Charity shelters of the Da Nang Association of Charities and Children’s Rights Protection are considered as fairy homes for hundreds of orphaned and disadvantaged children because these are where they are being cared for in the loving arms of the community.

Year 9 pupil Vui reading books at the shelter

Doan Thi Binh Vui, a Year 9 pupil at the city’s Le Thi Hong Gam Junior High School, has been being cared for at the Shelter No 2 of the Association since 2009.  Vui recalled her family’s unforgettable hardships during her childhood.  Her father passed away when she was a little girl, so her mother shouldered the heavy burden of caring for her school-aged children.  With the hope of escaping from poverty, her family left their hometown in Bien Hoa City for Da Nang to settle down their lives.  During their first days of stay in the city, Vui and her siblings dropped out of school due to their very difficult circumstances.  Instead of going to school like other peers, they had to sell lottery tickets and bags of boiled peanuts to support their family.

Fortunately, she was taken to the shelter for care, and she always considers the place as her home.  At this venue, Vui actively engages in literacy learning and other soft skills.  Thanks to the great assistance from the shelter’s staff, Vui has an opportunity to continue pursuing her academic dream.  Also, she and other children here usually attend many meaningful courses on martial arts, music, painting, and other extracurricular subjects.  The girl hoped that, in the future, she would become a social activist who specialises in organising events, especially charitable activities for poor children.

Another disadvantaged person, young local man Nguyen Dinh Khai was brought up in a poor family in Hoa Vang District.  His family was dealt a devastating blow many years ago when the boy’s father, the family’s breadwinner, passed away, thereby living his mother facing countless difficulties in life.  Thanks to his great determination and ceaseless efforts, Khai was enrolled into the city’s University of Science and Technology.  However, Khai intended put aside his dream of pursuing higher education because his family could not afford his tuition fees.  Khai’s mother earns only a little money from doing unstable jobs as manual labourer.

Luckily, the young man now feels much happier because he usually receives financial aid from the Association to continue pursuing his academic dream.

According to the Chairwoman of the Association, Ms Le Thi Tam, over the past 5 years, her organisation has joined efforts with the Giving it Back to Kids (GIBTK) to implement a project for caring for and educating local orphaned children and those in very difficult circumstances.  GIBTK is a non-profit organisation from the USA dedicated to helping kids achieve their maximum potential through medical care, education, nutrition and love.

Thanks to this meaningful project, hundreds of poor children have benefited from numerous vocational training courses, and continued their studies at local universities and colleges. 

Moreover, the Association and GIBTK have jointly bought health insurance for all the children being cared for at the charity shelters. 

The South East Asia Director of GIBTK, Ms Tong Thi Thanh Tam, remarked that, under the project, special heed has been paid to offering career orientations for their trainees to help them clearly understand their future careers.