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Clean Water Comes to Quang Ngai

March 22 is World Water Day! What better way to celebrate one of Earth’s most precious resources than to share with you its impact in VNHELP’s most recently completed water project?

With support from our partners and community, VNHELP brought clean water to 37 different schools in Quang Ngai province. Many schools in Vietnam lack access to a clean water source, which means students either have to bring their own water to school or drink unsanitized water from a tap. If there’s no tap, or if a student forgot to bring his water bottle to school, there’d be nothing to drink. Can you imagine how difficult it must be to go a whole day at school without a drop to drink? Thankfully, students at these schools no longer have to imagine such a situation. UV filtration systems were installed in the schools, and a faculty member at each of the school was trained on how to maintain the system.

To make this project even more meaningful, there was also a water, sanitation, and hygiene campaign to create better health awareness among children, teachers, and their families. Check out a slide show of the project below!

[meteor_slideshow slideshow=”qnwater”]

Thank you Ms. Mai Dolch for funding this project!

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Celebrating International Women’s History: Ho Xuan Huong, Queen of Nom Poetry

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For our second Women of Vietnam feature, we’re taking a closer look at Ho Xuan Huong, one of Vietnam’s most beloved poets often referred to as the “Queen of Nom Poetry.”

Even though her poems are widely known and there are even a number of streets named after her in Vietnam, Ho Xuan Huong has been something of an enigma. She is believed to have been born in 1772 and died in 1822. Her family history is disputed, but the general consensus is that she eventually became the concubine of a man named Tong Cuc, a ranking official of the Le Dynasty.

Despite her  role as a concubine, Ho Xuan Huong showed a rejection of social norms and irreverence uncommon for women of the time. (Remember that she was living in 17th/18th Century Vietnam–an era steeped in Confucian traditions, which brought with them the exaltation of education and family values, but often the subjugation of women as well.) Her convention-defying attitudes were conveyed in her poetry. She had an uncanny ability to write of mundane subjects, but inflect them with sensual undertones (or overtones). She was a master of the double entendre, delighting her audience and providing a rare voice against sociopolitical oppression.

Her poems were later translated into English by John Balaban in a book aptly titled Spring Essence, though it’s almost always better to read the original if you can. You can view some of them here.

Phát triển cộng đồng, Từ nhân viên
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Join the VNHELP Community Engagement Committee!

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Are you interested in learning more about Vietnam and the social issues the country faces? Do you have a can-do attitude and believe that every individual can contribute to making this world a better place? Are you looking for a better way to get involved?

If you answered yes, yes, and yes, then VNHELP wants you to be part of our newly formed Community Engagement Committee! The Community Engagement Committee (CEC) will work closely with VNHELP to generate awareness and raisefunds for poverty alleviation in Vietnam. Beyond that, you’ll also have the opportunity to lead new initiatives, learn about various causes, educate the community, and form friendships with good people who share your values.

For more mature individuals, this is a great chance to give back to your community on a deeper level. For younger individuals, you’ll learn leadership skills and receive mentorship from your peers. (Click on “Read the rest of this entry” below to see additional details.)

Read More “Join the VNHELP Community Engagement Committee!”

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Here’s Why We Need International Women’s Day

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Happy International Women’s Day everyone! On this day, we take a moment to celebrate all the wonderful contributions women have made to society. Some people might think, “Why do we even need an International Women’s Day? I hug my mom everyday without anyone reminding me, thank you very much!”

But the truth is, sometimes, if we don’t dedicate a moment to women, many of their contributions will go unappreciated and many of the challenges they face will still go unaddressed. Here’s a prime example of why we need International Women’s Day: according to the International Labour Organization (ILO), “Viet Nam is among a few countries in the world where gender pay gap has been widening while the gap has declined in most nations in the 2008-11 period compared to 1999-2007.”

On average, women in Vietnam make 70% – 80% of what men earn in comparable jobs. To reiterate: women earn up to 30% less than men for the same type of work! In a press release, the ILO stated, “The latest Labour Force Survey Report published in 2012 showed that female workers have lower monthly incomes than their male colleagues in all economic sectors – State, non-State and foreign-invested.”

Even in jobs traditionally dominated by women, such as healthcare and social work, women continue to earn less than their male counterparts. Furthermore, the glass ceiling is very much alive in Vietnam as the majority of management posts are still staffed by men. Vietnam also has a number of structural labor issues that increase the burden of low wages on women. For instance, even though working in healthcare may require more skills, jobs traditionally held by men but require less skills will still pay more.

These reasons alone point to why we need International Women’s Day. We need to bring these issues to the fore and rectify injustices. Really, we should be discussing these issues daily until women are treated truly equally to their male counterparts.

 

Source: International Labour Organization

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Celebrating International Women’s History: The Trung Sisters of Vietnam

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Happy March everyone! March is a month chock full of events and activities. For the mathematicians, 3/14 is Pi Day. For the Irish and others who’ve adopted Ireland’s culture, 3/17 is St. Patrick’s Day. And for the literary enthusiasts out there, 3/15 marks the Ides of March, the date notoriously immortalized in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar.

For us at the VNHELP office, we are happy to see March commemorated as International Women’s History Month. Why not take the opportunity to honor some of the celebrated women in Vietnamese culture through a “Women of Vietnam” series?

We’re kicking off the series with the Trung Sisters, better known to many Vietnamese as “Hai Bà Trưng.”

If you grew up in a Vietnamese household, then you are sure to have heard of the names of these two sisters floated before. If not, here’s your chance to be privy about two of the most celebrated figures in Vietnamese history.

Read More “Celebrating International Women’s History: The Trung Sisters of Vietnam”

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Vocational Training Program is More Than Track to Employment–It’s a Life Changer

NiLast week, we reported on the wrap-up of our second cycle of vocational training. As we await the final results of the students’ job placements, we took time to review how the program is going and how we can improve it.

During these discussions, our volunteer project coordinators shared a story about one very special student named Truong Van Ni.

We’d like to share his inspiring story with you today too.

 

Read More “Vocational Training Program is More Than Track to Employment–It’s a Life Changer”

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News: U.S.-Vietnam Adoption to Resume?

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During the course of participating in our Sponsor a Child program, many sponsors form a special bond to the children they support. Many even ask us if they can adopt the child, to give him or her a new life and formally make the child part of the family. VNHELP is not an adoption agency, so we can’t advise on the matter, but in recent years, we’ve often had to play the bearer of bad news. Since 2008, U.S.-Vietnam adoption has been banned due to allegations of baby-selling and kidnapping for profit following  U.S. investigations.

Yes, it pained us to think that there were people who could engage in a form of child trafficking for their own monetary gain. And it also pained us to see the crestfallen faces on sponsors when their hopes of forming or adding to their family was immediately quashed.

But now there may be some silver lining. According to the Associated Press, “Vietnam and the United States are close to an agreement allowing Americans to adopt Vietnamese children again.”

US Senators and adoption lobby groups have been urging the Vietnamese government to develop tighter regulations and monitoring of adoptions to avoid profiteering. Speaking from Hanoi, U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, a Democrat from Louisiana, said, “The government of Vietnam seems to be willing to restart, and there are just some final details to be worked out with the government of the United States…We hope that it will be in the near future.”

It’s impossible to tell what “near future” actually means; it could be six months from now, a year, three years or later. But we will do our best to keep you updated.

Meanwhile, an agreement to resume adoptions between Vietnam and Ireland was signed in September last year, ending the adoption ban enacted in 2009.

Source: Associated Press (via ABC News)

 

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Celebrating the Vietnamese Language for International Mother Language Day

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Did you know Feb. 21 is International Mother Language Day? This day celebrates multilingualism and cultural diversity across the globe. It’s been observed since 2000, after UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) decided to form a day recognizing the importance of linguistic diversity.

We think International Mother Language Day is a great way to celebrate the over 6000 languages that exist in this world. It’s also a good time for us to reflect on the richness of the Vietnamese language.

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10 Things to Know About Tet

Tet

Cung chúc tân xuân! Happy New Year from VNHELP! The Lunar New Year officially kicks off on February 10 this Year of the Water Snake. We hope your preparations for this joyous holiday are going swimmingly. 😉

For new celebrants of the Lunar New Year, there are quite a few traditions and customs you may be curious about. In between monitoring projects and reading poverty assessments, we’ve managed to scrounge together a list of 10 things to know about Tet for you. Enjoy!

Read More “10 Things to Know About Tet”