CEF's annual 'Water Safety Day' has already saved one life

This young lad slipped into the water while playing with friends by the rivers edge. As he was drowning he remembered what he had learned at CEF's annual 'Water Safety Day' and was able to float and live.  He was scared of the water and didn't even go in the water on CEF's 'Water Safety Day' for two consecutive years.  But he had listened and watched carefully both years. The photo is from the following year when he took the bold step of getting into the water.

This annual event is clearly very important: 

"......Vietnam records 3,500-4,000 drowning deaths among children each year, ten times higher than the rates in developed countries. The country has 2,360 rivers and canals with a total length of 41,900 kilometers (26,035 miles), and a long coastline of more than 3,400 km........"

Each year we need to employ swimming teachers, and find many volunteers to make this day a safe and fun day for all. Staff have organized this event for June 14th. 

At present we have teachers to teach water safety theory, 8 swimming teachers and 9 western volunteers who will help in the water. Besides learning water safety theory, learning to float and swim, and playing many games in the water to help them become more comfortable in the water, we will provide morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea, and after a hot day at the beach we will take them to an air conditioned cinema for some light relief.  

All funds are gratefully received to make this day a success:
Paypal in on the front page of the blog and on our website: www.cef-vietnam-usa.org
Please make checks out to: 'Children's Education Foundation - Vietnam'
Please send to: Law Office of Stephen Jackel, 277 Broadway, Suite 1010, New York, NY 10007

Thank you!

Linda Burn
Founding Director and In-Country Manager - Vietnam
Children's Education Foundation - Vietnam

Note from a sponsor

".....I am thrilled that we finally met in person, and I also enjoyed meeting your Mother. You are a beautiful young woman and have inherited your mother’s delightful smile.   Here are three pictures to remind you of our visit.

My trip to Viet Nam was fun and educational for me to learn about your family, culture and way of living........

I am so pleased that you are graduating and want to continue your studies. In my opinion, it is important for women to be able to support themselves and having an education is the key.   As I promised your Mother, I will continue my sponsorship to help you in your university studies.  All I ask is that you work hard, as you have done in high school, and prepare for your future.   It’s also important for you to practice your English—so practice, practice!

Thank you for taking me on a tour of your home so now I can picture where you are everyday. Please tell your mother that I hope she is feeling better.   I hope we can meet again......"

CEF has a 'Scholarship Program' to help keep minority tribe girls near the border safe

CEF is making a small contribution to keep Vietnamese minority tribe girls safe.

Trafficking is increasing in Vietnam and it is ugly and sad, whether it is trafficking of children or adults for the sex industry, for factories, or girls sold as wives or enslaved as domestic servants in China, or for their body parts such as kidneys.  It is deplorable and anything that can be done to stop it is important and essential.

CEF’s work area is education. We are helping impoverished girls to stay in school and complete school as our primary goal. After graduation we hope to put them through vocational training or through college or university. Working in the area of trafficking isn’t our work, but we want to do a little to help create awareness and keep some girls in the mountainous border areas in Vietnam stay safe and in school. 

We have started a program that is to ensure we can help larger numbers of girls to stay safe.  Our educational sponsorship program where we have one sponsor for one child involves a lot of  work and hours to support the child and family as much as is possible and to communicate with sponsors. Therefore there is a limit to how many girls we can have in the sponsorship program at one time.  

The girls we are concentrating on for our new ‘Scholarship Program’ are in mountainous areas near the Vietnam-Laos border. 

We hope that many of you will find our ‘Scholarship Program’ an affordable way to help girls to stay in school and stay safe.

We want to ask that you, your family and friends, or your business consider a commitment to a yearly scholarship. Over the next month we would like to arrange 20 scholarships. These are high school students and their scholarships are US$150 each. After those 20 have scholarships we will take on another 20, and then more. 

If you would like to take on a scholarship or two or more please let us know: cef.vn.usa@gmail.com

We will send a yearly report on the project and photos as well. There is no reporting on individual girls.

Thank you. Linda Burn, Founding Director and In-Country Manager - Vietnam

Sponsorship is always a blessing for each child and sometimes they get treats too!

Every child who is sponsored is blessed. They are able to stay in school and work towards a better future with more choices. Their carer has less stress knowing their child or grandchild is in school and they don't need to worry about their education costs.

Some sponsors go one step further and write to their sponsor child. We translate the letters and pass over the original and the translation. It is always interesting for the child to receive a letter from their sponsor.

Then there are a few who send surprise boxes. These boxes of goodies always delight the child. What a treat to receive useful, but high quality items from overseas!

It always touches me that some people have such huge hearts and don't consider the effort and cost they have to go to to do this. Because they think of the child here first, they create great joy for the child.

About the recent visit of our US manager in Vietnam

Each year Stephen Jackel, who is CEF’s manager in the USA, visits Vietnam and attends some events; home visits or payment days, or both. Stephen does the receipting and accounts, as well as a lot of the communication with our US donors and sponsors.

Stephen enjoys these visits and has become more involved each year. He is getting to know the staff and the workings of CEF in Vietnam.  He enjoys the home visits but finds some disturbing as the level of poverty and hardship of some of families is hard to bear.  

 

(This family has a challenging situation as dad fell off the roof and now has partial paralysis and therefore they have lost both incomes as mum has to look after dad)

His visits are important. On payment days they enable Stephen to meet our Vietnamese government partners, but he also gets to see the complete payment process. As well as that he gets to meet some of the children sponsored by people he knows in the US and this enables him to talk about them personally. The visits enable him to talk about the work CEF does in Vietnam and describe the conditions of the families we work with, the despair of some and the joy some express in receiving help, also our criteria and selection process for new families and children, and much more.

We appreciate his commitment to CEF and his efforts in making the long trip from the States to Vietnam each year.  His probing questions and his feedback are important for all of us at CEF too.

About home visits ~ Guest blog by Stephen Jackel, CEF's US manager

I've been fortunate to be able to return to Vietnam again this year. Yesterday we conducted four home visits to children in the countryside about an hour outside of Hoi An and I was struck by the difference between two of the young girls, whom I'll call Hanh and Linh. Hanh, who is sponsored by a donor in New York, is 10 years old but is small and looks even younger.  She overcame her shyness and chatted with us about school (with the assistance of CEF staff member Quan’s translation) and showed us her notebooks, which contained meticulous notes as well as math charts and diagrams done with coloured pencils.  Although Hanh has grown up in a home without a father, her mother and granny work as subsistence farmers, still the small, sparsely furnished home was a happy one. The mother and granny are warm and affectionate and Hanh is all smiles, obviously smart and doing very well in her classes.  As we left I felt uplifted and optimistic for her future.

Linh's family recently applied for assistance from CEF to keep her in school and this was Linda's second visit to assess her and the family for a sponsorship.  Both parents work as farmers, although the mother injured her knee last year and is laid up after recent surgery.  They had to borrow money for the operation and so their financial situation has become dire, making it very difficult for them to keep their three children in school.  Linh, who is a tall 14-year-old, is a good, though not great student.  For whatever reason, the household is not a happy one and we sensed that her life is difficult.  Linh is shy and quiet, but more responsive than on Linda's first home visit to meet her.  Her application for a sponsorship was approved and we're hoping that the chance to finish her education will give her more opportunities to create a better, and happier, future for herself.

Photo of her and family

'Tet' is the time of year for each individual personally and at home to refresh, renew, repair, forgive; to start anew

'Tet' (Vietnamese New Year) is the time of year in Vietnam when each person does what they can personally and at home to refresh, renew, repair, forgive and to stat anew. Even the poorest will buy a gold or yellow colored plant (also red and purple colored plants are considered auspicious) to bring prosperity to them and their family. These are placed outside the house and some hang their plants. 

They also will buy something new to wear at Tet; maybe if they are poor it will only be a new hair tie or clip, or a new shirt. And their home and garden may only get a thorough spring clean and some broken hinges repaired. Those with more money will repaint the whole house, both inside and outside, buy new furniture, pay off any debts and buy some gold jewelry and clothing. 

At CEF the staff take a long Tet holiday to prepare their homes, do the required cleaning, repairing and shopping and spend time with their families and friends. They love this long holiday as it is a chance to see some of the family they can only see once a year and to see some dear friends who may have married and moved away to another city, but come back to visit family and good friends. 

For the poor it is a stressful time of year as they can only afford Tet if they borrow further funds. Before the staff take their long Tet holiday CEF buys rice and various staples and treats for our families to try and relieve a little of the burden and to help them celebrate. This brings us joy to prepare these parcels for them and to give them knowing we have been able to help bring some joy to them.

Rice and food Parcels for CEF families at 'Tet'

Each Vietnamese New Year  (Tet) we give sacks of rice, food parcels and 'Good Luck' New Year money to the CEF children and their families. 

This holiday is the most important in Vietnam and it is also the most expensive. It is considered crucial to start the new year clean and fresh in every way.  Families try to pay off debts, as well as buy new flowers plants, new clothes for everyone in the family, and renovate and decorate the home and entertain the stream of friends and family who visit over this holiday. As most of the families CEF helps are struggling to even survive each day they can't afford what is expected of them, so we help by giving them a sack of rice and a food parcel made up of essentials and some treats for their holiday. We give some money to the children so they can buy themselves a little treat.  These simple gifts make them very happy and relieves some of their financial stress.

Quan loading up the boot with sacks of rice and food parcels to deliver to some of the CEF families

           One of our girls with her sack of  rice and her food parcel. she lives with her grandmother as her parents have divorced and have new families and can't look after her as well.

Another one of our girls with her food parcel and rice and her aunt. Her parents have died and she lives with elderly grandparents. 

Apologies about posting less blogs

Dear CEF supporters, donors and sponsors,

For some mysterious reason I can't post blogs while in Vietnam. This means I can only do them when out of Vietnam, so I am not able to post as many as in the past.

I am able to do facebook and this is where there are regular posts. If you wish to follow our activities please see CEF's facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/childrenseducationfoundation

Thank you,

Linda

Linda Burn
Founding Director and In-Country Manager - Vietnam
Children's Education Foundation - Vietnam