Here’s the second roundup of photos from the second cycle of motorbike vocational training in Vietnam. Check out the first one here.
Read More “Project Update: Vocational Training in Vietnam Round 2, Part 2”
Remember our re-launch of the vocational training in Vietnam program last year? In that first cycle, we gave 30 youth a chance to re-new their lives by participating in a 3.5 month training program to become skilled motorbike mechanics. 26 ended up graduating from the program. Following its success, we decided to continue the program with a new group of 30 youth. We are pleased to announce that all 30 participants graduated this time. Our project coordinators in Vietnam sent us printed photos of the second cycle, and we’ve scanned them to share with you!
Students get their hands-on in their learning.
Read More “Project Update: Vocational Training in Vietnam Round 2, Part 1”
Earlier this month, VNHELP’s Nguyen Truong To Scholarship program distributed a number of scholarships to students in Vietnam attending universities around the Saigon metropolis. It was an occasion marked by a bit of pomp and circumstance, a bit of silliness, and a whole lot of optimism for the future. We looking forward to seeing how the scholarships will help these students achieve their goal of completing university, and we have faith in the success that is sure to follow many of them.
Check out some pictures of the students in Vietnam and the scholarship ceremony below!
Read More “VNHELP Scholarships Give Students in Vietnam a Shot at Success”
Read the English version of this post here.
Chuyện kể bởi Bùi Đức Hợp
Ông Bùi Đức Hợp là đại diện nhóm Thiện Nguyện Sơn Nam tại Mỹ.
Many of our volunteers and supporters often ask us what role the board of directors plays in the organization. It’s a difficult question to answer because their role can be so encompassing and diverse. In its simplest form, the board of directors sets the tone and strategic vision of the organization, helping ensure that the organization stays on mission and finds new ways to more successfully achieve that mission. But more often than not, board members are much more than people who convene every now and then to answer the big questions of what do we do? who are we here to help and what can we do to help?. Board members get involved in fundraising, they help identify strategic partnerships, and they determine what program areas to expand to, among many other things.
With board members wearing so many hats–from fundraiser to event planner to consultant–it can’t be emphasized enough that having dedicated and compassionate board members is vital to an organization. Especially considering how nonprofit board members receive no compensation from the organization, finding the right board member sometimes feels like finding a needle in a haystack.
And to their credit, some of them are trying.
Read More “Oxfam: The World’s Richest Could End Poverty With Their Bank Accounts”
Read the Vietnamese version of this post here.
Hop Duc Bui, a retired engineer now residing in San Jose, CA, recently co-funded a water project in Pa Che with his colleagues at the Son Nam Charitable Group and the Yahoo! Employee Foundation. He compiled this story based on project reports from Vietnam and shares it with you.
Later this week, a group of world leaders and renowned economists will gather in conference rooms and workshops to discuss the state of the global economy. In particular, they will focus on the idea of “Resilient Dynamism,” this year’s theme at the World Economic Forum (WEF), happening January 23 – 27 in Davos, Switzerland.
In the context of their meeting, “resilient dynamism” refers to a country’s capability to adapt to changing conditions, withstand sudden shocks, and recover to a desired equilibrium in the event of inertia.
In advance of their annual meeting, the WEF also released the “Global Risks” report, which identifies both the global risks that have the greatest likelihood of occurring (these include severe income disparity, chronic fiscal imbalances, rising greenhouse gas emissions, water supplies crisis and mismanagement of aging population) and the risks that would have the greatest impact should they occur (these include major systemic financial failure, water supply crisis, chronic fiscal imbalance, food shortage, and weapons of mass destruction). Their conversations will be holistic, looking not just at isolated areas of concerns, but at how economic, environmental, governance, infrastructure and social systems relate and affect one another.
Looking through the WEF’s meeting programme, we at VNHELP can’t also help but contemplate what resilient dynamism means for Vietnam, its development, and the lives of the poor people we seek to assist.
Even though 2013 New Year Celebrations have come to and end and many of us have returned to the routine of daily life and keeping up with resolutions, VNHELP is actually already at work planning another new year celebration. Tet, or Lunar New Year, will be celebrated in Vietnam on February 10th this year. Although Vietnam also uses the Gregorian calendar officially, Tet is still considered the most significant holiday in Vietnam. Many celebrate the holiday for a full two weeks, and the streets are awash in lucky red and gold. It’s a time for families to get together, friends to hang out leisurely, and children to gleefully hold their hands out in anticipation of receiving li xi (red envelopes filled with lucky money.)
Read More “Make Tet Memorable for Orphans and Street Children in Vietnam”
