My name is Trinh Huynh and I am from Vietnam. Giving back to others by passing on my knowledge and helping people to help themselves has always been my passion. I am an experienced social worker and have been working in the development sector across the Mekong Delta of Vietnam for the past 7 years. Moving to my hometown in the Phu Yen province, one of the poorest regions in Vietnam, I decided in 2015 to follow my passion further and I founded the Bong Sen Foundation.
I need to raise US$10,000 for the establishment of the organization. This startup investment is a legal requirement to get any NGO working permit in Vietnam. In a second phase I need to raise US$12,000 to implement the planned programs for women and girls in Phu Yen.
With your help the women and girls in Phu Yen will gain education and economic empowerment and will be encouraged to take matters into their own hands, to have their own income and maybe even open their own business.
Therefore we need money. Please support us with your donation of $US 10 - 20 - 50 - 100 or more to get started. If you are interested in this project, please read where you will learn what we intend to achieve, how we will achieve it, and how we will use your donation.
Why Bong Sen Foundation
Bong Sen (meaning ‘Lotus Flower’ in Vietnamese) Foundation is a new Vietnamese non profit organization that formally commenced in March 2016. Bong Sen has six local, Phu Yen-born people with a background in agriculture, education, and social work. We believe that local people have greater motivation to inspire change in their own community. At Bong Sen we aim to ensure basic education for all, drive economic empowerment, and social equality for women and girls of the ethnic minority in Phu Yen province, Vietnam.
Promoting gender equality, equal rights and opportunities to women and girls is a well advanced cause in developed “First-World-Societies” in the West, we believe that those privileged and luckily enough are also in a position to help promote and encourage gender equality also in developing countries like Vietnam.
In Dong Xuan ethnic minority groups often reside in mountainous areas that lack even health care, have almost no education services and working opportunities are limited. A majority of ethnic groups living in Dong Xuan are called Chăm H’roi and Bana. The Cham H’roi is a subgroup of the ‘South-Central Cham’, this group practices animism. The Banas belong to the Mon-Khmer linguistic family. The Cham H’Roi and Bana work terraced fields and local women can weave fabrics in their home for domestic use. They still live in stilt house and even for small sized families.
While GDP per capita in Vietnam is over $2,052 women and girls in mountainous Dong Xuan District often earn a $20 per month and, most of the time, do not have enough money to feed their children adequately or to pay the school fees and every other living expenses the family might incur. Most of the ethnic children in the area survive on a diet of cassava leaves and cheap instant noodle. Due to their families economic circumstances they are being starved instead of the nutritious meal to grow up strong and healthily. Young girls are married off between the ages of 15 -17, have dropped out of school early with little real education and have little or no knowledge of reproductive health education.
Among the population of 60,000 people, 49% of them are living under $2/day. Bong Sen will focus on the poorest in the community with an income of less than $1 per day.
How Bong Sen invests your donation
- $400 for poor woman (including her family) to alleviate poverty through the provision of sustainable livelihoods
- $150 for poor woman (including her family) to transform agricultural knowledge and skills and best practice information for small scale farmers.
- $25 for secondary school girl, $50 for high school and $100 for university to support girls to complete school and beyond by ensuring gender equality is included in their education.
In order to achieve our goal, Bong Sen will execute the following steps: (Illustrated at the example of the scholarship activity)
Step 1: Involvement of any implementing partners
- Department of Education and Training
- Local schools
Step 2: Identify and survey poor girls
- Identifies poor girls among classmates
- Generate a list of poor girls in the school
- Survey the selected girl
Step 3: Inform chosen girls
- Home visits to inform parents
- Provide scholarships for girls and follow up
Step 4: Further scholarships
- Assess the girls which got a scholarships
- Provide scholarships for girls in long term
Bong Sen’s approach
Our systematic approach refers to the “final beneficiaries”, this approach can also be seen as a “model of action” addressing those actual needs of women and girls. The girls and women will be supported in a systematic way, involving parents, family members, the community and relevant local stakeholders. This allows them to get empowered in their families, their community and their society.
Vietnamese Transcript of Project // Vui lòng tham khảo trang gây quỹ bằng tiếng Việt của chúng tôi tại:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PJndHTfJrHOq70NE0oPcvdxhtCOJgG2ZfavsI8nKn2U/edit
