Leprosy bandages will be arriving soon

Leprosy has affected most of the parents or grandparents of the children we help from Hoa Van community.  THE D.O.V.E FUND have groups around the world making beautiful crocheted bandages that are excellent for those affected by leprosy.

Elaine who lives in Canada is both an amazingly consistent supporter of CEF-Vietnam and its education project for children from this community, but she also makes bandages with other local friends for those in need of these very finely crocheted bandages. Each one of them takes dedication as they take many hours of work to create. 

She has organized another delivery that will be most gratefully received. They protect wounds but also protect stumps. They have no sensation in their extremities and this results in them damaging themselves; knocking and cutting themselves often. One mother has recently had to have most of her leg amputated as she had cut her foot and was oblivious to the infection that was gradually increasing. She only realized it when it started climbing up her leg; by then it was too late as gangrene had started to set in and she had to have an amputation! So these bandages are crucial and make a big difference!

Thank you Elaine and your friends and other devoted bandage makers around the world.

Gifts that make a difference to the life of a child just with a donation!

Everywhere I go it is being hinted at that it's time to start Christmas shopping! As many of you will be thinking about the holiday time and buying presents for close friends and family, I wanted to make some suggestions that will make a difference and change a child's life just with a donation!

Life changing presents:  
$75 Winter bedding and clothing for a child

The gift of winter clothes and a blanket can keep one of the poor children in our education programs warm this winter.
This little girl and her aunt live in a hallway in an apartment block and the winds whirl though the hallway through the winter months. She had no winter clothes and they had no blankets. We bought winter clothes and a thick blanket for them to keep them warm.  $75 will give this same gift of warmth to another child.


$100 An almost new second-hand bike for a child to easily get to school
On rainy days or hot humid days this means the child suffers less and arrives at school with more energy instead of having a long walk to school in unpleasant conditions and being tired before the school day starts.

$100 Food supplement
This will buy breakfast for a hungry child each day before going to school (for a school year). Many children go to school without breakfast and can't learn well then.

 

$100 Extra tuition for a middle school child for a year
This will allow them to do much better at school, as only part of the curriculum is included in their school syllabus.

$150 To cover all the costs of extra tuition for a high school child for a year
This will enable them to do extra studies in each subject and allow them to improve their grades greatly.  Unfortunately they don't receive all their lessons in school hours; the remainder is taught in extra tuition after school hours, if they can afford it.

$750 A whole primary education for a child - Class 1-5.
It's a bargain! A whole primary education for the equivalent of 5 dinners at a good restaurant!
If it's unaffordable consider sharing a child's primary education sponsorship with other family members so it is easily affordable!

We have tax exempt status (501 (c)(3) status), therefore all donations made are tax deductible to the extent that the law permits.

To purchase a life-changing gift or if you have any enquiries: Linda or Stephen at cef.vn.usa@gmail.com

Let us know what gift you would like your donation to go towards and we will send a card and receipt.
Please send your donation by check made out to 'Children's Education Foundation - Vietnam'
and sent to our US Coordinator - Stephen Jackel 
Stephen Jackel, 277 Broadway, Suite 1010, New York, NY 10007.

Make a difference ~ give a present that can change a child's life!

Our 501 (c)(3) tax exempt status has gone through!

Children's Education Foundation - Vietnam has tax exempt status or 501(c) (3) status now! Naturally we are very excited!! Therefore all donations made since June 2011 would be tax deductible to the extent that the law permits as well as all new donations.

..."I received a copy of the IRS' determination letter recognizing CEF's tax exempt status this morning.  Congratulations!".... 
From one of our wonderful tax lawyers, R. Todd Hatcher, who works for Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, who with two others did the work for us free of charge! 
31st October, 2011

For new donations please make checks out to:
Children's Education Foundation - Vietnam
And send to our USA Coordinator - Stephen Jackel
277 Broadway, Suite 1010, New York, NY 10007.
We will send you a receipt.

If you want more information or have questions please contact us:
Stephen or Linda:
cef.vn.usa@gmail.com

My Duyen is now sponsored

My Duyen who is a very bright young lady, now has a sponsor to support her complete her education. She grew up in a leper community as her father has had leprosy and is a registered leper.

We have 14 children from this leper community in our education support program who are receiving an education beyond primary school, which is all that was available in their community. 

Thank you Heather for giving My Duyen a far better future with many more possibilities!

New medical fund

It's nothing new that our charity has needs; but it is always wonderful and feels like such a blessing when there is a response to a need!

Two lovely ladies have responded to the need for funds for medical care for the children in our educational sponsorship programs. Some of the children come from such poor families that they have health problems due to malnutrition or parasites. Sometimes there are other reasons for their ailments.

They have started off the medical fund with $200. That will be enough to provide medical examinations, blood tests, x'rays, scans (if needed), and the opinion of an expert for My Hang.

My Hang is painfully thin, malnourished and has pain and inflammation in her joints. Her local doctor just says she has joint pain and inflammation and left it at that. We want to find out what is wrong and do what we can to help this sweet young girl. Now we can do this, thanks to Linda and Mary Jo!

CEF - Vietnam filed for tax purposes

I met Greg and his wife Vivian a few years back. We found we had a lot in common: a love of Vietnam, of Vietnamese food, food generally, dogs, cycling and charity work. Greg works for Cause Effective, a non-profit that provides management consulting services to nonprofits and help clients develop critical resources they need (www.causeeffective.org).

 

Greg has been very helpful over the years with ideas, editing, helping fund raise and last year putting us in touch with Andra Moss, Volunteer and Communications Coordinator at International Senior Lawyers Project.The International Senior Lawyers Project provides the pro bono services of skilled and experienced lawyers to promote human rights, equitable and sustainable economic development and the rule of law worldwide. ISLP assists governments and non-governmental organizations working to advance the rights and well-being of their citizens and helps build the capacity of the legal profession to meet the needs of their communities(www.islp.org)

Andra then put us in touch with Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP who assigned us three associates who would help make it all happen; Saima, Todd and Andrew. These three worked for free to help Children's Education Foundation - Vietnam prepare and submit our 501(c)(3) tax exemption papers. (www.weil.com)


    Saima Majid - Business Finance and Restructuring Associate





Todd Moore - Corporate associate

Andrew C. Pelzer -Tax benefits, and Executive Compensation Associate

Stephen Jackel, CEF - Vietnam's USA coordinator and director, oversaw all the various stages of the work and helped lodge all the paperwork at each stage as well as donating the expenses. If it hadn't been for Stephen's generosity and determination for CEF - Vietnam to have tax exempt status it would not all have been possible.

"Investing in girls is the right thing to do. It is also the smart thing to do."

    "Investing in girls is the right thing to do.
      It is also the smart thing to do."

   — Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director, World Bank

In many parts of the world, women are routinely beaten, raped or sold into prostitution. They are denied access to medical care and education. Sadly, only 43 per cent of girls in developing regions attend secondary school and in sub-Saharan Africa only 83 girls are enrolled in school for every 100 boys.
According to the World Bank, an extra year of school can increase a girl's future earnings by 10 to 20 per cent and girls who attend secondary school have the power to make $2000 more per year than those who only attend primary school – now multiply that by all of the out of school girls and the impact on development is enormous.
GirlsandWomen.com is home to the G(irls)20 Summit and a movement for empowering girls and women around the world.
Founded in 2008, The Belinda Stronach Foundation (TBSF) along with over 70 partners are working with the private sector and a number of national and international organizations to encourage G8 and G20 leaders to elevate the importance of political empowerment and economic freedom for girls and women in developed and developing nations. At the Clinton Global Initiative in September of 2009, TBSF made a commitment to Promoting Development in the G8/G20 Summit Process. TBSF committed to create a platform that aims to provide greater coordination of global advocacy efforts for the 2010 G8/G20 Summits and to promote and educate the Canadian public on development issues. As an engaged Canadian charitable organization with a track record on global development issues and a strong capacity in policy management and public communications, we are working with strategic partners to champion key issues affecting girls and women and provide opportunities for the public to lend their support to their advancement worldwide.

"The health of adolescent girls is everyone's business. We all need to step up to the plate to embrace this ambitious agenda."

— Melinda Gates

"Women and girls are not the problem; they are the solution."

— Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn

"If young women had better access to farming land, fertilizers, credit and agricultural training there would be more food available for more people, and the nutritional status of children would improve. When women receive the same levels of education, experience and farm inputs as men they can increase yields of some crops by 22%."

— International Labour Organization, 2009

"Out of the world's 130 million out-of-school youth, 70 percent are girls."

— UN Foundation

"Adolescent pregnancies cost Kenya's economy US $500 million per year, while investing in girls would potentially add US $3.2 billion to the economy."

— NIKE Foundation, 2009, Girl Effect

"There's a growing recognition among everyone from the World Bank to the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff to aid organizations like CARE that focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism."

— Education Economics

"An extra year of secondary schooling has been demonstrated to increase women's future wages by 10-20 percent."

— Amazing Women Rock Website

"Female education is a key source of support for long-term economic growth. It has been linked to higher productivity; higher returns to investment; higher agricultural yields; and a more favourable demographic structure."

— Goldman Sachs, 2008

"Countries with the lowest number of girls in education lie at the bottom of the human development tables."

— OECD

The above information is from www.GirlsAndWomen.com

How to make a donation

Donations are always appreciated and make a big difference to the life of a child in Vietnam!

Your donation will help the work of Children's Education Foundation - Vietnam in many ways. Donating will help a child to receive what we think of as a basic right - an education. Education is a valuable gift for life.

Funds help us to continue sending young girls to school so that they become educated women better able to contribute to their family and wider community. They are then more likely to earn a much greater income, be knowledgeable mothers better able to care for their children’s health, and they are less likely to be abused.

And your donation will substantially reduce the risk of a girl being trafficked for prostitution or sweat shop labour, because she’s at school.

Here are a few specific examples of what your money can do:
$100 - annual food supplement for a child in our sponsorship program who hasn't got enough to eat
$150 - education per anum for child in primary school  - grade 1-5
$200 - education per anum for a child in grade 6-9
(for a child who doesn't need extra food or accommodation costs covered)

$300 - high school costs for each year of high school (with food or accommodation assistance)
$400-$500 - vocational training for a school graduate or for the basic fees for a college education for a yr
$800-$1000 - university cost per anum

Donations are needed for the medical needs of the children in our education programs: to pay for medical examinations, x'rays, eye tests and eye glasses, medicine and nutritional supplementation, and transport to doctors or hospitals.

 Some non-specific donations go towards education related costs and administration. Some examples of the use of funds are: bicycles for children to get to school, and winter clothes and winter bedding for a child in our education program who can't afford bedding or winter clothing. Some funds are needed to pay for my assistant to check on the children on a regular basis, write reports, translate letters, transcribe, do bi-annual local, district, provincial and national government paperwork, and also for transport to visit families, and many other things.

When you make a donation please specify if you wish your funds to be used for a specific purpose.

The quickest and easiest way to make a donation at present is:
Make a check out to ‘Children’s Education Foundation – Vietnam’
Post it to our USA Coordinator - Stephen Jackel
277 Broadway, Suite 1010, New York, NY 10007.
If you want more information or have questions contact Stephen or Linda:  cef.vn.usa@gmail.com

Also do not forget that all donations will come under our 501 (c)(3) status which will be through any day and all donations from the last 18 months also.

Donations are always appreciated and make a big difference to the life of a child in Vietnam!

CEF- Vietnam has been able to give Nam a place at STEC to study English

Nam who is being helped by CEF - Vietnam is a bright boy who I have known for about five years now. I have seen him grow up from a little and very shy lad to a much more confident and sweet teenager. Yes, even though he is a teenager he is sweet; he helps his mother around the home, runs errands for her and helps her with her paid work when she needs extra help.

Over the years I have been speaking to him in English when I see him as has been studying English at school for the last four years and likes to practice. When I have been away his mother has kept an eye on my home and when I have had house-sitters she has done some cleaning for them. Bruce and Elaine kindly house-dog-cat and fish sat for me once while I was away and spent quite a bit of time talking to him and helping him with his English. They also have paid for Nams' extra tuition this year, which without, he would only receive part of his education as the remainder is learnt in extra tuition sessions, if they can be afforded. Last year after I broke my leg, Leslie stayed at the house and helped me with the dog and cat, taking Zen the Doberman-Rottweiler for long walks. She also spent time talking to Nam and helping him with his English when he came around.

His English is now very good for a lad his age in comparison to others who are learning English at school, as they all have little opportunity to practice. Most English teachers have excellent grammar and writing skills, but still most have very poor speaking skills, resulting in many teenagers with English that can't be understood by English-speaking people.


Yesterday I was thrilled that STEC offered CEF - Vietnam yet another free place for  one of our students. I have given this place to Nam so he can improve his English even more, giving him an advantage which will allow him to excel in English at school and improve his overall results as well.

STEC 'Smart Tutoring English Centre' www. stecvn.weebly.com
Is supported by:
The scholarship funds come through 'Educational International Foundation' (http://Educationalinternational.giving.officelive.com) and through 'Global Literacy Foundation' (www.globalliteracyfoundation.weebly.com)