divorced when her father passed away. Since then, Thao’s mother has had her friends look after her two daughters. Thao’s mother sells vegetables, and just earns 25 cents a day because the residents in that area are very poor. Her mother is also suffering from terminal cancer.

She and her younger sister are treated badly by her mother's friends as they demand a lot of them and therefore she doesn't have a lot of time for study. But no matter how unfortunate she is, Thao tries her best to study as she wants to get into university to become a lawyer and hopes her mother lives long enough to hear the news of her university acceptance .


Kim Nguyen (above) needs someone to give her a scholarship @US$150 for each of the last two years of high school.

Kim Nguyen is a quite shy. Nguyen is the youngest daughter in a poor family living in a small rented house with her mother and her eldest brother. Nguyen’s father went to Laos to work in a gold mine many years ago and has not kept in touch with his family. Her mother has high blood pressure and nephrolithiasis and she doesn't have surgery because of high cost. She does not want to borrow from a bank or from relatives because she can't afford to pay off a loan. She helps a relative sell fruit and makes  US$5 a day, Her brother works but has an unstable income so he can't help much.

Nguyen’s mother seems pessimistic about Nguyen’s education; she used to think about stopping Nguyen’s education, but Nguyen persuaded her mother to let her continue because she wants to be a tour-guide after university graduation.

She is conscientious and studies 5 hours a day. When asked what she would do with a scholarship she answered without hesitating, “I will attend extra tuition classes and buy books. To be a tour-guide, I need to know more about geography, history and the culture of Vietnam as well as about countries overseas”.


Be (above) needs someone to give her a scholarship @ US$150 for each of her last two years of high school.

Be was born into a very poor family and is not cared for by her parents. Be does not have a father and her  mother remarried 6 years ago. Both of them have two children, so there are 6 people living in a small house without a bedroom. Be’s step-father is an alcoholic and hit her mother whenever he gets drunk, so Be feels scared at home. During school time when Be is staying in the school dormitory her mother seldom calls her which makes her very upset. Be often skips breakfast to save money her mother gives her so she can buy stationery. She wishes she could share her dream with her mother so that her mother can encourage and motivate her like her friends. 

There is no bathroom or toilet at Be's house, so whenever she comes home, she has to take a bath next to a well far from the home in the evening to avoid other people. 

She said that although her mother couldn’t afford her education, she would never quit school because she wants to become a primary school teacher to help the younger generation in her village. 


My Le (above) needs a sponsorship of $335 for her last year of high school.

My Le, lives with her single mother and maternal grandmother who had a stroke. Her mother has heart disease, vestibular problems, and backache, which all cause her health to deteriorate and stops her from working much and when she does she can earn about US$6 a day. As she has a large debt which she has to pay monthly and earns little, she can't afford her daughter's education.

My Le studies quite well and helps her mother with household chores when she stays at home. She really wants to finish high school and enter into a teacher training university to become a kindergarten teacher because she loves working with children.

She plans to live in a pagoda next year to reduce her living costs as her mother can't afford them. She has a positive and strong attitudes towards higher education because she is aware of the important role of education for her future.

We hope that these girls and the others on our waiting list will all have educational support by the time school starts in August. 

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

A girl in need of a sponsor to be able to fulfill her dream of completing school and having a good future ~ Guest blog by CEF's Ms. Vy


A weak girl with pale skin and dark circles under her eyes welcomed us into her home on a hot and muggy summer's day and shared with us many things about her studies and family.

7 years ago, a bomb explosion made her fatherless. Since then, her mother has been the main laborer to bring up three lovely daughters; however, poor health prevents her mother from working a lot to give full support for all her children. Her mother is paid US$6.50  for one long working day, but her monthly income is unstable. Not only is her mother unhealthy, but her sisters have been suffering from various diseases. Her oldest sister, an unpaid nurse trainee in a local hospital for 9 months, has undergone congenital heart surgery, the second older sister, a junior at Hue College of Medicine and Pharmacy, has been suffering from Lupus for ages. 


Being aware of her poor and difficult family circumstances, she always makes huge efforts to study to make her mother happy and to give herself a better future. Her average mark of 7.5/10  ranked her the 10th in her class. This result brought her mother a lot of optimism and hopefulness towards her future education. “I will persuade mother to let me continue school and never give up my education under any circumstances  as I wish to make a bright future with good job opportunities. Moving to the nearest secondary school helps to reduce my family’s cost, but if only I could attend extra tuition classes in the next academic year that would help my standard”, she said to us with an upset voice. 

The financial burden and a big loan of US $1,750 placing on the skinny shoulders of her mother makes her child’s dream of higher education look luxurious. If only she would be able to be sponsored to relieve the heavy burden from her austere mother as well as to make going to school no longer a luxury for both 'N' and her mother.

cef.vietnam@gmail.com

Thursday, June 23, 2016

CEF staff member Ngoc writes about one of the girls who really impressed her when interviewed. We would love a US$150 scholarship for her:
"I met a lovely girl, who comes from a warm and caring family. She lives with her mother and siblings in a small house in Phuoc Son district. Her unhealthy mother is the breadwinner of the poor large family and she is trying to support the education of her 4 daughters who are all of school age. Although their life is one of struggle and challenge, her mother pursues a dream of sending all her girls to school because she is aware of how important education is. 

The mother wishes her heath was better in order to work more, to help raise her children more easily and pay for them to go to school and have tertiary education. Her mother has had 4 operations and at present she is still on medications. She makes ends meet by selling snails in front of the school, but has an unstable income. 

At Tet all of the family members go to Tam Ky city to work in a coffee shop to earn some money. They all live in a friend’s house, in a small room. The girls said that they do not know what the atmosphere of Tet is like or what it is like to have nice new clothes like their friends, because it’s the time of year for them to work instead of relaxing. However, they are happy to work because they know their situation and they want to help their mother. It’s better to live together at Tet than everyone in the family living separately. Before, she worked in a coffee shop as a waitress for the whole summer vacation to have some more income but although she is young, she no longer works there, due to her back pain. Working at Tet is fine because it is a short time and her mother and siblings can support her. She is very upset about her health problem because it prevents her from doing many things like working part-time, helping her mother and sometimes limits her study too. 

When asked about her schooling, she said she really enjoys school and she understands that without an education she cannot be successful in the future. She is interested in having extra tuition classes which would help her improve her school results but her mother cannot afford that. Therefore, she studies by herself at home. Her mother is very proud of her as she received a silver medal in a chemistry competition in Phuoc Son district. It would be great if CEF can find someone to support her with her education so that she can continue going to school and strive for her goal in the future."

Sunday, June 12, 2016

You are invited to attend CEF's fundraising event on Sunday 17th 4pm-6.30pm in Brooklyn

Children's Education Foundation ~ Vietnam has a small fundraising event in Brooklyn on Sunday 17th from 4pm - 6.30pm. 

If you are interested in attending and learning about CEF's work in Vietnam to help impoverished and marginalized girls stay in school please get in touch.  

We will do a presentation on our work to keep girls in school enabling them to be in  more mature, earn more, and have a better future. 

On this day we will mainly concentrate on talking about the girls from a very poor area near the Laos border. Our goal is to reduce their risk of being trafficked and help create a first generation of educated girls, enabling them to have a very different future to their parents and grandparents and be in a position to help their families. 




Homes of  some girls in the mountains who we are looking for  high school
 scholarships and university sponsorships for

Linda Burn and Stephen Jackel can be reached on: cef.vn.usa@gmail.com for more information on this event and the address.
Please bring checkbooks.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Our Water Safety Day was supported by Go Philanthropic

Water Safety Day is an important day for the CEF children as it is a social event, fun, relaxing and most importantly it saves lives!

This day was possible because of the help of many people. The financial support came from a Go Philanthropic sponsor who kindly donated to make this day possible. We are very grateful to Go Philanthropic and the donor for making this important day possible!

Children with staff

Children with staff, volunteers and Swim Vietnam teachers

Some of the Swim Vietnam teachers

For this day to be safe it needs swimming teachers. Swim Vietnam trains people to be good swimming teachers.and on this day we had many of them playing games on the sand and in the water, and teaching the children to swim and float.

Skipping

 Games at the beach

Swim Vietnam teaching floating

Volunteers help the children with swimming and floating and keep an eye on them, ensuring safety.

Volunteer teaching floating


Volunteer teaching floating

One the girls relaxing after her lessons

Games

One of the 4 CEF boys who attended the day

Resting before the next game

Resting

Tug of war

Games in the water

We are very grateful to all involved who made this day possible as each person had an important part to play ~whether funding, or helping out and making it a safe and fun day. 
Thank you to all!


CEF's Water Safety Day ~ Guest blog by CEF's Ms Kim Chi

Water Safety Day is not only a great time for CEF’s children to relax after the school year finishes, but also gives them a chance to learn to float. 




Summer is coming and it is also the time when the number of children who die from drowning increases. Understanding this risk, CEF organizes Water Safety Day every year for our children from Quang Nam who all come to Hoi An to learn about water safety and float to float in order to give them a greater chance of survival in water.




It was so much fun, and an emotional experience to see our children enjoyed the day of games and lessons. The children took their lessons seriously. Thanks to the professional teachers and all volunteers, I saw many children learn to float well and they are now more confident in the water. 
I also had a chance to learn to float but I am still not as good at floating as the children. So I will try again next year.

(Linda's photos)