Charity project: Sponsoring children in the Mekong Delta

                                                                  Saigon, on the 3d of September 2009.

Father Frédéric, coordinator of the project "Helping children of Vietnam"

As many of you may remember, more than one year ago, we decided to start two new groups of sponsored children in the South of Vietnam. Father Trinh paid the first visit to them last year. This summer, at the end of August, the two of us, Father Trinh and myself, made the yearly visit. The Mékong Delta is my favorite region. A huge river crosses it and there are also plenty of smaller waterways. Some places are only accessible by boat. From Saigon to the city in the far South, it takes ten hours by bus. At our arrival, two young men come to collect us. 30 minutes later, we reached our destination. The parish priest and the children welcomed us. We chatted and we explained to the children and their parents the goal and the organization of the sponsorship. Finally, we met each child personnaly and we took a picture of him/her.

Sister Thao and Father Trinh filling in the files of the children.

 On the following day, we went to visit the families of some of the sponsored children. Visiting the family is the best way to be aware of their situation. What struck me as soon as we started our visit, was the extreme simplicity in which these families live. The roof is made of sheet metal, there are only limited pieces of furnitures (in the main room of the house, you see a wardrobe and a wooden bed, and some pictures on the wall, that's all). At times, the ground is made of earth!  

 

The houses reflect the poverty of their inhabitants.

We became even more aware of the poverty the families face when we started to question the parents about their financial situation. All the families of the region have to cope with the same problem: the lack of work and the very low wages. Everybody tries to get some money working for the neighbourhood but taking into account that the neighbourhood is also poor, life remains very difficult. Many people work from day to day. Some days, they find some work, others not. Some women work as clothesmakers. People bring them cloth and it takes them three hours to make a shirt or a dress (besides the work of taking care of the children and doing some housework). People find casual work: lumberjack, streetseller, shrimp or fish farmer, hairdresser... The problem is still the same: the wages are irregular and very low. It is not unusual to work for 50 usd cents an hour.

            Many children leave school before the end of primary school. When they are around ten years old, due to lack of money, they have to give up their studies. However, if you ask the children if they like to go to school or not, ther answer is very clear. They love to go to school. Confronted with such a dramatic situation, we can at least find some consolation in the fact that through the sponsorship, some children can keep up with their studies. The future for these children will probably remain very difficult but if they find some joy in studying, our help is not in vain.




Poor conditions to learn but a strong motivation to persevere...

 Nowadays, we do not have enough sponsors. We sponsor 45 children but we could sponsor more children if you help us to find new benefactors. $120 a year is something that most of us and our relatives and friends can afford. So if you can help us to find more sponsors, it would be all benefit for the children.

 

A father proud of his family. 

 In the name of the children, we express our gratitude for your generosity.