During our vacation in Vietnam at the end of 2022, we took this opportunity to visit some children in Tay Ninh and met some scholars of the EgoStom program.

Many thanks to our English teacher, Mrs Lily, who has volunteered to tutor these children at no fees, for organizing and hosting the party for the students of her English class, The Learning Tree (TLT), as well as for the 10 scholars of Give Kid a Dream (GiKaD).

The New Year event took part on January 8th, 2023 at MAYBAY Cafe & Rooftop Bar, 12/67 Nguyen Huu Canh, Binh Thanh District:

The day before we prepared gifts, candies, cookies, clothes and books for the children. Ms. Ngoc Anh's mother also gave us lucky money for the 10 GiKaD's scholars (50,000 VND each).

We were early in the morning there to decorate the room, arranged tables and chairs, checked the sound system, prepared name tags, set out books, clothes, gifts, confectionery, soft drinks, fruits, cakes, biscuits, etc.

The children were divided into 4 groups: Team Green, Blue, Orange, Pink. They competed together in team games, answered questions about ceramic knowledge, scored with delicious tea-based mixed drinks, served in creative decorations.

More photos, videos can be seen here.

More photos, videos can be seen here.

More photos, videos can be seen here.

At the end of the event, the students of The Learning Tree with the best academic archievements received gifts from Mrs. Lily. Then followed the award ceremony for the team game winners. At last, 3 children received gifts from Ms. Loan for the best pottery: Quoc Hao, Thao Linh (GiKaD) and Thanh Ha (TLT).

More photos, videos can be seen here.

Before saying goodbye, funny group photos were taken as a reminder of the beautiful event.

The lunch at Pachi Pachi Japanese Hot Pot and BBQ Restaurant with the kids from GiKaD took place in a cozy atmosphere. When the children were asked about their impressions, they all mentioned that they were very happy to attend this event, to make new friends and a lot of good experieces. They realized that being good in English is very important for their future. They thanked the supporters who helped them to keep going to school. Nguyen Hoang Thanh Tam, 11th grader at Binh Hung Hoa High School, was impressed about the "super-duper delicious" foods.

More photos, videos can be seen here.

The total cost of the event was 12 million VND. The parents of the children of The Learning Tree's class paid 8.3 million. The rest of 3.7 million including prize money for the team competition games, the additional 6.8 million cost for the meals at "Pachi Pachi" and 1 million travel expenses for the 10 GiKaD scholars - in total 11 million VND - were covered by Ms. Ngoc Anh, Mrs. Ninh Hong and her husband Duong Kim Dung, Mrs. Hong and her husband Gerhard.

Some pictures "behind the scenes":