Reminiscing About My Trip Part 2

My last post was only a preview of the report I've been writing to document my experiences working for the charity so far. Here is the final product. It's a long read but I think you'll like it.

Saigon Focus (Summer 2013)

My name is Lam Nguyen, and I am a 17 year-old living in the small town of Somerdale, New Jersey. I was born in Vietnam and lived there until I was six. Although my family and I didn’t live in the best of environments in Vietnam, the first six years of my life were nothing short of amazing. Surrounded by three siblings and almost twenty cousins (who were all around my age), I never experienced a dull day. I loved my community, I loved my country, and I loved my life. In 2002, my family and I moved to America. I struggled with adjusting into the new lifestyle and fitting in with the new society. At an early age, my parents instilled in my siblings and me the value of education. By empowering ourselves with knowledge, we were capable of overcoming any obstacle. So when I struggled to adapt to the American culture, I continued to focus on academics, and gradually, I began to “Americanize” myself.

Over the past 11 years, I lived a very normal middle class life in America. I liked this country a lot, but I always dreamt of going back to Vietnam. Towards the end of my junior year in high school, my uncle asked me if I wanted to help him with his charity. The charity is called Saigon Focus, and its mission is to help disadvantaged children in Vietnam receive an education so that they have an opportunity to escape poverty and better their lives.  My uncle started this charity about 12 years ago, but he’s been funding the charity with the money from his own pockets. This year, he wanted to register the charity as a 501c3 so the charity can begin to accept donations. He told me that I was to do three things: design a website which would inform the public about the charity, investigate the process to register the charity as a tax exempted entity; and go to Vietnam to do further research and work with my aunt to learn about how the program operates. I was a little intimidated by the amount of work and research I had to do, but I was very excited about getting a free trip back to Vietnam for the summer.

Before leaving for Vietnam, I began to do research on several things. First, I researched the process of creating a website. After a week of visiting countless websites that teach how to build a website, I realized that I needed to learn how to code in order to create a website. From then on, I’ve been taking online lessons on how to code HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I’m no webmaster, but I figured that I needed to know the basics if I wanted to design a website. Coding is very interesting and even fun at times, but I knew it would take me a long time before I knew enough code to create a website. I decided to put the website aside and began investigating the process of registering a charity for tax exemption status. I had to read through all of the paperwork needed to register a charity as a 501c3, and to be honest, I didn’t really understand any of it. I spent hours deciphering what the terms in the questions in the paperwork meant. I found all of this research somewhat tedious, so I began to research about Vietnam. I looked into the Vietnamese education system, the poverty rates, and the child labor statistics. I found out that education in Vietnam was expensive, and the Vietnamese people living in poverty had no means of paying for the school fees. So instead of sending their children to school, the poor people send their children to work. Kids as young as six years old (and often younger) are forced to drop out of school to help support the family. The children often work in dangerous and unhealthy conditions, and they receive very little pay. The illiteracy rates among those living in poverty are rapidly rising, and each year, more and more children are exposed to hazardous working environments. I learned that there are thousands of Vietnamese children who were in desperate need of help, and Saigon Focus could potentially provide change and fix this growing issue.

   Like I mentioned before, the aim of Saigon Focus is to help keep the financially disadvantaged Vietnamese children in school, off of the streets, and away from dangerous working conditions. Although there are several charities that have the same mission as us, our charity has one distinct difference. Other charities help as many kids as they possibly can, giving children aid but not making sure that the children are doing well in school. Helping as many kids as possible is a great thing, but providing aid without holding the recipients to high academic standards will create dependency on the charity. Students and their families will rely on the monthly aid that the charities provide, and they won’t feel the need to keep up their academic levels because they know that they will receive more aid the next month. At Saigon Focus, students are required to consistently maintain their best level of academic performance. Poor performances without a reasonable excuse can result in the suspension of aid. With this being said, each student is held to different expectations based on his or her abilities. The best of students are expected to maintain high grades, while average students are expected to keep decent grades and show signs of improvement. By doing this, not only do we help many of the poorest students in Vietnam, but we also help many of the best students in Vietnam. Also, this method teaches the students responsibility and accountability for their actions. If they continually focus on their studies, they will receive aid for their entire academic careers. If they slack off, they will be disqualified for aid. Not many charities will cut off aid, especially for people who so desperately need it. However, we feel that it’s fair that if we give students money, they will give us their best academic performance in return. Currently, we are helping nearly 60 students. Due to limited funding, our maximum number of students we can help is 70. We wish to help more, and we can only do so when we start receiving donations. The money in my uncle’s pockets has helped hundreds of students over the past 12 years, but we want to expand our program to help many more students. Once the charity is registered and the donations begin to come in, we will be able to provide current students with even more help and we can expand the charity all over Vietnam and help kids from all regions.

 I arrived in Vietnam on the night of July 11, 2013. The next morning, as I went out for breakfast, I met a small child who was selling cakes to help his parents make some money. The child was about 4’10’’ in height, and he weighed no more than 90 pounds. He told me that he was 14 years old, and he dropped out of school after the 2^nd grade because his family couldn’t afford it. He had two younger siblings, so he was working to help pay for their school fees. He was from North Vietnam, and he went down to Saigon with his parents to work. When my aunt asked him if he liked to go to school, he quickly said “yes.” He seemed very eager to learn, but he couldn’t do so because of several reasons. Besides from his family’s financial struggles, he was not allowed to go to school in Saigon because he didn’t have the requisite paperwork to go to school in Saigon. I don’t know the exact reason as to why his lack of paperwork prevented from him to go to school, but I was surprised by this because this situation would never occur in America. In America, with No Child Left Behind, no child can be denied the right to an education where he lives. I’m not entirely sure what the law is in Vietnam, but this situation led me to question whether the Vietnamese government actually cares about every child receiving an equal education. Near the end of my trip, I discussed the matter with a few students who were receiving aid from the charity. They mentioned how unequal the education system in Vietnam is. I will revisit this later on in the report.

A few days after my arrival, I went to a school to meet the students who were receiving aid from the charity. I went with my aunt, my sister, my brother, and a family friend who is helping with the charity. Since the students didn’t really know each other very well, the atmosphere in the classroom was awkward. Students of all ages who were new to the charity took turns introducing themselves. After that, it was my turn to introduce myself. Since my Vietnamese isn’t very good, I struggled to put what I wanted to say into words. All of the students thought my struggles were funny, and everyone had a great time watching me mess up. Since no one really understood what I was saying, I decided to speak in English and have my sister translate what I was saying into Vietnamese. After the introductions, we distributed books, uniforms, and money for tuition. This was another terrible moment for me because I was forced to call up each student individually by their names. My Vietnamese speaking limitations caused me to struggle with pronouncing the students’ names right, but once again, everyone had fun watching me struggle. When the distribution process was finished, the meeting was over. I had conversations with a few students who were waiting for their parents to pick them up. We shared a few laughs and quickly became friends.

Two days later, I, as well as my sister and aunt, drove for a few hours to the province called Ben Tre. Here, we walked around tirelessly for hours to distribute tuition money and books for students. These students were the poorest of all the students we’re helping. They live in one-room shacks they built entirely from trees and bamboo, and many of these homes do not have an adequate roof, bathroom, or beds. Several of these homes we went to were miles from the nearest road (we had to walk deep into a forest trail to reach these houses). The shacks were tiny, but there were often many people living it them at one time. These families live in the worst conditions imaginable, and yet all the children were very eager to go back to school. I was amazed at their passion for learning.  When we gave them the money, books, and gift bags filled with food, they all were so happy and grateful. Every home we went to gave us each a coconut to drink from (Ben Tre is famous for its coconuts). We must have had at least 7 or 8 coconuts each that day. This experience showed me how much I take for granted, like having a great education, a safe home to take shelter in, and enough food to eat every day. I never knew how valuable these things were until I met these students. The entire experience just puts into perspective how fortunate I am to live a middle class life in America. There are thousands, if not millions of kids worldwide who will do just about anything to have what I have.

After visiting these homes, we went to a local school to meet up with a few more students. We couldn’t travel to everyone’s houses, so we called a meeting to give the students their books, tuition money, and gift bags. The students who came to the meeting were better off than the students we visited earlier, but they still weren’t in great situations. We called each student up individually to receive their packages so that I could meet them for the first time and for them to get a round of applause from their peers. After the meeting concluded, it was time for the 3 hour drive back home. It was the most exhausting day of my whole trip back to Vietnam, but it was very enjoyable. This experience was profound in that we got to help many students and it opened my eyes to many horrible living conditions that I never even imagined about.

                After the day at Ben Tre, the next big event for the charity was not scheduled until the end of my visit. However, I was still busy throughout the week or so between the events. First, I took a three day vacation to enjoy the beautiful beaches and magnificent islands of Nha Trang. I had the opportunity to try several things for the first time, like scuba diving and go to Nha Trang’s famous beach parties. This vacation gave me a chance to explore the Vietnamese culture that I used to be so accustomed to. I was able to experience the best Vietnam has to offer, and it made me fall in love with the country again. While in America, I had forgotten how wonderful of a place Vietnam really is. There were many European tourists in Nha Trang and those who I talked to all mentioned how much they liked Vietnam. The tourists, as well as myself, were genuinely surprised by the beauty and culture of Vietnam. I felt at home; I felt like Vietnam was where I belonged.

                Once I returned from my weekend vacation, it was all work from then on. I spent hours every day working on the design of the charity’s website that is currently under construction and I even drew up a few logos that we might potentially use for the charity. Each day, my aunt and I discussed how we could improve the charity. My aunt and I also made several visits to the homes of families that were applying for the charity’s aid. Seeing the terrible conditions that these people have to live in on a daily basis made me feel depressed. I felt so bad for the families and the children, and it was heartbreaking to know that we couldn’t help every student because we are limited to the amount of kids we can help due to a tight budget. Like I said before, since we aren’t an official charity yet, we cannot accept tax-exempt donations, and my uncle only has enough money in his pockets to help about 70 students. The number of students we are currently helping is rapidly approaching the 70 mark, meaning that we have to deny aid for many applicants. Realizing that we cannot help these people who so desperately need our help was very painful.

                Three days before I left, we had a big party and invited all of the students to come to my aunt’s apartment complex to swim, eat, and enjoy the day together. Unlike the first meeting with the students, the atmosphere was not awkward at all. Everyone just had a great time enjoying being around one another. The first students to arrive came at around 9 AM and the last students to leave departed at 5 in the afternoon. During those 8 hours, we swam, played some classic Vietnamese school games, played soccer, and ate American fast food like Pizza Hut and Popeye’s Chicken. The students also got to meet my uncle, Chu Huan, who started the charity over a decade ago and is currently funding every aspect of the charity.

                Towards the end of the party when everyone was starting to leave, my brother, my sister, a few of the older male students, and I went to a coffee shop and discussed the education system in Vietnam. They told me that when they turn 18, they have to join the army, and there was only 2 ways to avoid being drafted: they could either pay their way out of it (which only the wealthy can afford) or they could go to college. For them, their only escape was by going to college because the army would leave them alone if they were getting a higher education. The students also mentioned of the corruption within the school system in Vietnam. In order to pass classes, students had to pay for tutoring sessions. Teachers often do not teach the curriculum fully in class so that students would have to pay the teachers for extra tutoring sessions. And if students were to go to another teacher for tutoring instead of the one they have in class, those students will be more scrutinized than the students who went to the regular class teacher for tutoring. Some teachers are also very biased, and parents will pay teachers so that the teachers will give more attention to their children. This puts students like the ones aided by the charity at a great disadvantage. These students cannot pay their way out of the army, and they cannot pay teachers to give them more attention.  They usually only have enough money to pay for tutoring in one subject, so they choose the most important subject or the one that they struggle the most in and accept lower marks in other classes. Besides paying for the tuition, the charity provides the students with a little extra money to pay for tutors. However, the charity does not have enough funding to pay for each student to be tutored in every subject. Hopefully one day, we can make that happen, but until then, these students have to struggle in the inequality of their country’s education system- a system that makes it so difficult for the poor and disadvantaged to succeed.

                I spent the last three days in Vietnam with my family and friends. My aunt made sure I tasted every Vietnamese recipe, and my cousins and friends made sure I visited every place worth visiting near where I stayed. Throughout my entire trip, I got to go to the top of the tallest building in Vietnam, I played soccer with some of the toughest competition I’ve ever faced, and I can’t count how many coffee shops I drank coffee at. I met some truly amazing people, and I developed relationships that will last a lifetime. Leaving Vietnam felt like leaving home. When I left America a month earlier, it felt like just another trip. But leaving Vietnam felt like I was leaving my roots and the place where I belonged. I’ve been back in America for a month now, and each day I miss Vietnam more and more. I miss my aunt, the students, the culture, and the food. Vietnam opened my eyes to an entirely new world. The trip was the most life-changing 3 weeks of my life, and it made for a summer I could never forget.

                Since my return, I’ve been focusing on documenting my trip back to Vietnam. Besides this report, I’m also making a video of my experience. I’m still working to learn how to create a website and register the charity as a 501c3. Setting up a charity is a long process, but I plan to do all I can to accomplish this. Between school, sports, trying to have somewhat of a social life, and preparing for college, I’m busier than I’ve ever been but this charity will always be on the forefront of my mind. Once the charity is registered and the website is up and running, I hope to return to Vietnam to expand the charity, search for volunteers who could assist with the charity work, discover more bright students to help, and maybe find partners who could financially support our endeavors. I have big ambitions for the charity, but right now, it’s just baby steps. I’ll just keep working like I have been and the charity will help any student it can along the way. The charity has enjoyed tremendous success over the past 12 years, and that success will only continue to escalate, one baby step at a time.

Reminiscing About My Trip Part 1

 I arrived in Vietnam on the night of July 11, 2013. The next morning, as I went out for breakfast, I met a small child who was selling cakes to help his parents make some money. The child was about 4’10’’ in height, and he weighed no more than 90 pounds. He told me that he was 14 years old, and he dropped out of school after the 2^nd grade because his family couldn’t afford it. He had two younger siblings, so he was working to help pay for their school fees. He was from North Vietnam, and he went down to Saigon with his parents to work. When my aunt asked him if he liked to go to school, he quickly said “yes.” He seemed very eager to learn, but he couldn’t do so because of several reasons. Besides from his family’s financial struggles, he was not allowed to go to school in Saigon because he didn’t have the requisite paperwork to go to school in Saigon. I don’t know the exact reason as to why his lack of paperwork prevented from him to go to school, but I was surprised by this because this situation would never occur in America. In America, with No Child Left Behind, no child can be denied the right to an education where he lives.

 A few days after my arrival, I went to a school to meet the students who were receiving aid from the charity. I went with my aunt, my sister, my brother, and a family friend who is helping with the charity. Since the students didn’t really know each other very well, the atmosphere in the classroom was awkward. Students of all ages who were new to the charity took turns introducing themselves. After that, it was my turn to introduce myself. Since my Vietnamese isn’t very good, I struggled to put what I wanted to say into words. All of the students thought my struggles were funny, and everyone had a great time watching me mess up. Since no one really understood what I was saying, I decided to speak in English and have my sister translate what I was saying into Vietnamese. After the introductions, we distributed books, uniforms, and money for tuition. This was another terrible moment for me because I was forced to call up each student individually by their names. My Vietnamese speaking limitations caused me to struggle with pronouncing the students’ names right, but once again, everyone had fun watching me struggle. When the distribution process was finished, the meeting was over. I had conversations with a few students who were waiting for their parents to pick them up. We shared a few laughs and quickly became friends.

(These are some of the students who are currently receiving aid from Saigon Focus)

Two days later, I, as well as my sister and aunt, drove for a few hours to the province called Ben Tre. Here, we walked around tirelessly for hours to distribute tuition money and books for students. These students were the poorest of all the students we’re helping. They live in one-room shacks they built entirely from trees and bamboo, and many of these homes do not have an adequate roof, bathroom, or beds. Several of these homes we went to were miles from the nearest road (we had to walk deep into a forest trail to reach these houses). The shacks were tiny, but there were often many people living it them at one time. These families live in the worst conditions imaginable, and yet all the children were very eager to go back to school. I was amazed at their passion for learning.  When we gave them the money, books, and gift bags filled with food, they all were so happy and grateful. Every home we went to gave us each a coconut to drink from (Ben Tre is famous for its coconuts). We must have had at least 7 or 8 coconuts each that day. This experience showed me how much I take for granted, like having a great education, a safe home to take shelter in, and enough food to eat every day. I never knew how valuable these things were until I met these students. The entire experience just puts into perspective how fortunate I am to live a middle class life in America. There are thousands, if not millions of kids worldwide who will do just about anything to have what I have.

(This is a girl who we are helping. She is holding the books and gifts that we gave her. The room she is standing in is pretty much her entire house.)

(The kitchen in one of our student’s house.)

(Due to their lack of nutrition, these students do not grow properly. I am 17, and I’m the one in the blue shirt. The student I’m standing with is 14.)

               

After visiting these homes, we went to a local school to meet up with a few more students. We couldn’t travel to everyone’s houses, so we called a meeting to give the students their books, tuition money, and gift bags. The students who came to the meeting were better off than the students we visited earlier, but they still weren’t in great situations. We called each student up individually to receive their packages so that I could meet them for the first time and for them to get a round of applause from their peers. After the meeting concluded, it was time for the 3 hour drive back home. It was the most exhausting day of my whole trip, but it was very enjoyable. This experience was profound in that we got to help many students and it opened my eyes to many horrible living conditions that I never even imagined about.

(A few of the students who attended the meeting.)

(Group picture with everyone at the meeting.)

To be continued...

I'm Back!

I came back to America on August 1, and I've been spending the past few weeks documenting my trip in Vietnam. I'm currently working on a video and I'm also writing a report on my experiences. I'm very busy right now so it's going to be a long process, but I'll make sure to post some of my stories on the blog.

My First Week in Pictures

This was the first time I met the students. The new students all took turns to introduce themselves to the returning students.

And then it was my turn to introduce myself...

After my introduction, we distributed books, scholarships, and money to buy school uniforms.

The next day, we took a trip to Binh Dinh to visit a few families and another school. These students we visited lived in the worst conditions imaginable. Some lived in shacks they built entirely from bamboo; others lived on properties about 2 miles from the nearest road. Here we are giving these students their books, scholarships, and gift bags filled with food.

After we visited the students and their families, we went to another school to give out more stuff!

Well that's pretty much it. There was a lot of things that were unfortunately  left out due to a few technological limitations. I hope you can see the amount of joy that these children get when they are  given an opportunity to attain an education. I also hope you see the amount of joy that we get from helping these students. I didn't want to show much of the gloomy side of my experience (the living conditions, the daily struggles, the lack of basic needs, etc.) because this charity is about creating  positive changes in people's lives. And before I leave, I just wanted to show you one last picture. It's my sister alongside one of my favorite students that we're helping. Hope you enjoyed this!

First Visits

Here are pictures of the students in Vietnam that we are currently helping. My brother and sister are in Vietnam to meet the students.

These are the students. My brother is the one wearing a blue tank top in the second row from the bottom. My sister and her friend are in the same row, sitting behind the two young boys in the front wearing white shirts.

And this is my sister and her friend talking to the students and giving them a little lesson.

These children are very eager to learn and we want to provide them with the education that they dream of. And you don't have to be Vietnamese to help. As you can see, my sister's friend is as American as they come, and she's still doing all she can to be involved. So please, if you can, do what you can to help us provide these students with an opportunity to get a quality education.

Vietnamese Education

The articles below pretty much describes why my uncle and I are working on building a charity to help children living in poverty in Vietnam. Every child has the right to a free education, and no government or political system should interfere with that right. But since Vietnamese schools still charge tuition fees, the money that the charity will raise will be used to pay off the children's tuition. The poorest of kids should have the same basic opportunities as the wealthiest of kids, and that's what we're trying to accomplish. We want to level the playing field and give the disadvantaged a chance at a better life.

Please read this article: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/04/2013441131475898.html

Kickit

Kickit is a wonderful fundraising platform that allows donors to easily fund projects. I'm currently working on creating a project for my charity, it will be displayed on the Kickit website soon. In the meantime, please check out the website to help it grow. It's a very young website, but it will quickly expand with your help. Please take a look at it, and I hope you can help our charity's efforts when it's ready for display. I posted the link to Kickit below. Thank you.

http://www.noizivy.org/kickit/

Trying to Solve a BIG Problem

This summer, I will be going back to my birthplace of Vietnam to help my uncle run his charity. This charity is designed to help kids living in poverty get off the streets and into schools. Children in poverty are often forced to go to work by their parents to help provide for their families, therefore, these kids are unable to go to school. Also, schools in Vietnam can be expensive, so the charity helps the children pay for school tuition.

Since Vietnam has a terrible record of child labor, I did a little research and discovered some disturbing findings. There are several countries around the world that make the children do some truly horrible things. Take at the link below to see the facts.

After reading, please consider helping our efforts in assisting kids in Vietnam go to school. If you have knowledge on the matter, please give me a few tips on how to run a successful charity. Thank you!

http://www.businessinsider.com/countries-worst-child-labor-risks-2012-1?op=1