Traveling With A Purpose

The 18^th HumaniTour Viet Nam: September 12-24, 2013.

Carol Pucci – Seattle Times: They'll do the usual sightseeing, but they'll also take time out to visit schools, orphanages and hospitals, delivering clothes, medical supplies and toys they spent the past few months collecting. It's called traveling with a purpose, a chance to not only explore another part of the world, but to make a difference in people's lives.

Penny LeGate – KIRO television: Participants get a whirlwind swing through north, south and central Vietnam, dropping in on some of the country's most famous sites. Sprinkled throughout are visits to orphanages and schools and other important places. Traveling with Pham, the inaccessible is accessible. He is our educator, our translator, our facilitator, and the connector to packs of needy kids.

For more information, visit: www.humanitours.blogspot.com or email: info@kidswithnoborders.org .

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Kids Without Borders HumaniTour Viet Nam

Kids Without Borders founder Son Michael Pham led another successful mission to Viet Nam in November 2012. You can view stories and photos from the 17th HumaniTour Viet Nam via KWB Facebook Page

Volunteering in Viet Nam

Letter from one of our volunteer, Rena. Rena (on right in photo) spent her summer vacation volunteering at the Picasso Thu Duc Orphanage (Saigon, Viet Nam) on behalf of Kids Without Borders. Rena has returned to the U.S to finish her study at Harvard.

Dear Uncle Son,

I had a wonderful time volunteering at the orphanage. My time there consisted of teaching conversational English lessons to the older kids and feeding and playing with the infants and toddlers. Each experience was valuable in its own way.

With the younger kids, I was able to light some smiles on their faces just by picking them up or making silly faces at them. They really longed for attention, and I was glad to be able to provide them with that.

I also enjoyed teaching English to the older kids, who were around my age. Although we came from completely different cultures and backgrounds and had somewhat of a language barrier between us, I got to know my students pretty well. They eager to both learn English and befriend us. We focused on teaching informal, conversational English by playing fun games and facilitating casual conversations. I had an incredibly fun time with the students both inside and outside of the classroom, and they really helped make my first experience in Viet Nam a unique and memorable one.

Thank you for a wonderful experience, I hope this opportunity will continue to touch the lives of the many volunteers following me!

Best,

Rena

Note: above photo, Linh (left) and Rena (right) with a caretaker and children of the Picasso Thu Duc Orphanage. They arranged for the purchase of a new dryer in the photo for the infant ward. Fund for this dyer was provided by the Lantern Projects (California).

Kids Without Borders Power Of One

July - August 2012

Letter from one of Kids Without Borders volunteer. Linh, her brother and friend Rena, spent their summer vacation volunteering on behalf of Kids Without Borders teaching English and caring for the orphans in the Picasso Thu Duc Orphanage (Saigon, Viet Nam). Linh has just returned to the U.S to complete her study at Harvard.

Dear Chu Son,

Today was my last day meeting with my students and the children. I haven't left Vietnam yet, but my heart feels heavy and sad inside. Although the time I had was short, it was such a wonderful and beautiful experience,  definitely one of the best times I had working abroad.

Many of my students gave me goodbye gifts. I feel so grateful, but I am also worried that they have spent money to buy me gifts. They are so thoughtful. One student, Mai, wrote me such a touching letter saying that all he wished was for Rena and me to come visit them every summer but stay longer than this time. The students have really enjoyed our English lessons and I am glad to have helped them in some way. I will miss them all dearly. Please update me on their lives and such when you come in November.

As for the children, I could not bear to put them back in their cribs today. Everyday, I have been seeing them. Their faces brighten up as they see Rena, Canh, my cousin, and me at the door. They jump up and down to greet us. At the end of each day when we try to put them down in their cribs, they whine and cry. All these children need is to be be cradled and held and they can never get enough. Often, we try to stay with them a little longer to get them to stop crying. But today, I did not stay longer because I knew that I would cry if I did. It is always hard to say goodbye to people you have connected and bonded with.

Thus, I would like to sincerely thank Chu Son and the organization, Kids Without Borders, for providing this once-in-a-lifetime experience for me. I am not certain whether I have made an impact or a difference at the orphanage, but it has certainly made an imprint in my heart. This experience has further inspire me to not only become a pediatrician, but to also continue volunteering even after I become a doctor. Again, I thank you with all my heart. I hope that someday I would be able to volunteer with Kids Without Borders again.

Linh

International Children's Day

June 1, 2012 is International Children's Day. It is celebrated in many countries around the world. Enjoy images of the children we support in Viet Nam.

THANK YOU AGForestry Leadership

On behalf of the children we serve,

THANK YOU for your donation of $1000

to support Kids Without Borders programs/projects

in Viet Nam.

Teach Me To Fish

FOUR BROTHERS

We talked in a small restaurant over rice and fish. In many ways the four brothers are like young men anywhere in the world. Duong Kim Thao, 19, is about to take his university entrance exams in June. Tall, handsome and a natural athlete, he seems more excited about being elected captain of his school soccer team than he does at the prospect of more school. Nguyen Van Nghia, 18 years old and as unlike Thao as two brothers can be, is taking his exams much more seriously. He has just ranked first in natural science, math and chemistry in his school and plans to study banking in university. He prefers comic books and music to soccer and swimming. Tran Ngyuen Hoang Phi, 17 and the baby of the group, lets his big brothers do most of the talking (though he does manage to do most of the eating). All three look up to their oldest brother Huynh Tung Hieu who, at 19, is the first one to attend college. He is a serious boy with thick rimmed glasses and serious interests – engineering, books and newspapers are his bread and butter.



However, in one important regard they are very different from young men in much of the world. The boys are orphans and brothers in spirit if not by blood. Their experiences, their challenges and their victories provide an insight into a less regularly examined part of the life of a Vietnamese orphan – leaving the orphanage and carving a new identity and a new place for oneself in Vietnam’s status and family focused world.


Family


The importance of family is hard to overemphasize anywhere in the world and no less so in Vietnam. Responsibilities, identities, duties, marriage, schooling and jobs often revolve around the complex network of family connections that keep the culture, neighborhoods and industries of Vietnam humming. Wealthier students not only attend elite schools but are able to access afterschool programs in English, science, math and a host of other subjects. And looming over every Vietnamese student hoping to enter this country’s growing middle class are the all important National University Entrance Exams held each year in June and July. For the college bound, their scores on these tests can define the rest of their and their family’s lives. Families save and borrow to send their children to the best test prep academies.


The four brothers have none of these advantages. Coming from a world of dedicated but impossibly overworked teachers and nurses, there were no extra classes, tutors or foreign teachers to help these boys perfect their math, science or English pronunciation. Yet, while their material conditions may be limited, there are no bounds to these young men’s aspirations.


The oldest, Hieu, has already passed his exams and is completing a degree in engineering and architecture. While modest and humble, he says he remembers every person who has ever helped him, it is clear that his own work ethic and talent are the source of his academic success. Nghia, with the highest scores in his school in science, math and chemistry is not far from college himself.


Role Models


All four boys mentioned that adult sources of inspiration, advice and motivation were few and far between. While most mentioned that they appreciated their teachers they noted that in Vietnam’s conservative culture, teachers felt it inappropriate to discuss the personal problems or lives of students. A teacher is an instructor more than a friend or mentor. When asked about heroes and role models, the brothers all pointed to other children in the orphanage. Successful orphans became role models and older children offered not only academic help but advice on life, mortality and the all important transition to life outside the orphanage.


With 18 year olds given the impossible task of teaching 14 year olds how to be a man, it’s no surprise that the boys could think of numerous instances in which they had intentionally attempted to provide a good role model for the younger children. Of course they wouldn’t be children without plenty of stories of sneaking extra food, stealing candy from the teacher’s office and sneaking out after curfew to go swimming at the neighborhood pool.


But talking to these young men, one is struck by their commitment to building a community. Helping elders in the community and assisting victims of automobile accidents were good actions not just because they helped the people in question but because they helped to teach the younger children the difference between right and wrong.


The Future


When asked how they had managed to achieve success in school and life more generally, the boys pointed to many factors. Hardworking teachers. Good friends. Older students. Their own desire to prove they could succeed. And they mentioned the impact of volunteers from across the world that they had met as they grew up. The friendship, advice and glimpses of a wider world that volunteers had offered over the years all clearly mattered enormously to these young men, even when the volunteers were there only briefly.


Son Michael Pham, founder of Kids Without Borders (KWB), has personally mentored these young men and women and walked with them from the orphanage into the world outside. KWB Teach Me To Fish program has connected hundreds of volunteers from around the world with these youth and has lent them a hand when they need one to lean on.


As they leave the orphanage and attempt to carve their own way, these young men will wrestle with many obstacles that lie in their path. But as difficult as life is for a Vietnamese orphan, their friends, foreign volunteers and their ‘family’ of brothers will have served them well. They go into the world armed with confidence, good friendships and a stronger sense of family. What happens next will be up to them, but Son Michael has the utmost confidence that these young men and women will manage the tough roads in front of them.


To learn more about Kids Without Borders Teach Me To Fish Program and how you can support/contribute, please contact us at info@kidswithnoborders.org

Teach Me To Fish

March 2011
Images of the orphans of Kids Without Borders Teach Me To Fish (TM2F) Program in Viet Nam

Traveling with a purpose - KWB HumaniTour Fall 2010

Kids Without Borders HumaniTour Viet Nam
Fall 2010
- 14 days
- 31 travelers
- More than 2,000 pounds of gifts including medical supplies
- Orphanages, children service centers, school, ...
- Distributing 280 new wheelchairs and 14 new therapeutic wheelchairs
- Teach Me To Fish program
- Make Agent Orange History (www.makeagentorangehistory.org)

Follow our work on Kids Without Borders Facebook. For more information on the HumaniTour, contact us or visit http://humanitours.blogspot.com

Images from the HumaniTour Viet Nam Fall 2010 ... the children ...

Teach Me To Fish Reunion

July 2010
Reunion dinners for the orphans in the Teach Me To Fish program
Hanoi, Hai Phong, and Saigon

Dare to Dream

July 9, 2010

More than 550,000 students throughout Viet Nam took university entrance exams this weekend. Some would travel from small hamlets and villages to nearby big cities where the exam centers are located. In big cities, volunteer forces formed by college students welcome arriving students at train and bus stations. Many homes would open their doors to house and feed poor students for free.

Among the students taking the university exams this year are 7 orphans supported by the Kids Without Borders 'Teach Me To Fish' program. All 'dare to dream' they would have a better life after the orphanage with a college degree.

Best of luck to all.

Meet some of our Teach Me To Fish university candidates: