Dear Rock-Paper-Scissors Art Project Supporters,
We are happy to share some new photos of the kids you have supported in our art program in Vietnam. They are doing great and are so happy to have the opportunity to be artists! Every Sunday morning the kids ride their bikes to our little school in Cam Duc Vietnam to share their talents as young artists and friends. As many of you know, underprivileged kids in Vietnam really never have the opportunity to have art classes or simply have time to be creative, learn, and have fun outside of school. Sometimes it takes us time to work with their parents to allow them to attend our art and music programs because they feel their kids should work or focus solely on their schoolwork. Once a student attends our program, the parents often see the greater meaning by seeing their children blossom, and become part of a group of students who are talented and motivated in all areas of their lives.
One such student is our new student Trang. Trang is 17 years old. She is a very talented, self-taught artist. Trang lives with her mom and dad in a small village called Cam Tan. Her father is a construction worker and her mother is a farmer. Trang has 3 other siblings. It is difficult for her parents to support her family, they both work very hard. Trang is a lovely and sweet girl. Her High School teacher began to notice that Trang would draw every time she had free time at school. Trang draws beautifully and is very talented. She often spends time drawing pictures of scenes in her village. When Rock-Paper-Scissor’s invited her to attend the art program, she was very excited. Every Sunday morning, although it is 5 miles from her home, Trang rides her bike to attend class in Cam Duc with us. She is a tiny girl, but always rides her bike to the class happily. Trang says that being able to attend the art program has given her a lot of joy and happiness to do what she loves most.
Thank you for giving Trang and the other students this opportunity. We hope you enjoy the photos that were taken last week at the school. Beyond the art classes you can see how much the kids love being together and have bonded as friends. One of our main goals for our programs was to provide a community of support and stability for the kids. I think we are accomplishing that!
Coming Up
This year, we have big plans. We have been working in the province of Khanh Hoa with a number of small ethnic minority communities, by providing bikes for girls within the villages in order to help them travel to school more easily, as well as providing other school supplies. These communities are very poor, with approximately 80-90% of the families falling below the poverty level of $1.00USD a day for a family. During the summer months from June-September the students are out of school and often have little direction, or activities other than working hard with their families. This summer we will be piloting a music and art camp for 1-2 weeks in one of the villages. Our goal is to involve our existing students from our year-round program in Cam Duc to help us as camp counselors. We will also be bringing a small group of volunteers from the United States to help us, and depending on the success of the camps, we hope to continue to recruit volunteers and provide additional camps in 2015.
Thank you again for donating to this project. You have made our art program possible and given this gift to Trang and all the kids. They all say Thank You!
Sara Nerone
Rock-Paper-Scissors Children's Fund
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Dear Friends and Sponsors,
During this holiday season we want to let you know how thankful we are for your continued support. It is truly a blessing to be in the position we are in and have the capability and the privilege to help so many in need. Receiving updates and pictures from all of our programs in Vietnam is a continual reminder of the direct impact we can have in another person’s life, and it is an amazing feeling. We hope that you realize how important you are in this process, that without your support nothing, nothing would be possible. We hope you too can feel the gratitude of the 200+ kids we have supported thus far, and it is just beginning!
In the few months since returning from Vietnam, our art program in Cam Duc has been steadily gaining speed and students! While in country we were able to find an unbelievable house to rent for both our music and art programs. Our music teacher Tuan has agreed to live there and teach both music and art, and we couldn’t be more happy; Tuan is great with all the kids, a wonderful artist and musician and a great soul.
We were able to buy new tables, chairs, and enough art supplies for the year to come, and really can’t wait to see what creations our students will make. We have started a partnership with the local Red Cross and they are assisting us in identifying children who are talented in art, but who are financially in need. Slowly we have been adding students to the program and they and their families have been very excited to be given this great opportunity. We want to give these kids the chance to grow with their creativity outside of school time and feel comfortable in a supportive environment, where together they truly build a lasting community.
We want to thank you for your continued support. Rock-Paper-Scissors Children’s Fund Art Program is possible only because of donors like you who have thoughtfully chosen to support us. Because of your generosity, so many meaningful projects and opportunities can be brought to children in need.
We hope for good health for you and your families during this holiday season and good luck in the year to come!
The Rock-Paper-Scissors Children’s Fund Team
Links:
Dear Friends and Sponsors,
We have been busy in Vietnam establishing new art programs. This summer we visited a small ethnic minority village close to the mountains of Cam Lam district, Vietnam, and learned that the government of Vietnam built a new building at their school for art and music. The building is beautiful, but the only problem is, now the school has to hire a teacher and buy art supplies to hold classes, but they have no funds to do this. Rock-Paper-Scissors Children Fund is excited to be able to assist with establishing a program for the 100 children who attend this school. This is an opportunity that they would never realize without your support, so thank you very much. During our visit to Vietnam, we also decided to bring along 5000 pipe cleaners from the states, and simply have fun and be creative with the kids! They really enjoyed this and created some great pipe cleaner sculptures! Thank you again, Sara Nerone
Links:
Dear Friends,
First we would like to thank you for your continued support, and for making it possible to offer art to the youth of Vietnam. At the end of June, we will be traveling back to Vietnam spending the two months of summer continuing our art program in Cam Duc, and meeting people in Hanoi and Hue to start planning on expanding the Dream of Art program in these two cities.
With help from artists in our local community, we are excited to try new projects with the students this summer. We are also in the beginning stages of planning an art show upon our return to the States in the fall.
Please continue to spread the word of our organization and our projects with your friends, family, and co-workers. Take pride in your involvement with Rock-Paper-Scissors Children’s Fund. We are a very small organization and nothing can be accomplished without the support of people like you. We have so many great plans moving forward, we are just getting started!
Thank you so much for your continued support,
The Rock-Paper-Scissors Children’s Fund Team
Links:
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