In June 2018, we visited our daughter in Seoul and took a quick trip to Saigon to visit our sponsored chidren in Củ Chi. Since our stay in Saigon was quite short, and the school is closed for holidays, we met the children individually at their home. We have asked Ms Ngoc Anh to make all the necessary preparations: rental car, books and gifts for the children.

Landing at 11 p.m. at Tan Son Nhat airport, we left early in the morning, around 8 a.m., the following day. In addition to our gifts we also had used clothes, which were kindly donated last year by family Ataman from Stolberg. As we have already mentioned in the charitiy action "Donate old clothes, toys", since Vietnam does not permit the import or the shipping of old clothes and used toys, they can only be carried as baggage when travelling to Vietnam. At this point we would like to thank the family Ataman again, the T-shirts fit like a glove and the children were overjoyed. The remaining items will be distributed to the ones in need on the next available visits.

It's summer break, but Nguyễn Thanh Hương (5th grade) was still sitting on the ground, tugging the leaves from the stalks of the water spinach so that the stalks could later be more easily cut into long gossamer fibers, which were then offered on the market for a little money. Hương was shy and looked sad. As we asked her what she will do with the money she got for her work, she smiled sheepishly and answered: Then I can go out with my friends, buy something or pay for admissions.

As a gift, Tường Vy (2nd grade) wished for a teddy bear. She wants to be a singer and sang a nursery rhyme at our request. As she said that she likes English and proudly showed us her English homework book, we encouraged her to speak a few sentences in English with us.

Bảo Long (5th grade) is a very smart boy. As a gift, he wished for a Lego kit and was very happy as he unwrapped the present. He wants to become a construction engineer. He has the maximum grade (10) in math, science and history.

Song Song (4th grade) and Thùy Trang (4th grade) were a bit reserved. Maybe it was because both grew up without father - Thùy Trang is an orphan. We are struck by the fact that both put on a pink t-shirt (from the used clothes we brought) when we wanted to take a picture with them. Are they perhaps longing for a rosier future?

It was a very exhausting day for us under the blistering heat of over 40 ° C. Forgetting to take the children's dossier with us, we were partly wandering around because we did not know their parents’s name to ask for directions. The people in the village only know the name of the adults. Children are inconspicuous. We asked ourselves, what will become of them? Especially the girls have no chance to learn a profession if they have to pluck leaves from the stalks of water spinach in their leisure time at elementary school age.

Please help them!

If we manage to accompany these children until they graduate, we would give them the foundations for a better life.