Vietnam is a country in transition. Its economy
is undergoing rapid change as it moves from non-market socialism to a market
economy with a socialist orientation. However, with much of the population
dependent upon subsistence farming, Vietnam has a GNP per head of only $1,200
US per year and is still classified as one of the poor countries in the world.
According to the World Bank, 22% of Vietnam’s population currently lives below
the poverty line.
The country’s poorest people live in remote
villages in rural and mountainous areas and have limited access to
transportation. Many rural Vietnamese communities have limited access to
healthcare, productive resources and basic financial services. They have to
face harsh natural conditions and frequent natural disasters. Among age groups, poverty disproportionately affects children.
In many mountain villages, children are unaware of such basic human norms as wearing pants, having footwear or hat. We have seen them tottering with tiny bare feet on the muddy ground,
surrounded by white fog with the cold so sharp it felt like needles were poking
your fingertips.
Thousands of children in mountainous areas still have to study in temporary classrooms, with a shortage of equipment and teaching aids.
To the children of these mountain villages, their meals consist solely of rice and collard green. Eating is only to calm the hunger. Their meals sadly lack food other than rice. On many occasions, they simply fill-up on vegetables mixed with salt. The children here think about their meals in a simple way: Rice and vegetables = a fancy meal. Plain rice = a normal, everyday meal.
a lunch box of just pumpkin pieces mixed with some rice
To help these children have nutritious meals, Better Life Vietnam has teamed up with Meal With Meat (another charity program) to carry out a fundraising campaign. We aim to sponsor another 200 children in 2014. We are seeking assistance from a vast community to support children with this dire need for more healthy food and thus give them a better future.
About Better Life Vietnam (BLV)
Better Life Vietnam is a non-profit group working to improve the lives of people facing poverty in Vietnam. BLV was founded with the belief that access to education, healthcare, food, clean water and a decent quality of life are basic human rights. Since its establishment in 2010, BLV has focused on improving education conditions for the poor children in Vietnam. To date, BLV team has established five libraries for a total of 2000 children in the North of Vietnam. In addition, BLV has also engaged in charitable trips to bring warm clothes and school materials to children in rural and mountainous areas in northern Vietnam.
About Meal With Meat
Meal With Meat is a charity program aiming to provide more nutritious meals and other basic needs for schools of poor highland mountain regions where children rarely have nutritious meals. Meal With Meat was first launched by Dr. Trần Đăng Tuấn and his fellows in September 2011 in Vietnam. The network has expanded extensively. By September 2012, it had reached a number of nations around the globe such as Australia, America, Japan, Sweden, Finland, Korea and China. To date more than 5,000 children have been supported meals by Meal With Meat, together with warm clothes to cope with the freezing winters in mountainous areas. Day by day, we are noticing improvements: fewer children with malnutrition, and more children learning through school attendance.
Thousands of children in mountainous areas still have to study in temporary classrooms, with a shortage of equipment and teaching aids.
To the children of these mountain villages, their meals consist solely of rice and collard green. Eating is only to calm the hunger. Their meals sadly lack food other than rice. On many occasions, they simply fill-up on vegetables mixed with salt. The children here think about their meals in a simple way: Rice and vegetables = a fancy meal. Plain rice = a normal, everyday meal.
a lunch bag of rice mixed with salt
To help these children have nutritious meals, Better Life Vietnam has teamed up with Meal With Meat (another charity program) to carry out a fundraising campaign. We aim to sponsor another 200 children in 2014. We are seeking assistance from a vast community to support children with this dire need for more healthy food and thus give them a better future.
About Better Life Vietnam (BLV)
Better Life Vietnam is a non-profit group working to improve the lives of people facing poverty in Vietnam. BLV was founded with the belief that access to education, healthcare, food, clean water and a decent quality of life are basic human rights. Since its establishment in 2010, BLV has focused on improving education conditions for the poor children in Vietnam. To date, BLV team has established five libraries for a total of 2000 children in the North of Vietnam. In addition, BLV has also engaged in charitable trips to bring warm clothes and school materials to children in rural and mountainous areas in northern Vietnam.
About Meal With Meat
Meal With Meat is a charity program aiming to provide more nutritious meals and other basic needs for schools of poor highland mountain regions where children rarely have nutritious meals. Meal With Meat was first launched by Dr. Trần Đăng Tuấn and his fellows in September 2011 in Vietnam. The network has expanded extensively. By September 2012, it had reached a number of nations around the globe such as Australia, America, Japan, Sweden, Finland, Korea and China. To date more than 5,000 children have been supported meals by Meal With Meat, together with warm clothes to cope with the freezing winters in mountainous areas. Day by day, we are noticing improvements: fewer children with malnutrition, and more children learning through school attendance.
How you can help
We would like to thank:
1) Dr Nghiem Nguyen - Toronto for sponsoring 3 children for a whole year
2) Ms Linda James - Montreal for sponsoring 5 children for a whole year
VND 2,000 (the equivalent to 10 cents in US dollar) is enough for one meal with nutritious food for one child, which means that VND 5,000 is for one day, and VND 120,000 is for a whole month. Imagine that with only a 6 US dollar donation, you will have helped provide nutritious meals for one child for ONE month, and with 60 US dollars, you can achieve this for a FULL year.
Our goal is to raise $10,000 in order to provide nutritious meals for 200 children in 2014.
How it works
All the donation will go to the children with absolutely no withdrawal for management or transportation fees. More importantly we want to send the money to the places that need it the most. After the money
gets there, we want to make sure that it will turn into meat and fish for the urgently needed child meals. To do that, we have to visit and check many places. Everyone in our team who takes part in our visits will meet his or her own cost so that none of the donated money will be withdrawn for that purpose.
We will evaluate this program by checking the children' weight monthly and make a report on the children's health condition as well as their study results to you by the end of 2014.
The detailed data about funding resources will be openly published at this site.
Expected results
We hope to see these 200 children, after a year of nutritious meals, gaining weight and achieve better grade by the end of the school year.
WE LOOK FORWARD TO HAVING YOU JOIN US IN SUPPORTING THESE UNFORTUNATE CHILDREN WITH BETTER MEALS.
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Sponsors list updatedWe would like to thank:
1) Dr Nghiem Nguyen - Toronto for sponsoring 3 children for a whole year
2) Ms Linda James - Montreal for sponsoring 5 children for a whole year
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