Art Mentorship for Poor Vietnamese Children

Dear Friends of Rock-Paper-Scissor’s Children’s Fund,

It’s good to be sending you an update; I hope that you all are staying safe and well these days.

Our art program in Vietnam has opened again, and the kids are going back to school next week. Like here in the US it’s been up and down for students, either schooling remotely, or in person, or not at all if they don’t have access to the internet. We have a mix of those students, especially in the village where none of the kids has devices. Schools closed in Vietnam at the end of January and reopened from May-July with in-person learning. We have been holding our art classes since May and between the three programs continue to support over 70 kids. In August, there was another outbreak of Covid19 in the city of Danang. Our art classes in Hue had to be put on hold for another couple of weeks, but we opened again this weekend, with most of the students eagerly appearing on the first day back.

This summer, we started a summer tutoring program for minority girls in the village of Son Tan. The classes included Physics, Chemistry, Math, Vietnamese language, and English. Altogether 27 girls and one boy took part in the six-week program, and 14 of the students had been participating in our art program in the village since they were very young. All of the girls will be leaving home this week. They will be attending a boarding school for 6^th through 9^th graders. Three of the kids from our art and tutoring program will be going into the 9^th grade this year. High school in Vietnam starts in 10^th grade, so this is a big year for these three students to pass the entrance exams. The art classes and the mentoring by our art teachers have made them grow into confident, smart, young adults over the last seven years. This is all due to you, our donors; supporting these kids could not be happening without you. It means a great deal to them, and perhaps one day some of you will be able to travel to meet the kids, and do a little painting with them!

I hope you enjoy the photos this month and again, thank you for everything.

Sara

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Dear Friends,

A lot has been going on since our last update to you all in January, as I know is the same for all of you personally. We sincerely hope that you, your family, friends, and neighbors are all well and staying as safe as possible during the pandemic. Even in just a few months, times have changed drastically for us all, with so much uncertainty for what is to come.

At this time, Vietnam has been reporting having only around 300 cases of Covid19 with no deaths in the country. News reports state that with experience gained from dealing with the 2003 SARS and 2009 H1N1 pandemics, Vietnam's government started organizing its response right away in early January. Schools have been closed since the Tet Holiday that began at the end of January, and they have only recently re-opened on May 4^th. Thousands of people have been placed in quarantine camps around the country and on April 1st the government issued a stay-at-home order country-wide which stayed in place for approximately four weeks and was just lifted last week.

During the lock-down our staff was hearing from some of our students in the village of Son Tan that the families in the village had been cut off from food sellers who travel up the mountain and that many of the families were desperately in need of food, unable to travel outside of their homes. Because of this, we made a plan with our partners in April to provide supplies for 120 of the neediest families in the village, providing them with rice, noodles, beans, and fish sauce that would last most families 3-4 weeks during the lock-down. These are just a few photos of our staff distributing the supplies. 

For our art and music students in Hue and Cam Duc, we decided to re-open the programs at the same time that the schools opened on May 4^th. Like all schools in Vietnam, we are following strict protocols for social distancing, holding smaller classes and providing masks, and hand sanitizer as the students come in. Our school houses have large, wide doors that open fully to make an open-air space as well so that kids can paint and play music under a roof outdoors.

We are so proud of our staff in Vietnam and of course all of our wonderful students. Thank you so much for continuing to be a part of their lives.

Please take care!

Sara

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