One of our most successful programs is the ‘Teach Me To Fish’ (TM2F) program. The TM2F program provides one-on-one support to each of the orphans, on the day they leave the orphanage to be on their own. Our commitment is for up to two years, more if an orphan is enrolled in college. To sponsor an orphan or donate to the TM2F program, please select Donations on the side bar.

Below are some of our success stories:

ROI (Zoe):   Roi lived in the Hoa Phuong Orphanage most of her life. Both of her parents died from illnesses when she was five years old and her elderly grandmother was in poor health and too poor to care for her. She moved out of the orphanage in July 2005 into rented quarters more than 40 minutes away. This is her first time on her own and she wanted to be independent, Roi got her first job working in a Chinese-owned garment factory. She worked 12 hours per day, seven days per week, and earned a menial VND400,000 (15,000 Vietnam Dong = US$1) or less than US$27.00 a month. After paying her rent, Roi lived on a US$7.00 budget per month working an average of more than 80 hours per week. In November 2005, the TM2F Program helped Roi by getting her another sewing job making the same amount of money but working only half of the hours per week. The program assisted Roi with her monthly rent and accounting classes in the evening. In January 2007, Roi started her new job as a sales clerk in the largest new shopping mall in Hai Phong, working a typical 40 to 50 hours per week and earning twice more than what she made as a garment factory worker.

TAM:   Tam is also an orphan from the Hoa Phuong Orphanage. She moved out in July 2005 and the TM2F program assisted her by helping her enter the Hospitality and (the capital of , three hours away from Hai Phong). Tam graduated from the Hoa Sua Training School (*) and in January 2007, she started her new job as a Room Attendant of the Harbourview Hotel in Hai Phong – a four-star leading hotel of the city.

TU:   Another former orphan from the Hoa Phuong Orphanage. The TM2F Program assisted Tu in his first two years outside of the orphanage on his own. Tu is now working in the furniture manufacturing business and he earns decent wages to live comfortably.

THUY:    Thuy is from the Go Vap Orphanage. She enrolled in our Teaching English Program and she was always the most attentive and hardest working student in the class. The TM2F Program provided Thuy with financial support after she moved out of the orphanage in 2004 when she turned 18 years old. Today, Thuy is working as a teacher of the handicapped orphans in the Go Vap Orphanage.

HA:    Ha’s mother, Mai, lost her parents in the war and she lived in the An Lac Orphanage in during her childhood years. The orphanage was closed down by the communist government after the war ended and the orphans were sent to do labor work in remote rural areas. Mai has two daughters and she lost her husband to an accident. The family lived in deep-poverty She raised both daughters, putting them through school working as a seamstress and selling used clothes at the market. Ha passed the college entrance exam with very high grades in 2000, but the family could not afford for her to go to college. The TM2F provided Ha annual scholarships (Ha had to earn top grades each year to be awarded a new annual scholarship to continue her schooling) for her to study at the in . In December 2006, Ha graduated with honors and she is now a licensed medical doctor. The total investment the TM2F Program made in Dr. Ha: US$1,800. Today, Ha spends her free time assisting us with our work at the orphanages, helping the staff with the sick babies. She is applying for a scholarship to earn her Ph.D in human gene, studying in . I have no doubt she will succeed as she always has with her determination, and with the sacrifice and support she gets from her mother and sister. The family finally is on the verge of breaking the poverty cycle.

Students at Hoa Sua Culinary School

(*) The Hoa Sua Hospitality and is managed by a British non-governmental organization (NGO) and partially funded by UNICEF. The not for profit school is for disadvantaged children, such as street children or orphans.