Sponsor's report from Hanoi
29/10/2007
The Village Director has just written this report on the sponsored children:
Village life
SOS Children’s Village Mai Dich has been a cozy roof for orphaned, abandoned and destitute children. Over 18 years, we have been taking care of lots of generations of children at different age groups. Among them, 198 boys and girls currently live in the 16 family-houses and the youth home. And shortly, more children are going to be admitted to SOS families. Children can not only find a new mum and live in family environment with brothers and sisters, but are also given an opportunity to study, train and have normal dreams and wishes like any other children in society. Since the beginning of 2007, three orphans (2 girls and 1 boy) have been admitted to the SOS families. Owing to gentle introductions and preparation, SOS mothers and children in the families have already welcomed these children and helped them integrate successfully to life at the village. At the moment, the girls are going to finish their primary school and the boy has already finished nursery school.
In response to “Action Month for Children” in May and Vietnam Family Day, our children joined a festival for children who have had a tough start in life. The festival was held in Viet Nam’s first university called Temple of Literature, Van Mieu Quoc Tu Giam. There were nearly 1,000 little children there, and they all participated in a drawing competition with a theme of “My Dreams”, held by Nhi Dong (Children) newspaper and Plan International. At the end of May, together with other children throughout the country, our children joined International Children’s Day and welcomed in an exciting summer vacation with lots of activities. On June 1st, a live TV show with the theme “lifting children’s dreams” was broadcast from our village site. During this summer vacation, our children did lots of sports, cultural activities, and camping. They also read books at the village library and went to the cinema.
Apart from all these activities, our children have always been given full care, love and attention from their SOS mothers and families.
School
This last academic year, 2006-2007, 141 boys and girls attended school, from grade 1 to grade 12. According to the final summary, the ratio of good students has been maintained with 33 ‘excellent’ students, and 71 ‘good’ pupils. However, we can not help mentioning 27 and 10 children who got ‘average’ and ‘weak’ results respectively. For those children, we held extra classes as well as the supervision from SOS mothers and teachers during the summer holidays. This will help the children keep pace with their friends in the coming school year.
Besides study at school, the children also joined contest and extra-curricular classes to learn more about: good handwriting at school, drawing, playing chess, and other sports. We are planning to maintain classes of beautiful handwriting training, chess and drawing to attract more chi ldren to attend or discover and cultivate those who have talents.
At present, 9 teenagers, who have just finished grade 11, have started at vocational training centres and universities. For those who will graduate from vocational schools in 2007, we have had close contacts with institutions, agencies and companies to make sure that all of them can have suitable job as soon as they complete their studies. Having a secure job means that adult life will be more stable for them.
Relevant Countries: Vietnam.