Aspiration to sow dreams for children

Chau Nhat Huynh (front row, third from right), founder of the project "Children, keep going" at SOS Children's Village Dien Bien Phu - Photo: NVCC

It was precisely from the CFC class at SOS Children's Village Dien Bien Phu after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 that the seeds of dreams and aspirations for long-term commitment to the project were planted.

It can be said that the project "You guys keep going" has helped me appreciate Vietnamese language and culture much more, creating a special relationship between us and the children participating in the project.

ALLIE (Stanford University alumna, project volunteer)

Volunteer ideas meet

Although the classes at SOS Children's Village Dien Bien Phu were completely online, they left a deep impression. Not only were the village staff dedicated, but the children were also devoted to the CFC volunteers. The girl suddenly thought that she had to bring this model directly to the children of Dien Bien, even though she knew the procedures were not simple.

That was also the time when this girl born in 1997 was about to leave Vietnam for the US under the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistance (FLTA) program. Nhat Huynh taught Vietnamese at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) for Vietnamese-American students within the framework of this program. The idea of ​​a CFC class in Dien Bien was temporarily put on hold.

Coincidentally, in early 2022, during a conversation with Lilly - a Vietnamese-American student who was about to return to Vietnam and was looking for a volunteer opportunity in the summer of 2023 here. Huynh shared with Lilly his cherished desire to do for children in Dien Bien, clearly stating his intention to start the project as soon as he returned to Vietnam.

“I started writing the plan and it only took me a few hours to complete it because everything was ready in my head. I sent the plan to SOS Children’s Village Dien Bien Phu and a day later I got a response because the village had known me through the CFC program before,” Huynh said.

The girl sent a request for funding for Fulbright alumni with community projects to the US Embassy in Hanoi. However, Huynh still had a month to finish the program in the US, and was not yet considered an alumni, so it had not been approved.

Although the plan was well received, with both American and Vietnamese volunteers willing to participate, there was no money. Huynh called home to tell the story, and fortunately, her aunt immediately supported and granted Huynh funding to carry it out.

Dreams take root

The 2024 Summer Camp recently had nearly 60 participants in the project. In addition to Vietnamese volunteers, there were also three American volunteers participating. Each day, classes started at 8am, followed by English, life skills and cultural exchange in the afternoon.

The volunteers stayed at a hotel near the village, walking to class every day, but after a few days, the villagers brought 11 bicycles for the students to use for transportation. For the young Americans, it was their first experience of cycling on the roads of a Vietnamese village.

Huynh said that when he returned this year, he noticed that many students who had attended the class of 2023 were much bolder, more open, and more confident. Explaining his observations, Huynh said that in the assignment asking students to draw a beautiful life, many students wanted to study well, have enough food, and not be hungry, but many students said they wanted to go to university and believed they could do more than they thought.

Volunteers also learn a lot from this place when visiting the Dien Bien Phu Victory Museum and the Dien Bien Phu Campaign Headquarters Relic Site, which helps to broaden their horizons, not just as teachers.

Talking about the motivation to pursue the project, Huynh said he saw himself in the image of the children at SOS Children's Village Dien Bien Phu because he was also shy, self-conscious and never thought he could do anything for the community.

Huynh said he will develop this project with three main areas: maintaining an annual summer camp, organizing online review classes for the high school graduation exam (English, math and literature), and advising on university scholarship applications for high school graduates. Because for Huynh, education not only provides knowledge and skills to help us find a job to make a living, but most importantly, helps change perceptions, starting with each individual.

Therefore, during the teaching process, volunteers choose to continuously encourage and motivate the children, design experiential activities to help each child discover who they are, realize their own value and know how to dream big.

“These children are like seeds that are planted so that when they grow up, they will continue to carry out projects to give back, spreading positive values ​​wider and further, creating greater social effects and impacts. That is the value we hope to aim for,” Huynh confided.

"Keep it up guys"

The first English summer camp in the CFC model curriculum at SOS Children's Village Dien Bien Phu in the summer of 2023 has five Vietnamese-American volunteer students participating. They are all students of the Vietnamese language class taught by Huynh in the US.

In addition to financial support from his family, Nhat Huynh also raised funds at UCSB to finance the project. In March of this year, hoping to continue this program, Huynh applied for funding from the US State Department for community projects around the world and was approved, officially giving birth to the name "Cung em co len".

The project is designed as a three-week summer school program. The students will teach English, life skills, and cultural exchange activities to children aged 12-17 at the SOS Children's Village Dien Bien Phu. Nhat Huynh also took the opportunity to teach Vietnamese to American students while participating in this project.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/khat-vong-geo-mam-uoc-mo-cho-tre-20241029214707314.htm