Visit on 26.11.2019

On November 26th, 2019, Ms. Ngoc Anh visited 9 students from the middle school Vo Thanh Trang in Tan Phu, who applied for the Greenleaves scholarship program for the school year 2019-2020. The children received a small monetary gift from Ms. Ngoc Anh's mother and the book "Cuore", written by Edmondo de Amicis, translated in vietnamese.

TRẦN THỊ DOANH DOANH, Class 7/2

The parents were divorced when she was 1 year old. The mother has never visited her child since that time. Her father remarried and has two other children, sells lottery tickets and cannot pay maintenance payments. Doanh lives with the 65 years old grandmother, who sells lottery tickets to take care of Doanh and the other 2 grandchildren, who were left by their parents too.
Her aunt also lives in the rented room and works as a maid to pay the rent including water and electricity, which costs 2 million VND (ca. 80€) monthly.
The rented room is very small for the family of five persons, Doanh's bed is too short. The owner of a nearby cafe allows her to use the table and chair when she does homework. At school, Doanh gets free tuition in math and language classes because of the need.
Last year, Doanh helped her Grandmother selling lottery tickets on Saturday and Sunday. This school year, the classes also take place on Saturdays so that she can only work on Sunday. Doanh sells around 120.000 VND a day (ca. 5€), part of it is used for paying the rent, the rest is for for food if the grandmother comes home late and cannot cook for the children.

TRẦN NGUYỄN GIA BẢO, Class 7/5

His father died, the mother is sick and lives in the country. The 70 year old grandmother takes care of him and his 3 other siblings. With selling lottery tickets, old glasses and rags, she earns about 150.000 - 200.000 VND a day (ca. 5€). His eldest sister (17 years old) sells bubble tea, his 14 years old sister earns money for small help jobs, the youngest (10 years old) was kidnapped last year when was helping his grandmother with selling the lottery tickets.

The family lives in a one room flat, the rent is 3 million VND (ca. 120€) per month. Bảo helps his grandmother selling the lottery in the morning and in the evening, he goes to school in the afternoon, so his archivements are not very good because he has not enough time to learn.

NGUYỄN TRẦN KHẮC TUẤN, Class 7/12

His father left his mother when she was 4 months pregnant. The mother had a nervous breakdown and has since become bedridden.
The grandparents have to take care of him and his mother.
His grandfather works in the hospital as an assistant in radiology, earns 10 million VND (ca. 400€) a month and will get retired next year.
His grandmother works as a motorbike Uber driver, but does not make much money because she has to take care of his mother.
Tuan wants to be a doctor to be able to heal his mother.

NGUYỄN TRẦN BẢO TRÂM, Class 8/6

Her father died early, the mother has heart problems and lives in the country. The grandparents take care of the 3 children since they were young.
Her eldest brother (20 years old) helps in a car shop, her 17 years old brother helps in a cafe.
Her grandmother earn money with various jobs: motorbike Uber driver, manicure, sewing , etc.
The house belongs to the great-grandmother who passed away two years ago and the house is now for sale.
When the house is sold, the family has to live somewhere for rent.

TRẦN PHẠM MINH ANH, class 6/16

Her father left her when she was young. Her mother died in 2015. She lives with her brothers. The oldest (23 years old) works as a scooter Uber driver, delivery service driver to earn money.
When the mother died, the oldest had to give up studying at the university. Since he has no degree, he can only work as a driver. He earns about 5 - 6 million VND (ca. 250 - 300€) a month.
They go to their grandmother to get foods.

NGUYỄN BẢO HUY, Class 7/9

The parents left Huy because he was mentally retarded. The grandparents take care of him.

He is very polite, well behaved. He said that nobody plays with him at school, so he has to sit alone, but that doesn't matter to him because he's used to it.
He wants to be a policeman, likes to cook, badminton, helps a lot in the household.
He likes social studies because it is very versatile, he said.
The grandparents runs an internet cafe, but he doesn't like games.
His grandmother has to undergo dialysis every month because she has kidney disease.

NGUYỄN NGỌC NHƯ, Class 6/12

Her mother died recently, her father is a construction worker and rarely sending money home.
The father is married for the third time, two children from his previous marriages are also under the care of the grandparents, both over 70 years ols.

Như is silent, thoughtful, she looks smaller than her age.

LÊ THANH NGUYÊN, Class 7/12

Her father works as a granite tiler, her mother has cancer, earns a little money by babysitting or wrapping clothes in plastic wrap.
The rental room is small and narrow.
Her older sister (17 years old) and her 8 years old brother are both still going to school.
Nguyên dreams of a scholarship in Japan because she likes anime and painting.
Nguyên has found her sponsor already.

Lê Hoàng Sang, vocational college for transport and logistics

His father died in 2006 when he was 4 years old.
His mother works as a cleaner in a school, in the morning in a bank, earns a total of about 6.300.000 VND (ca. 250€) a month. They live in a rented flat, which costs about 3 million VND (ca. 120€) per month.

... and FOUND!

In the whirl of Christmas festivities and Vietnamese New Year preparations we are very happy that all children could find their sponsors.

On behafl of those students, we would like to thank you for your very generous sponsorship.