Hoi Tu Thien: the homeless children's club

Hoi Tu Thien: the homeless children's club

Buu Tri Pagoda

Buu Tri Pagoda

Welcome

The Can Tho Youth Empowerment Project has partnered with VietHope and Princeton in Asia and is currently working with two institutions in Can Tho--Hoi Tu Thien and Chua Buu Tri--to provide educational opportunities to poor children in the community. Chua Buu Tri is a pagoda in Can Tho that houses and cares for nearly 50 orphans. Hoi Tu Thien is a home for poor and homeless children which houses almost 30 children and provides educational services for many more.

It is our belief that all children deserve an opportunity to flourish and it is our privilege to be able to offer services to help some children in great need follow their dreams. By creating and sponsoring several work-study positions, we have been able to develop a unique educational program which offers English lessons, Computer instruction, and tutoring to these children. At the same time we are providing students of Can Tho University with scholarships to support their own pursuit of education and valuable work-study experience that is relevant to their field of study.

As of December '07, we have seven part time student-workers involved with our project, and we have organized the following classes:



ENGLISH



-English for children (Under 12 years old) -- Two nights a week plus every other Saturday. (2 classes: 1 at Hoi Tu Thien, another at Buu Tri Pagoda)


-English for children (12 and over) -- Two nights a week plus every other Saturday. (2 classes: 1 at Hoi Tu Thien, another at Buu Tri Pagoda)


-English for adults (for volunteers and staff at both institutions, and for some of the older teachers)--Two nights a week (2 classes at Buu Tri Pagoda--beginner and intermediate levels).



COMPUTER LITERACY AND PRACTICE (Computers were donated by the Carrie Gordon Memorial Fund, and VietHope)



-Basic Computer and word processing skills--Eight separate groups, each meeting for one hour/week (four groups at Hoi Tu Thien and four groups at Buu Tri Pagoda)


-Computer practice --Eight supervised two hour practice sessions per week.


We have also worked with Nexus Australia to arrange vocational scholarships for area children in financial need.


This website is intended to document some of the work we have done at these institutions. For more information about our project or to find out what you can do to help please contact us at carriebrightvn@gmail.com.

News: Buu Tri Pagoda

News: 12/26/07: Some additional pictures of our classes and our team can be found at www.people.virginia.edu/~dw3xx

News: 11/22/07: This blog is undergoing a very long overdue update. New pictures, student profiles, and information will be posted soon, so check back often.

News: 04/19/07: We are very excited to announce that we will be cooperating with yet another fantastic institution in Can Tho to further our goal of providing educational resouces to some of the area's underprivileged youth. Buu Tri pagoda is the home to 39 abandoned children (including 9 children who arrived last year. Over the course of the last few weeks, I've been in contact with Su Co Tam Niem (the head nun at Buu Tri Pagoda) to discuss the possibility of replicating our program at Hoi Tu Thien at her institution. Su Co Tam Niem is very interested in our program and has given us full permission to administer an English and computer program at Buu Tri Pagoda.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Profile: Danh Binh




Danh Binh is one of the newest faces at Hoi Tu Thien in Can Tho. At 17 years old, he’s a little older than most of the newcomers. About a month ago he moved into Hoi Tu Thien from Vi Thanh district of Hau Giang province where he lived with his grandma, uncle, aunt and two siblings. He has come to Can Tho to find a better life. He’s now working as a ball boy at the local tennis court, but dreams of becoming a police officer and will try to study at the police academy in Can Tho after his 18th birthday. So far Binh has only studied to the 8th grade, but he believes he can continue to learn from the people around him. He especially likes to study literature because through literature he can learn a lot about people, things, and so on. In his free time he likes to listen to music, watch films and watch soccer on TV. Binh is a very polite, gentle, and thoughtful young man. He hasn’t begun studying in our English class yet, but he has begun to participate in some of our computer literacy classes.
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