An entrepreneurial rising senior from California, Natalie Huynh, turned her love of crafting into building brighter futures for children in central Vietnam. Over a decade ago, as a young student, she began crocheting scarves and hats. Huynh’s nimble fingers combined colorful yarn into fashion pieces, and she successfully sold them to classmates.
While developing her business, she hoped to give back to help children too. Huynh says, “ in 2017, I wanted to find an organization I could support in the long run. I decided to search for a non-profit organization with the same mission [as mine] and stumbled across Children of Vietnam. After reading about the work COV does to support children and their education, I was eager to reach out to the team to figure out how I could help.”
For nearly 5 years, she sets aside a portion of her profit and regularly donates this money to Children of Vietnam. Huynh’s connection to COV grew following her family’s journey to visit Vietnam. While there, she witnessed transformational programming firsthand. She recalls how she connected with a single mother, “ who had been working on building her microbusiness. She had been working full time to sew backpacks and bags to support her son’s education. She gave me a handcrafted bag of her own, and I told her how I admired her hard work.”
As the inaugural Youth Ambassador for COV, Huynh hopes “to spread this message to other young people that they can make positive contributions in the effort to help educate kids just like them!”
