By Sara Nerone and Patrick O'Brien | Director
Dear Friends,
We have just returned from two months in Vietnam and we had an incredibly busy and productive trip setting up our music and art programs. Our music program in Cam Duc has been doing very well, and we currently have 20 students receiving music instruction in violin and 2 new students learning the cello. Thanks to all of you, we were able to rent a very large house to hold music classes as well as open our new art program. We were also able to buy violins for all of our new students. It was very inspiring to see how the students are becoming great, young musicians.
During this trip, Giao, our new program manager took us to each of our new student’s homes to visit with their families. We wanted to talk to them individually, along with their families, to get to know them better, and see how their home lives were. Nhat is one of our newest students and when we first met him, he lit up the room. He seemed so thrilled to be with the group of fellow musicians learning to play the violin. His face was filled with excitement and joy; we would never have guessed what his home life was like.
Walking past piles of broken down cardboard, bags of plastic bottles, and smashed t.v.s and computer screens, we entered into Nhat’s family’s home to meet his parents, siblings and grandmother. We quickly found out that the organized chaos outside his front door wasn’t delinquency, but the daily employment of both his parents. They collect the recyclables around town to turn in for income. His parents have shown an unbelievable amount of support and pride in their son, doing whatever they can to support him in his studies and interests and beam when we speak to them about him. We also visited with Nguyet who is 11 years old. She is sweet and smart and lives with her mother and sister close by the school. Her mother told us how happy Nguyet is to be playing the violin and what joy it brings her to hear her daughter practicing the violin at home, something they would never have imagined.
Both Nhat and Nguyet and our other students all live hard lives, and after visiting with some of them, we could see the sacrifices their parents were making to try and find work and enough money to support their children. Each child in Vietnam must pay an annual school fee and buy all of their own school supplies. This creates great hardship on parents. Although we would like to support all of our kids by paying for their schooling needs, we are only able to start off small, and have paid the tuition for six of our poorest students for 1 year.
Nhat’s family and the rest of the music program’s students and families are extremely thankful for the opportunity to learn to play music and to be in this group. Without your support none of this would be possible and we are extremely thankful that you have chosen to support our program. Please follow us on Facebook, we post a lot of updates and photos there!
We wish you good luck and good health in the months ahead,
The Rock-Paper-Scissors Children’s Fund Team
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