A new brighter chapter open for Nguyen Xuan Tu

Every individual is unique and is often born within differing circumstances . Nguyen Xuan Tu was born in 1992 in Vinh Quynh commune, Thanh Tri district, Hanoi. Since young, he has been abandoned by his father who abandoned his family. Fatherly love to him is something that is completely foreign. Today, he is living with his mother and a sister. His mother has to work very hard every day from 4 am to 8pm at a plastic to support the family. However, her meagre salary is barely enough to buy food for their daily meals. Thanks to the support given by HSCV and the provision of rice and scholarship, Tu’s family is able to have sufficient rice for meals and Tu is able to continue going to school. Tu may not be a high flyer who can produce excellent results in class but he has been trying his best work hard in school. He enjoys going to school and mixing around with his classmates. He would like to study all the subjects in school but his mother is unable to pay for his school fees. A filial child, Tu understands that his mother has to work very hard and has decided to stop schooling after Grade 10 so that he can try and find a job to ease the financial burden on his mother.
Today, Tu is taking a six-month training course in a material and wrapping company to become a printing worker. For Tu, leaving school may be closing a chapter of his life but it has also opened a new door with new opportunities. During the training period, he will try his best to study hard and acquire new skills that would help him in future. He hopes that he will be able to find a good job to earn money to lighten his mother’s burden. In this picture shows that Tu hard at work.

We hope that he would realize his dream to earn a good income for his family soon..

For more information please visit our website at:
http://www.hscv.org/scholarships_post_high_school.htm

Blogged by Luong Thuy Quynh

Art class at Ha Cau Orphanage center

HSCV has cooperated with the Studio 25 about teaching modern art for free for our poor children. We have just warm up this program at an Orphanage Center named Ha Cau Orphanage Center in Ha Dong District, Hanoi City.








Every Sunday afternoons, there are three artists from the Studio 25 come to the Ha Cau Orphanage center to teach 55 children at this center with drawing pictures. The children are really interested in this program. After each lesson, all children pictures are showed up at the front yard and there will be a discussion between the teachers and the children to select which one is the best, second, third ...









They sit down with the artists every 3 hours on every Sunday afternoon to learn and draw pictures. They draw whatever they want and their pictures are very beautiful and impressed. This program will last for four months and after that we will move to other center or school to teach other children.












We do hope that there will be many people would love to buy the pictures of the children to help us with having some funds to purchase the serious needs of the children at this center such as food, soap, personal hygiene items, clothing, shoes and blankets...



Blogged by Chau Nguyen

Post High School Class of 2009 – 2010

HSCV has been helping more than 200 students in the rural areas with staying with the school to help them having a brighter life. In those numbers of students, in 2008, HSCV has been helping 10 children with Post High School Program to help them in braking poverty cycle. Thanks to HSCV’s sponsors, these 10 children will graduate their training courses in a year and they will have great chance to earn good jobs to help their family with changing their life. They soon will be the tourist guider, cooker, accountant, Kindergarten teacher, nurse, electrician … and they are very happy and exciting about that. They also would like to send the best thanks to their sponsors.

This year, HSCV hopes to find sponsors for other 12 children with this program. Without these scholarships, these children would not be able to raise the money needed to further their education. All of these children come from disadvantage families and many have dealt with the loss of a parent, family members with mental illnesses or physical handicaps, and while living poverty. Giving a scholarship to these children gives them the opportunity and ability to change their lives and help their family break the poverty cycle. Without further education, it is likely these children would remain in the rice fields doing menial work for the rest of their lives.

We would love to bring their attention on this blog for your reference.

Nguyễn Đăng Thiêm will take a training course of Information Technology (IT) in Hanoi Training Jobs College in this October. He will take this training course for two years.

Thiem comes from a very poor family in Vinh Quynh Commune, Thanh Tri District. His father is mentally and needs to be sent to the hospital very often. His mother has to work very hard to support the family. Thiem and his younger brother always try their best to study well and help their mother as well. His future goal is to get a good job so he can help to support his parents and make their life easier. He said with a hopeful voice, “I have been trying to study as best I can to be a good student to better help my future. I really wish to have a good job so I can help my parents in the future”.

Nguyễn Thị Hòa will take a training course in the Commercial and Tourist College. She will need to study at this school for 3 years. She would love to be the tourist guide in the future. She is living in a very poor condition house with her 70 years old grandfather and her sister. Her parents both left home after divorcing and her grandfather has to work very hard to support Hoa and her sister. HSCV has been helping them for more than five years and HSCV”s help of rice and scholarships have been helping Hoa and her sisters continue staying with the school.

Trần Tuyết Mai will take a training course in the Kindergarten Teachers Training Vocational School. She will need to study at this school for 2 years. She would love to be a Kindergarten teacher in the future.

Mai is living at home with her mother and her sister. Their situation is very difficult. All family incomes are just from some crops of rice and selling vegetables from their farm. Sometimes they do not have enough money to cover for their daily expenses. HSCV has been helping them with rice and scholarship for Mai and this helps has helped Mai can graduate her High School.

Phan Xuân Tuấn will take a training course in the Economic and Industrial College for 2 years. He would love to be an accountant in the future.

Tuan is living with his mother in a poor small house and his father left home many years ago without any support. His mother is a farmer and she has to work very hard to help the living expenses for the family and sometimes she does not have enough money to pay for food. Tuan wishes that he would have a good job in the future to help his mother with reducing her burden.

HSCV has been helping Tuan and his mother with rice every month and scholarship for some years to help Tuan can graduate his High School.

Nguyễn Đức Cảnh will take a training course at The Hanoi Economic College for two years. Canh wishes to find a good job after graduating the college to help his family and himself would have brighter lives.

Canh is living with his family in a rice area. His father died many years ago so his mother has to work very hard to support the family. HSCV has been helping Canh’s family with rice and scholarship to help Canh to stay with the school. He has graduated his High School and going to enter the College in this October. All we hope that Canh would have a brighter life and he would never remain in the rice fields doing menial work for the rest of his lives.

Phan Thị Tĩnh will take a training course in the Hoa Sua Vocational School for 2 years. She would love to be a cooker in the future.

She is living with her mother and her other four siblings in a very poor condition house. Her father died many years ago and her mother has to work very hard to support the family. All their incomes just base on some rice crops and they often does not have enough food to eat. Tinh really feels sorry for her mother and would like to earn a good job to help her mother with reducing her mother’s burden. She wishes to be a cooker in a restaurant after graduating the training course.

Phạm Văn Tùng will take a training course of Information Technology (IT) in Hanoi Training Jobs College in this October. He will take this training course for two years.

Tung is living with his mother and his other two siblings in a small house. His father died many years ago and all family burdens are on his mother’s shoulders. She has to work very hard on the field to cover their daily expenses.

HSCV met with them since 2004 and has been helping them with rice and scholarship to help Tung to stay with his school. Tung has graduated the High School and will enter the College in this October to be an IT man in the future.

Nguyễn Thị Duyên will take a training course of Bank Accountant at Hanoi Industrial University. She will take this training course for four years.

Duyen is living with her family in a poor mountain area. Her mother has serious heart disease and she has kidney and liver problem. She is very weak now. Her father has to work very hard on the field to support the family and the medical fees of her mother. Duyen and her sisters always try to study well at the school and they are the excellent students at school. They also helps their parents with farming works at the summer holiday and the house works at their free time as well.

HSCV has been helping them with rice and scholarship to help the children staying with the school. Now, Duyen has graduated her High School and is going to enter the University.

Nguyễn Thành Lê would love to be a mechanic worker in the future. He will take this training course at Phuong Nam Vocational Training School for 2 years.

Le is living with his family in a small poor condition house. His family incomes just base on some rice crops and sometimes his family do not have enough food to eat. Even though, Le still tries his best to study well at the school and help his parents sometimes with farming. Le really wishes to have a good job in the future to help his family to reduce their hardness.

Nguyen Thi Thu will take a training course of accounting in Hanoi Technical and Economic Vocational School in this October. She will take this training course for 3 years.

Thu’s father has died for a few months and her mother abandon the home for many years. Thu is now living with her stepmother and her stepbrother in a small poor house. Their situation is very difficult and Thu always feels very sad for her circumstance. She wishes to have a good job in the future and hope that her life would never remain in the rice fields doing menial work for the rest of her lives. She wishes to study at the Hanoi Technical and Economic Vocational School to be an accountant in the future. This would help her to find a good job.

Nguyễn Xuân Tú will take a training course in the Mechanical and Electric College. He will need to study at this school for 3 years. He would love to be motor technical in the future.

Tu is living with his mother and his sister in a small house in rice rural area. His father abandoned the home for many years and his mother has to work very hard to support for Tu and his sister. Tu feels very sorry for his mother and he decided to quit school at the grade 10 and would like to study at the Mechanical and Electric College for a job. He would have a chance to get a job then he would help his mother with reducing her burden in the family.

Trần Thị Thùy Linh will take a tailor training course at a big tailor shop near her house. She would love to be a tailor and would help her parents with some more income for the family.

Linh is living with her parents and other four siblings in a very small poor condition house. All their incomes are just from some rice crops. Her parents have to work very hard to support for five children and their daily expenses. HSCV met with them and have being helping them with rice and scholarship to help the children to stay with the school. Linh feels very sorry for her parents and she would like to stop school at the grade 10 and study for a job. She would love to be a tailor and then she can earn some amount of money to help her parents and help her family members with sewing clothes for them.

HSCV really wishes to help these children with passing their cusses to the Post High School Program. Please open your kindly heart, choose your child, and sponsor them. They all wish to have a brighter life and their dream would become true with your greatest help.

For more information please visit our website at:
http://www.hscv.org/scholarships_post_high_school.htm

Blogged by Chau Nguyen

Ms. Thu Huong 's Happiness

Ms. Thu Huong

Vinh Tuy, HaNoi


The next story I am going to tell you is about Ms.Thu Huong who gave me a lesson in optimism and the love of Life. She was born in 1982. She had measles when she was one year old. Later, the family discovered that she contracted myasthenia which developed into polio after a few months. Her inability to walk stole her ability to go to school or to have childhood friends as she grew up. At home, she cannot move or walk, she has to depend on her beloved family members to help her with daily routine activities. Otherwise, she has to crawl on the floor to get anything thing done. Despite her disabled legs, she participates in sports activities at the Disability Association with her family’s help. In the past, she used to dream that she would have a wheelchair – so that she would not have to depend on others and she could manage things by herself.

Her dream came true when the District staff arrived to instruct her family how to submit an application for a wheelchair. After a month, she received the good news that she would get a wheelchair! She says that the wheelchair helps her to deal with the difficulty of getting around, and gives her hope for a better life. She wants to express her sincere gratitude to all the donors and Charity Organization for this gift. She also hopes that more disabled people will be able to enjoy the same happiness as she does now with the gift of a wheelchair. She said she intends to open an Internet shop at home to earn money to share the financial burden with her parents. Moreover, she will try to participate in activities at the Disability Association and be a companion with other physically handicapped people. Besides her happiness of getting the “mobile leg”, she will get married next year! She proudly told me this good news. She smiles during the interview! This girl now feels that she has a blessed life.

After seeing her, I must admit she’s inspired me never to give up when I too am sometimes spiritually “paralyzed” by my own difficulties and challenges in this life!

For only $500 you can sponsor HSCV's distribution of a container of 550 wheelchairs. This is less than $1 per wheelchair. HSCV receives our wheelchairs from Free Wheelchair Mission. They cover all expenses until the container reaches Vietnam. At that point HSCV works with a local partner to distribute the chairs. $500 will allow us to oversee the distribution of one container.

Follow this link to donate: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=5191075

Blogged by Ngo Thuy Hanh

Walk a Mile in My Shoes

Please join Journey Homeschool Co-op at the beautiful Sherburne County National Wildlife Refuge on the Blue Hill Trail to symbolically walk up one of the highest points in Sherburne county in honor of the students at our “Sister School” who; many times without shoes, walk miles and miles to school each day in the mountains of Vietnam.

A Walk/Run to raise funds to benefit our Sister School in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Sunday, September 27^th at 2pm

Sherburne County National Wildlife Refuge

on the Blue Hill Trail

(Hwy. 169 north of Zimmerman, west on County Rd. 9- trail on the north side of road about 5 miles, watch for the Refuge signs )

The Blue Hill trail offers 3 loops which measure a total of 4.5 miles. Walkers can choose the loop that best fits their desired experience.

Registration

Pre-registered fee - $15.00 per person includes a t-shirt

Pre-Registered fee - $ 35.00 per family includes 2 t-shirts

Pre-registration ends September 20^th

Race Day fee-$20.00 per person t-shirt not guaranteed

Race Day fee-$40.00 per family t-shirts not guaranteed

Check-in and Same Day Registration begins at 1 pm

For more information or to register: www.journeyhomeschool.com

This walk is sponsored by Journey Homeschool Co-op.

The Sister School program is offered through HSCV a 501-3C in Prior Lake, MN.

Thanh's dream comes true

Phung Van Thanh – 20 years old
Thai Hoa Community – Trieu Son District – Thanh Hoa City

Today, Phung Van Thanh is brought by his dad and uncle to the people’s committee of Trieu Son district to receive a wheelchair provided through a cooperation between association NTT and TMC Thanh Hoa, association for the support of Vietnamese Handicapped and Orphans (ASVHO), Free Wheelchair Mission (FWM), Giving it back to kids ( GIBTK) and Humanitarian Services for Children of Vietnam (HSCV).

Mr. Phung Van Thanh is 20 years old but looking at him, I feel that he’s a lot older than his real age. His health condition has probably affected his appearance and his life tremendously. Thanh was born disabled. For the past 20 years in his life, he’s had to rely on his family in every way. Everything regarding food, hygiene and daily needs are taken care of by his father. His mother is old and her eyesight is slowly weakening and she can’t therefore help him as much as she would like to. Whenever there are sudden changes in the weather, his nervous system disease reappears, his muscle gets strained and he constantly screams because of pain. Even though his family has brought him to several hospitals to find a cure for his health condition, there were no progresses to be seen. In his current situation, he has medical expenses that costs around 60 000 VND every month. In this amount, tonics and medicine H5 for the nervous system is included.

The family has long wanted to have a wheelchair so that Thanh can move around more easily. But because of the family’s poor financial situation and their farming job can barely feed 6 mouths, 3 of which is still in schooling, it was simply impossible to buy Thanh a wheelchair. Sometimes when they’re out of rice and out of money, the family had to borrow money to be able to put food on the table, so the wish of getting Thanh a wheelchair was very distant and long-reached until now with the help from these charitable organizations. Even though this wheelchair comes a bit late to Thanh but the family are extremely happy and blessed by the consideration that the charity organizations has for their son and other disabled people. The happiness is clearly shown on the face, the eyes and the smiles of Thanh’s father and uncle. His father is very happy when receiving the wheelchair for his son. He said: “Now my son can move around on his own and a lot easier than before. It will also be less difficult for me and my wife now. I don’t have to help him with every step that he takes anymore because this wheelchair will replace my job”.

Looking at the father and the son’s cheerfulness, I can’t help but feel happy too. Because of the sharing and contribution of the charitable organizations, it has brought them happiness and a sense of warmth.


For only $500 you can sponsor HSCV's distribution of a container of 550 wheelchairs. This is less than $1 per wheelchair. HSCV receives our wheelchairs from Free Wheelchair Mission. They cover all expenses until the container reaches Vietnam. At that point HSCV works with a local partner to distribute the chairs. $500 will allow us to oversee the distribution of one container.

Follow this link to donate: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=5191075

Blogged by Ngo Thuy Hanh

Help Van Anh with the way to her success

For the first time in 2008, HSCV offered scholarships to a group of students so that they could continue their post-high school education. This is an important step in breaking the cycle of poverty. Without this opportunity for further education and formal training, it’s likely these children would be doomed to spend the rest of their lives just working in the rice fields.

This fall, (2009), HSCV welcomed students to our second Class of Success program. These students will now have the option of choosing from a number of courses at local colleges and vocational training centers.

Once accepted into our Class of Success program, HSCV will provide each student with a scholarship tailored to their needs. Each student will receive funding as needed for items such as: tuition, school supplies, housing, and for transportation costs.

Below is the story of one child from our recent Class of Success who will enter a College or Vocational school this fall:

Van Anh comes from a poor family in Quynh Do village, Vinh Quynh commune, Thanh Tri district, Hanoi. There are only two people in this single-parent family: a daughter, Van Anh and her mother. They live in a very small house which is in bad condition. It is a Compassion Home that the family received from the local People’s Committee in 2006.

However, in order to receive this house from the Government, the family themselves had to contribute a small percentage toward the cost of building the house – which left them in debt. Until this year, the mother was able to pay for this debt with the help of her relatives.

With only the mother working, she and her daughter have to face many difficulties. The mother’s income is mostly based on harvesting rice crops. In addition, this single mother is now suffering from heart disease and she’s slowly losing her ability to work day-by-day. So, it is becoming more difficult to make ends meet, especially when Van Anh enters school in the fall.

Despite these poor circumstances, Van Anh has studied well at school from grade 1 up to grade 12. She loves all the subjects but her two favorite subjects are Literature and History. She just finished high school this past May (2009), and recently took the college entrance exams. Van Anh submitted applications to enter two different schools: the Kindergarten Teachers Training Vocational School and the Central Kindergarten Training Teacher College. Her wish is to become a kindergarten teacher! HSCV hopes that we can find the financial help to make Van Anh's dream to become a reality by receiving support for our Post-High School program.

Any help you can provide would be treasure not only to Van Anh, but to all of the other students in the program. If you are interested in sponsoring Van Anh or another student in this program, please contact the HSCV office in Hanoi or in the USA for more information.

To learn more, please visit our website at:

http://www.hscv.org/scholarships_post_high_school.htm

Blogged by Do Thi Thuy Hong