Education Vietnam Project #13391

Art Mentorship for Poor Vietnamese Children

by Rock-Paper-Scissors Children's Fund

Art Mentorship for Poor Vietnamese Children

Project Report | Aug 14, 2024
A Trip Back to Vietnam

By Phoebe Nerone | Co-Founder

Hello Friends,

Happy summer everyone!

This summer has been exceptionally special for me! As a co-founder of Rock-Paper-Scissors Children’s fund, along with my sister and mom, I’ve been able to travel back to Vietnam many times during the summers over the years when I was in middle and high school. Although sadly, I have not been able to return for over six years being in college and graduate school and having other summer break commitments. But this summer I was finally able to return, and the experience was just as amazing as I remembered. Although all the years I was in school, I continued to work on fundraising, and working on various tasks for our non-profit, the best part was always returning to reunite with our wonderful staff and students in our programs.

This summer after graduating, I loved the opportunity to reconnect with our girls in our art program, and be able to create art alongside each other. I missed being able to sit among the girls and get to know them as they tell their own unique stories through the pieces of art created in each class. It’s been a privilege to watch the girls grow over the past years, many of the girls began in our art classes when they were very little, and now, years later, have grown up and become beautiful young women which was truly inspiring to me. Between attending art classes this summer, I was able to visit a few of the girl's homes and learn more about their family and homelife. This personal experience reinforced my understanding of the hardships that they endure, but also highlighted the resilience each one of the girls reflect.

During my time with our students this summer, I was able to see the tight friendships that have developed among them, from being together in our art classes. The laughter and joy the girls express together, both participating together in the classes, as well as in their free time away from the classroom, is wonderful. Having this connection has helped the girls build support systems among them, to help each other during hard times.

I wish all the girls attending high school this fall good luck! I look forward to seeing them all again soon.

Thank you for supporting our students with your donations! It means a great deal to not only me and my family, but the many girls you support in Vietnam.

Phoebe

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Apr 15, 2024
Paintings of My Family

By Sara Nerone | Co-Founder

Hello Friends,

Happy spring everyone! This is a quick update on our art program in Vietnam that you have supported.

We have many wonderful photos of the girl’s artwork to show you, but this month we want to share some great photos of the family painting project. Each girl had to paint their family members and introduce them at the end of class. The results were beautiful and amazing as you can see.

Since our last update, our two wonderful art teachers have been working with our students to draw, paint, color and of course play in art! Each project that they create provides a learning opportunity for the girls, and discussion during art making around, family life, important skills, with life dreams thrown in! Although the teachers start out with a lesson or two, we let the girls be as silly as they want at the end of class. They can play together outside the classroom, be goofy and silly, or just hang out with their friends and talk. All the girls in our program have very difficult home lives because of the poverty in the village, and at a very young age they have to do household chores, take care of younger siblings, cook, and care for their household will their parents work. Coming to our classes two days a week gives them a small bit of time away from that.

As well as our art classes, the girls are now also in our spring tutoring program, taking extra classes with our nine wonderful tutors. It’s important that the girls continue in school, so we provide that support starting in March through the end of May when they have to pass the rigorous step-up exams to move to the next grade, and then in July and August for 10 weeks we provide pre-learning, prep classes so that they are ahead when they start in their new grades in the fall. This fall we will have over 20 girls attending high school, some of the first from the village!

Thank you so much for your continued support everyone! Have a good spring!

Sara and the Rock-Paper-Scissor’s Team

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Dec 18, 2023
The Story of Love and Lan Lan

By Sara Nerone | Co-Founder and President

Lan Lan Art Class 2023

Dear Friends,

For many years, so many of you have supported us either annually or monthly with a donation, and again I want to thank you all so much for your continued care and love for our students and your support of us. It’s hard as a small non-profit just to get the work done in Vietnam, but it’s harder to be a great communicator with you all. I know that if I were a donor, I would love to know how my money was spent, or is being spent, and for me that would be in the form of learning about the children or child that I might have given a little piece of betterness to. So today, I’d like to introduce you to just one of our many beautiful students.

This is Lan Lan, an 11 year old who just started the 6th grade in September. We first met Lan Lan back in 2016 at one of our very first summer art and music camps. A quiet, sweet young girl, we noticed she was a bit separate from the big group of kids and seemed not to have any friends her own age, sitting off to the side with what we thought must have been her grandmother. After spending some time getting to know the two, we found out that the elderly woman sitting with her had adopted Lan Lan when she was a baby. Now almost 80, Lan Lan’s adoptive mom is so very happy that Lan Lan passed the exams to move up to the 6th grade, although both are sad that they will be separated as Lan Lan will have to move away to live at the boarding school for ethnic minorities.

Over the summer, Lan Lan participated in our girl’s tutoring program and took classes in Vietnamese, English, math, physics, and chemistry. When I visited with her she told me that the classes were hard, but that she really loved to come and join our classes. She loves the teachers, especially Ms. Chau, our Vietnamese language teacher, and of course she never misses an art class with Ms. Trang and Ms. Lien.

When we first met Lan Lan and her adoptive mom seven years ago, her mom told us that she had brought Lan Lan to the camp because she had heard about our art classes in the village, and she wanted to know if Lan Lan could join. That year she did join us and soon after the shy little girl met her now, best friend, Tien. Tien and Lan Lan have come to art class together ever since.

As the girls grow up, we are following them all the way through high school, providing, reading classes, tutoring, and art classes and giving them creative time, mentorship and freedom to aspire to stay in school as best we can. Despite not only the very poor conditions they live under, but the harsh discrimination they deal with being from an ethnic minority group, and a female, the girls seem to stay strong, happy and determined to work hard. We love every one of them for that.

Thank you again for being a supporter, I hope you enjoyed meeting Lan Lan from afar. Happy Holidays to you all!

Sara

Lan Lan and her Adoptive Mom

Lan Lan and her best friend

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