Child sponsorship update from Da Lat Vietnam

Update for child sponsor supporters from the SOS Children's Village Da Lat, Vietnam from Winter 2008.

Dear Friends,

After a long cold rainy season the weather in Da Lat has been changed. Everything seems to revise in the brilliant sunshine. Mimosas and wild sunflowers bloom from the valleys up to the hills making the sunshine more brilliant, reminding us that Christmas is coming. The children in our Village have chances to play after a long time of hard working at school. The happiness today is due to your support and encouragement to us for the last years in our taking care and educating our children. We would like to say our gratefulness and our best wishes for a Peaceful Christmas and a Happy, Prosperous New Year.

Home for many children
19 years have flown so quickly. With your collaboration, we are proud about the children, who were once shy when being admitted to the Village can now be confident to lead their own life. So we have brought up 234 children. 109 children are staying at 14 houses and the Youth house in the Village, 9 are at the Universities, 4 are at the Colleges, 5 are waiting to look for jobs, 55 are in the semi-independent programme, 45 are independent. Especially, 21 of them have got married and they are living happily with their spouses.

A generation grows up, another generation comes. Since the beginning of 2008 we have hold the wedding ceremony for 6 children. These ceremonies were serious, warm and unforgettable. Since last year 15 children have been admitted into our Village. How moving it is when the newly-admitted shy children can play with their friends merrily a short time afterwards, can go to school like their friends and especially can be guided and protected by a mother beside them all the time.

Club and activities
On children’s Day (1st of June) every year we held a meeting in which the good children are rewarded to be encouraged to learn better. Then our children can attend various extra classes such as: chess, badminton, table-tennis, picture painting… so that they can relax after a year of learning and can find their summer vacation more interesting. During this summer vacation we hold the sport contests on chess, badminton, table-tennis and picture painting. The events were so interesting and fun. The pictures, painted by children only, were rather vivid and undoubtedly impressive.

At the end of the summer vacation is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Despite the rain in Da Lat, we have our children to take part in many kinds of activities such as: lantern making competition, lantern parade, fruit arrangement. This year was very special because our children had a chance to attend the Children’s House, where they could meet their friends and watch a performance about the history of Mid-August Festival and its characters: the Moon Fairy and the Moon Boy.

Children growing up at Da Lat, Vietnam

Academic performance
Among the children at the primary school are the good pupils for many years, but 30% of them is from the minority and they encounter a lot of difficulties in studying despite of the mothers’ and elder sisters’ daily attempt to help. We also have good teachers teaching the fifth pupils in the evening class to enforce the knowledge in order that those children can pass the graduation exam at the end of the school-year.

The graduation percentage at the primary and secondary level in school-year 2007- 2008 are 100%, 3 of our children took and passed the graduation exam at high level and they all passed the entrance exam, one of them was qualified to attend the University. Besides, the extra classes in the summer vacation from these classes that many of them become the key roles in the Hermann Gmeiner school’s team to take part in many kinds of tournaments, winning a lot of prizes.

In this school-year 2008-2009 we have 3 more good pupils, who come from the very poor families in Lam Dong Province, to stay at the Youth house in the Village during their high school years according to the SOS programme. Together with the 5 ones coming last year, they are very good-natured and studious. Eight of them always set good examples for their classmates at school and always come top in every tests with the persuasive marks.

Mothers and aunts
At the moment there are 14 mothers in the Village. All the mothers have been working here for more than 17 years. In spite of being aged, they still keep their mind on their work. There are 3 aunts, one of them have been working here for more than 10 years. The mothers and aunts always co-operate, support each other in their work. In their free time, they instruct the children how to take care of the plants and flowers in the front and back yards, making the scenery in the Village greener and more beautiful.

Obstacles
We have such difficulties as: some of our children aren’t good at learning but they haven’t tried their best but relied on their mothers and the educators. Some grown up ones haven’t had good orientation about their careers, thus they quit their study or their job rather easily. We will try to let them have better orientation in the coming years.

A brilliant boy

If some one happens to ask Kien something about Vietnamese history. Kien will give a prompt reply or read the whole passage about the history of Vietnam. Because every night he hears his elder brothers and sisters memorizing their lessons. They read and read, Kien just hears and remembers. When the mother ask them to read the lessons again, sometimes they can’t and Kien reminds them. With a handsome face, big and dark eyes, thick hair, white complexion Kien looks very intelligent.

Despite being the youngest in his family, he enjoys doing everything such as: getting dressed, brushing his teeth and washing his face, feeding by himself. Besides, he knows how to help his mother to clean the dinning table and to water the flowers. He is only five years old but he can spell and reads the simple words. Kien is gifted with story-telling. Since being at his nursery school, he enjoys play the roles of the strong characters like the Fox or the Tiger….no one thinks he still enjoys sleeping beside his mother, enjoys telling his mother about his class, his nursery school…

He also notice that his mother is tired and know how to court love from his sisters or brothers when they come back home from far away and know how to draw a greeting card for his mother on Women’s Day (8th of March). His mother is very moved when she thinks of the day when he was admitted to the Village. He was only 2 months old then, his father had to work far away letting him stay with his grandmother. He had no milk, no flour only the liquid rice soup because his grandmother was too poor and was living in the remote area. He was so pale, got pneumonia so often and had to go to the hospital in Ho Chi Minh City once. Now he has found the warmth of mother and the love of brothers and sisters. Let’s hope that the unfortunate children always be protected so that their naïve looks can be as bright as their souls.

On behalf of the children, mothers, aunts and staff of SOS Children’s Village of Da Lat, I would like to send you our best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Sincerely yours,

Trần Văn Cơ
Director
SOS Children’s Village Da Lat