Blogs

It's not often the kids at the Home of Affection shelter get to try international food. Last month though, thanks to the support of the DMZ bar and Little Italy, the children were given the opportunity to try pizza for the first time.

This was a great chance for the kids to experience a different kind of food. One Hue Help's main areas of focus is exposing the children to a variety of people, places and cultures. This will assist with a smooth transition to independence when the children become older.

To prepare for the International Volunteer Program in 2009 Summer on teaching English and entertaining orphans living in the Orphanages of Hue (May to August), on the 10th of May, Hue Help held a meeting between the Vietnamese volunteers on the plan. Most of them are enthusiastic students from Universities and Colleges in Hue.

At the meeting, Mr Joshua Zukas (Volunteer coordinator for Hue Help), explained the program and the regulations related to Child protection as well as the duties and powers of the volunteers in the program.

A lot of people have asked us recently why we focus on providing swimming lessons in the summer holidays. Why swimming?

According to the Vietnam Ministry of Health, around 10 children drown per day in Vietnam. This is markedly higher than many other countries; in the UK for example, around 1.2 people drown per day. In the province of Thua Thien Hue, where Hue Help is based, death by drowning is particularly high. The province is coastal, subject to annual flooding, and is home to South East Asia’s largest lagoon.

Last March, Hue Help welcomed one volunteer from America. Her name is Barbara Kernochan. Seemingly we volunteers and the children at the orphanage are used to calling her with the informal name “Barbara”. As usual, she is responsible for teaching the children English and we volunteers also contribute a small part to helping her with translation work. Due to many years of experience working as an Alternative Education and Work Center Coordinator and Outreach Consultant in Venice Skills Center (California), Mrs Barbara seems to get acquainted with teaching with ease.

Last Sunday, Hue Help organised a trip for two children’s shelters in Hue – the Home of Affection, at Chi Lang street – to the Than Tan Spa resort, around 30km North of Hue. We’ve carried this trip out for the past three years for the Home of Affection kids, and thanks to the support of Hilary Adamson and Tamra Ewing, we were able to bring along Chi Lang shelter also. A total of 42 children, plus staff from DoLISA, the shelters, as well as Hue Help volunteers and staff made up the group.

There hasn’t been much activity on our blog recently, but that’s just because we’ve been so busy carrying out a Youth Expedition Project (YEP) in the rural area of Huong Xuan with students and teachers from Ngee Ann Polytechnic (Singapore).

The economic downturn has dominated the headlines for a long time now, and the impact is being felt by businesses, individuals and the third sector across the globe.

For Hue Help, there is also an impact. One pound is now worth only 24-25,000VND, compared to 32,000VND last year. Combine that with rising costs in Vietnam, as well as the loss of some key donors, we are in for a tough year. Our unpaid management are working tirelessly to find additional funding sources to prevent the impact of the crisis being felt by the people our programs work with. But we do need more help.

Nearly two thirds of children in Home of Affection (Yiet Kieu St) achieved good study results this term.

After more than a year of funding for the children in the Home of Affection we are happy to announce nearly 2 / 3 of the children achieved excellent and fair results in the first term of the school year 2008 - 2009. These results are thanks to the house mothers, the management board in the orphanage and especially the enthusiastic efforts of the teachers who tutor for the children, such as teacher Cúc for the primary children, and the mathematics teacher Lanh for the children in secondary school.

At the beginning school year 2008-2009, the studying situation of children was very alarming as nearly half of the children had bad results in the first test. Confronted with the above situation, Hue Help collaborated with the housemothers and the orphanage management board, and thanks to a grant from Education Services (Cambridge, UK) we were able to hire a primary level teacher to work at the orphanage, and provide external tuition for the secondary and high school pupils.

As the main sponsor organisation for the orphanage, we will work closely with the teachers to encourage the children to strive to achieve good results at the end of school year 2008-2009. We would like to thank everyone who has supported us in helping to improve the education of the children at the Home of Affection!

Khanh Truong

On the 19th, January 2009 (24/12 lunar calendar), the Home of Affection orphanage organised a farewell party before the children go home to enjoy Tet holiday at their relatives. Attending the party were DOLISA’s Director and teachers, and housemothers in the orphanage. On the side of Hue Help, there was the participation of Mr Graham Buckley (Director) Mr Khanh Truong (Representative in Vietnam). Besides enjoying delicious foods cooked by the housemothers, the children also were offered new clothes from DOLISA, and Hue Help also gave the children lucky money as a New Years Day present.

The children left the orphanage on the 20th January and will return on the 30th January. There are 5 children who have no relatives (Ngoc, Le, Huy, Anh and Thi) will stay with orphanage staff. We will be sure to pay them a visit over the Tet celebrations!

- Khanh Truong

After only one year since the day that Hue Help has started to officially support the children in Home of Affection Orphanage, on the 10th of January the orphanage organised a groundbreaking ceremony, where the first stone of a new house for the children at Huong So Ward was set.

Mr Hau, the Vice Director of the orphanage, prayed for the construction to be carried out well, and for the education and quality of life of the children to be high in the new building.

The new building will comprise 2 floors with bedrooms, classrooms, a dinning room, a library and another functional rooms to serve the education and the entertainment of the children. The building is due to be complete by the end of 2009.

- Khanh Truong, Representative of Hue Help in Vietnam.