Book shopping for our 'Book Boxes to Share' ~ Guest blog by Ms Kim Chi

 Kim Chi book shopping

Ngoc book shopping

I was very excited to do book shopping recently with Ngoc. I haven’t done book shopping for over six months, as I was on maternity leave. There were many new books at the shop so we had the choice of a wonderful variety of books but also had to choose thoughtfully too. 

These books were for putting into book boxes to go to a pagoda in Thang Binh. In this community there are quite a lot of primary, secondary and high students. We chose many books for the primary school girls this time. I really liked the set of books which teaches primary students how to be safe at home, at school, and out of home as well. For example the information in the books includes how to use a gas stove safely and how to rescue yourself from drowning. Some of books teach children how to be disciplined and how to respect others. It’s not only good for primary students, but also good for all age groups, including us, the staff too, although we are adults. 

 The books in book boxes

Thuy explaining to the nun about care of the books and the process of signing out books

The nun with the news books in the book boxes

Kim Chi with one of the books

Kim Chi with some of the books they bought

Most of the books we chose are thin books with some pictures to show through the pictures what they are talking about and to get the children more interested in the subject. We hope the children can enjoy reading and learning more from these books.

Note: We are very grateful for the donations we receive to buy books as the books are able to be shared by many making these donations very valuable. Thanks so much Victoria for your donation allowing us to buy many books to share.

Vietnamese New Year and auspicious flowers

In Vietnam some colors are considered auspicious and help to bring good luck and good fortune to the families who decorate their homes with these colors at Tet, or New Year. One of the simple ways to bring these benefits to their homes is by adding plants and flowers that are one of these colors or related shades: yellow and red, orange, pink, crimson, mauve or purple.

Below are some of the lovely flowers and plants that are popular at Tet.

Tet Food Parcels

Every Tet CEF gives the poorest of our families Tet Food Parcels which include basic food supplies such as rice, soy sauce and Vietnamese tea plus some Tet treats such as watermelon seeds, crystalized ginger and coconut candy.
As they can't easily feed themselves on a daily basis, enjoying festive food or Tet treats is just not feasible for them. These foods and treats enable them to share Tet with family, friends and neighbors which is very important as this is considered the most important celebration of the year and how one starts the year influences the remainder of the year. These treats make the families feel they are not as desperately poor as they normally feel. We love being able to help them enjoy Tet and it would not be possible without the generous donations of donors and sponsors.

About Tet and what it means to many with video clip that expresses it beautifully ~Guest blog by CEF staff Ms Ngoc

This Tet video clip, although an advertisement, expresses how most Vietnamese families want to welcome Tet in with their closest family members. That is what our CEF children want too.Their parents may not be at home during Tet because they need to work to earn money and some of our children have to help their parents a lot over Tet and don't get to celebrate.

Our gifts of Tet Food Parcels are not big but for the poor, they are very valuable at Tet.  Normally, Vietnamese children will have new clothes, and are full of delicious food at Tet while our CEF children's situations are one of struggle so they do not have anything. Therefore, if they receive our gift of a food parcel, I am sure that they will be overjoyed.

Last year, although it rained heavily and was cold, all the families come to Hoi An to receive gifts regardless of how far they had to travel. We hope with your help we can raise more funds to be able to give this simple, yet meaningful gift.

Below is a link to a song that expresses beautifully the importance of Tet. It is in Vietnamese and below is an explanation.

This is a very touching video clip. The little girl is waiting for the phone call from her father who lives far from home. She is very happy to hearing the phone ring. However, she is mute so she cannot answer the call. After knowing that her father cannot return home at Tet because he is too busy at work, she is very sad. When she receives gifts and lucky money from her family members she is very excited and run to her room to talk online with her father. She said that she had a lot of gifts but she prefers having her father at home. She says she has saved a lot of lucky money so he does not need to work hard, and please return home because she misses him. It is really moving. Then the father decides to return home because he loves his daughter a lot and wants to welcome the new year with his family. (Written by CEF staff Ngoc)

Donations for Tet Food Parcels can be made on PayPal. If you are an American or Canadian please use this website: www.cef-vietnam-usa.org and if Australian or from New Zealand or anywhere else please use: www.ChildrensEducationFoundation.org.au  Banking details are on each site as well. Thank you so much!

Donations for Tet Food Parcels for the poorest of the CEF family needed

The most important annual celebration in Vietnam, Tet, (Vietnamese New Year) is coming soon! The poor can not afford to celebrate, making it a time of stress and disappointment, instead of one of happiness. It's a time of cleaning, renewal, forgiving, paying off debts and expressing gratitude and part of that means buying some new clothing to see the year in, and sharing special food with friends, family and neighbors. None of that is possible if they are poor.

We would like to help them enjoy this special and important event by giving some foods and treats for them to share. We are asking for donations for Tet Food Parcels for our poorest families.
When donating please specify the donation is for Tet Food Parcels.

Payment details including PayPal are on both the USA site (www.cef-vietnam-usa.org) and and Australian site (www.ChildrensEducationFoundation.org.au). Please use the relevant site (Americans and Canadians please use USA site, all other nationalities please use the Australian site).
We wish to bring them some happiness and hope you can help too!

Thank you,
Linda Burn, Founding Director and in-Country Manager - Vietnam
Children's Education Foundation

(Pictures are of  'Lucky Envelopes' in which we put some money for the children to buy themselves a treat. This is part of the Tet Food Parcel we give.)

An interview

When we visited the student who had been referred to us, we found her living at a small and shabby roadside stall with her granny who she lives with. 

They were working as they had a guest at their 'restaurant'. They sell drinks, incense and half-formed duck eggs with a side of pickles. These eggs are considered to give sexual vitality, and therefore are very popular with the Vietnamese men. 

Once the guest had departed we sat down to talk with them. Although life is hard for them they both smiled a lot. 

So many families have challenges from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep, but still smile, and amazingly accept their lot with humor. 

The student we interviewed

With granny

 Granny

 Their food stall

Their bed

About one of the CEF families in the mountains ~ Guest blog by Thuy

Once again last month I had a chance to visit CEF children and their families in a mountainous area we work in, as my colleague who takes responsibility in this area was on maternity leave. This is also my favorite area to work because the families are so poor but still positive and keep working hard.

The home-visits not only help us to find out about the changes in their families, but also to understand more about their children that we help, as well as help build closer relationships with children and their families.

It was 6 months since my first visit and it was enough time to see the changes in the families and children. They don't feel embarrassed when talking to me, even the first time. Most of the children freely share their feelings, their news at school and at home, their hobbies and dreams. Most of families have changed very little. Some families are a little better off, but some are worse off. Among those families.

I was very touched with T's family story. T's family is an extremely poor household and because of their poverty the 17 years old daughter decided to quit school when she was 16 years old to earn money and help the family. The mother agreed with her decision. However, she couldn’t find a good job at her age, so she worked in a coffee shop for a year. She met someone and got pregnant and had to get married after that. The mother was so depressed because she used to believe that T's sister was a smart and good girl and could help the family out financially if she went to work. Now she is also very worried because her daughter is too young to be a mother, and to be good daughter-in-law for her husband’s family. She also realized that this was a valuable experience about the importance of education. She cried and said ‘If my family gets any poorer then I will have to sell everything I own. I won’t let my other daughters stop their studies because I now know that their futures could end up the same as their older sister’. We were very sad when we heard about their story. However, it is still good in another way as the mother has realized the importance of keeping girls in school.

Thuy

A visit to beautiful Hanoi to see some of our tertiary students there

We recently visited beautiful Hanoi on our way to Thai Binh to see all our students there. This stop enabled us to catch up with CEF's tertiary students in Hanoi. The new students have adjusted well to their student life and we are pleased to say our more established students are all doing well. It was lovely to see them and observe how they have grown into such lovely young adults. I felt like a proud mother.

We caught up with each of them at a coffee shop, then took them to dinner. After dinner we walked around Hoan Kiem Lake and had ice cream. What a lovely and special time it was. 

(Photo of Hoan Kiem Lake)

Some of the CEF students work so hard to maintain a high standard

Some students work so hard to achieve a high standard at school and spend an unbelievable amount of hours each day to do this. This CEF student has a very sweet sponsor who offered her private English tuition, but she hasn't the time as she already is doing 18 hours of extra tuition sessions out of her school hours, plus all her school classes, and compulsory extra tuition at school, and all her home work! To maintain her standard she can't fit in more English classes as it will detract from her studies, and so she will need to wait until next summer to do the English course.

Some students really impress us at CEF with their attitude and the amount of time they put into studying without any external pressure due to their yearning to do really well at school.
This little grade 4 sweetheart is an only child of a single parent who is poor and hardly received any education herself, as was the case with her own mother. She works hard at school, studies a lot at home, and is the best student in her class. We and her mother are very proud of her, her efforts and her results.

One of our CEF students recently decided to stop being a novice nun. She loved being a novice nun, loved the peace and tranquility and the Buddhist studies.  But she is also very intelligent and an excellent student and could fit in the required school studies and maintain her standard while in secondary school. But she realized that once she entered high school it would be very hard to allocate the time needed to maintain her high standard. The work load is about twice as much when they are in high school. As she wants a university education she decided it was best to leave now before grade 10 started. She is content with her decision and we are sure she will do very well.