Looking for a gift for a socially- conscious loved one?

Alternative Gifts International is a marketplace that allows you to choose your favorite humanitarian or environmental cause and make a charitable gift in someone's honor. 

Children of Vietnam's initiative called Empowering Foundation for Women is proud to be featured on this site!

Check out the listing and consider giving a life changing gift today!

Families headed by single women are some of the poorest in Vietnam. Many of these mothers are raising their children in structures made from corrugated metal and woven plant fibers, with dirt floors and no sanitary toilet system.The reasons for poverty are complex and go beyond just limited access to earning opportunities, but also include health, skills, and patriarchal social
customs that value men over women.

Empowering Foundations for Women and their Children, a program through CHILDREN OF VIETNAM, provides an effective combination of training, healthcare, housing, and micro-loans to single mothers in Danang and the surrounding region. Support focuses on resolving immediate needs and developing life-long skills that will ultimately lift the family out of poverty.

A micro-loan enabled this woman to start a hairstyling business that supports her family.

Congratulations to recent high school graduate Kristy Nguyen for being recognized as a Make Agent Orange History champion for her dedication and hard work for impoverished children and families in Vietnam!

Kristy, who has organized multiple fundraisers for Children of Vietnam and recruited many other young, enthusiastic COV volunteers has been an invaluable member of the COV community since she started working with the organization over a year ago.

Read more about Kristy's dedication here:

http://makeagentorangehistory.org/champion/kristy-nguyen-volunteer/

June 1^st was  a special holiday in Vietnam-- Children’s Day. Children's day is a special day dedicated to honoring kids' children in Vietnam receive special gifts from their parents or go out on family outings.

COV celebrated this day too by giving bicycles and treats to 50 poor children in the rural district of Hoa Vang.

To learn more about our Bicycle Program see: http://www.childrenofvietnam.org/en/education/113-bicycles-for-education.html

To see how different kids all over hte country celebrated http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/society/9043/vietnamese-kids-with-children-s-day.html

Thanks to a partnership between Children of Vietnam and Facing the World these two brothers were able to receive major surgery to remove their tumors and scarring. Look how successful the results were!

Before:

After:

from:

http://makeagentorangehistory.org/agent-orange-champions/

Agent Orange Champions

There are people around the world who have devoted their time and energy to understanding the legacy of Agent Orange and coming up with solutions to address this problem. These champions come from all different backgrounds and levels of expertise, but all are true humanitarians that are helping make Agent Orange history.

Dannia Southerland works with a disabled boy in Da Nang who is part of the Hope System of Care.

When Dr. Dannia Southerland first heard from Children of Vietnam, she had no idea what was in store for her. Given her post doctoral research in health and clinical services at Duke University, she had been contacted by the organization to advise on case management for children with disabilities in Vietnam.

Intrigued by what she learned from Children of Vietnam regarding the dire circumstances for Vietnam’s most vulnerable victims of Agent Orange – children with disabilities – Southerland signed on to help design the organization’s Hope System of Care, a “wrap-around” system that integrates social services, rehabilitation, education and other supports to help meet the needs of disabled children in Vietnam. Southerland laughs as she reflects on her first meeting with a board member from Children of Vietnam: “I went for coffee in Chapel Hill,” Southerland says, “and wound up in Vietnam 30 days later.”

Shortly after arriving in Vietnam, Southerland realized the challenges of implementing a comprehensive and decidedly western model in a country where social services infrastructure is not yet fully developed.

“Without a social services infrastructure, there is no way to develop sustainable services,” Southerland says, “You can pour a lot of money into orthopedic surgeries and maybe impact the incidence of club foot…but to have real lasting impact, to provide services to help these children improve their life chances, that’s what we’ve been focused on.”

Southerland consulted local health professionals and case workers in Da Nang – the pilot city for program – who evaluated Hope System of Care and offered suggestions on which services would work and which would not be practical. She then got to work developing partnerships with the city of Da Nang and the Vietnamese government.

Today, the Hope System of Care serves children in two districts in Da Nang, and every child who has ever enrolled in the program continues to receive support. Southerland remains a committed advocate for sustainable social services throughout Vietnam and hopes to expand the program in the near future.

“The legacy of Agent Orange is the legacy of a bad time,” Southerland says, “but an opportunity for people to come together and build bridges across cultures and continents… It’s an exciting ideal, making Agent Orange history.”

Click here to learn about other AO Champions and the Make Agent Organge History Campaign!

 

Spend your summer doing something worthwhile!

Volunteer at the Hoi Mai Orphanage outside of Da Nang, Vietnam through Children of Vientam's first ever Hand in Hand Service Delegation tour.

Help the kids with hands-on activities like mushroom farming, English tutoring and campus maintenance. Meet the volunteer team in Da Nang on the evening of June 19th for introductions and orientation to the service project, and then spend the next five days (June 20- 24) working directly with the kids!

Children of Vietnam will also include a short programs tour of other healthcare, housing, nutrition and education initiatives so volunteers can learn how COV is addressing the needs of its clientele.

Volunteers of all ages and backgrounds are encouraged to apply as long as they are willing to do hands on service!

Contact Olivia Boyce at oliviacboyce@gmail.com for a volunteer application or to further inquire about the program today!

It's that time of year again! Tết, the most important Vietnamese holiday marks the arrival of spring in Vietnam based on the lunar calendar.

The holiday is marked by festivals, family time and food.

Vietnamese people usually return to their families during Tết for reunions and ancestor worship .In the days leading up to the new year the Vietnamese are busy preparing their homes, wardrobe, menus and more for the upcoming festivities. People often try to pay off their debts and return all things borrowed before Tet in order to start the new year fresh.

In a tradition similar to American Christmas, families decorate their homes with artificial bamboo trees and flowers in honor of Tet.

On Tet, children dress in their new clothes and receive a red envelope containing money from their elders.

The Vietnamese believe that the first visitor a family receives in the new year will determine their fortune for the entire year, so people only go to visit other homes on Tet with a special invitation, and the first person to enter a Vietnamese home on Tet does so with lots of important rituals to bring good luck and blessings to the home.

During subsequent days of the Tet celebration, people visit relatives, friends and teachers who are held with lots of respect. People give gifts that symbolize good luck.

People also visit Buddhist temples and enjoy public performances, especially the dragon dancers.

Popular foods during Tet include sticky rice, roasted watermelon seeds, dried candied fruits, pickled onions, cabbages and leaks and more.

An khang thịnh vượng (Security, good health, and prosperity)

A photograph of a 9-year-old Children of Vietnam client was awarded the UNICEF photo of the year for 2010, giving international attention to the work of COV. 

UNICEF presents this awards to photos and photo-reportages that document, in an outstanding manner, the personalities and living-circumstances of children around the world.

The picture was taken by renowned journalist Ed Kashi who photographed a few Children of Vietnam clients during his work this summer with the Vietnam Reporting Project.

The photo shows 9-year-old Ly from the Vietnamese city of Da Nang. Her face is marked by the toxic legacy of a war that ended 35 years ago. Many Vietnamese have suffered genetic damage from exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange.

Da Nang, a former American base of operations, alone is home to 16,000 children who are disabled due to the chemical warfare that took place.The Vietnam Red Cross estimates that 150,000 Vietnamese children are disabled due to their parents’ exposure to dioxin.

In addition to her facial deformity Ly has a concave throat and weak heart, all linked back to the effects of dioxin.  Ly’s grandfather was a soldier during the Vietnam War, and her mother and aunt also have facial deformities.

Children of Vietnam supports Ly, her family and others by providing wrap-around services such as education or vocational scholarships, surgeries when required, assistive aids such as wheelchairs and prosthetics, medicine, therapy, housing with indoor accessible bathrooms, and support for the parents to earn a living. Children of Vietnam partners with the Danang Hai Chau and Ngu Hang Son People’s Committee and local health, education and social services experts in the area.

Click on the above video to see the story of two families affected by agent orange as narrated by journalist Katherine  Karnow. The first family received comprehensive, wrap around support from Children of Vietnam to battle this serious disease.