Girl’s stories May 30, 2011

This is the first time I learned their stories, and some of them are shocking, you wouldn’t tell if you saw them that they had hardship in their lives, because they are full of life and positive energy. The following is from Celia’s file about 6 girls I taught last year:

Ho Thi Hoang Anh (1995) is 15.  She is an orphan who was begging at the Saigon train station before coming to Ba Chieu Home.   Her father was from Hong Kong, and went back there.  Her mother died of breast cancer in 2000.  Hoang Anh came to the home in 2002.  She finished Class 6 with above average in 2009 and wants to be a kindergarten teacher. (She also wanted to be a teacher 2 years ago.) In 2010 she finished Class 7 also with above average grade. She likes sewing.

Nguyen Thi Huong (1993) is now 17.  She was abandoned by her father, her mother works but is too poor to look after her.

She finished Class 7 with above average grade in 2009 and Class 8 also above average in 2010.  Huong likes cooking.  She wanted to work in finance and banking when she grows up but is now favouring cooking (chicken with ginger is her favourite dish).

Ho Thi May Hanh (1990) is 20.  She was abandoned by her mother, so her father looked after her and they earned their living by collecting rubbish.  She has been in the home for 8 years since 2002.

She has always liked to cook, and gave me the recipe for Bun bo Hue.

She finished Class 9 (end of Junior High School) in 2009 with above average grade and Class 10 with excellent. She is now going on to study at a City School for 4 years from which she should graduate with 2 certificates, one in accounting and the other a high school certificate.

The following three girls are not longer at the shelter, and as Celia mentioned it is a good thing because it means that they reunited with their families:

Nguyen Cat Tien (1995) was abandoned by her parents and came to the Home 4 years ago.  She finished Class 5 with average grade in 2009 and Class 6 also with average in 2010.  She likes to cook

 and wants to be a hairdresser when she grows up.

Pham Thi Mai Thao (February 1997) is 13.  She came from Ben Tre.  Her family migrated to Ho ChiMinh City to find work as servants and were transient with no home.  Thao has just finished Class 7 with excellent.  She enjoys literature.

Phan Thi Huong (1994) is 16. She’s finished Class 8 with average in 2009 and Class 9 also with average in 2010.  She will now leave school and start a 2 year course in hospitality learning the restaurant trade. She wants to work in a restaurant.  She left the Home to go back to her family.

Mai Am Ba Chieu February 19, 2011

Exactly one year ago I was in Vietnam. About two weeks ago, I wrote an email to my students at Ba Chieu in Saigon and sent them a card to congratulate them with New Year of Rabbit! I received two emails back from Bi and Hanh. I was glad Hanh wrote in English or translated her letter into English with Google Translate, so I could understand the meaning very well.

Hello Marina!
I am happy to receive your mail you, thank you about the pictures, it was very beautiful. How is the knife? How are you? all is not favorable?
You know now there are more changes that, and Thao, Truc, Huong skin no longer with us anymore, and there is a lot of new kids on with us. I hope someday you can come visit us again as the days past are happy with us.
New Year, wishing the men that a lot of fun and always smiled. all good things will come to you most.
miss you very much.
Hanh

I was really concerned about three girls who are no longer in the shelter, and I immediately wrote to Hanh asking where the other girls went, to Andy, who is  a VPV local volunteer organization coordinator, asking him to investigate what happened. I also wrote to Kris, who was a volunteer just like me, who lives in Spokane, WA, and who is going to Vietnam again  this year to teach children English in another shelter. I asked her to bring presents from me (which I mailed to her) to my students at Ba Chieu shelter and to find out about missing girls. She will be flying to Saigon next week on Thursday. I also did some research online to learn more about Mai Am Ba Chieu and that is what I found:

Bà Chiểu Home
Add: 149/1 Nguyen Van Dau, Ward 11, Binh Thanh Dist, HCMC
Tel: (+84). 85.150.556
The Ba Chieu Home for disadvantaged and homeless girls in Ho Chi Minh City was set up in May 1996 with initial funding from the New Zealand Embassy. It is administered by the Women’s Charity Association of Ho Chi Minh City, a voluntary, non-governmental organisation set up in 1989 under licence from the HCMC People’s Committee. After the first two years, the Embassy could no longer fund operating costs, so I have organised fundraising and private donations mainly from New Zealanders and New Zealand businesses with a Vietnamese connection ever since.

Mai Am Ba Chieu (MABC)　 

Mai Am Ba Chieu is an open house for street children and little girls without parents’ care. It was established in 1998 and twenty children, at the age from seven to sixteen are living in it. Before NVC‘s gathering money through PR at TV and constructing the current house, there was just one room. It should be mentioned that WOCA offers land and Ambassador of New Zealand sponsors for Mai Am Ba Chieu. It is a model open house in Ho Chi Minh City and many volunteers from overseas and the members of Embassies visit there. This is one of the successful projects which NVC sponsored as the facility constructions. Twenty girls live in MABC in 2001, seven high school students, five junior high school students and four trainee of national factory.　　They used to be street children, who had lived on collecting garbage, begging and selling them. They have to leave MABC to society at the age of seventeen or eighteen, so they are job-trained in MABC. Some of them will be able to go to college by the scholarship of NVC.

 Please, also see Video 1 and Video 2, and one more Article about a New Zealander Celia Caughey, who helps Ba Chieu Shelter.