Education Vietnam Project #13312

Community Music Program for Vietnamese Youth

by Rock-Paper-Scissors Children's Fund

Project Report | May 5, 2014
Rock-Paper-Scissor's Music Update Spring '14

By Sara Nerone | Founder and President

Rock-Paper-Scissors Children's Fund Music Student

Dear Friends of Rock-Paper-Scissor’s Music Program,

We are so happy that it is spring and we are closer to spending time back in Vietnam this summer working with the kids and expanding our programs there. We will be traveling with 4 young violinists and 1 cellist from the U.S., along with two young artists. This summer we will be piloting a new program working with children in two ethnic minority villages in the province of Khanh Hoa, holding music and art day camps with about 50 children in each camp. The musicians traveling with us from the U.S. will join the Rock-Paper-Scissors music kids in Vietnam, and hold short, classical music demonstrations for the kids in the ethnic villages. We think this will be very exciting and inspiring for these children to see other kids like themselves learning and playing violins! The kids in the villages have never seen a violin or cello, and I’m sure will be thrilled to have this opportunity. Also as part of the camps, we will be teaching art to the kids and holding a small art show at the end of the camp for the community.

Our music program that you all have helped to support is going very well. The school has recently been visited not only by one of the Rock-Paper-Scissors Board Members, but also a representative of Global Giving, who really enjoyed hearing the kids play and felt very inspired by our work in Vietnam. She emailed us this week to thank us, and this is what she said:

“Thank you so much for the wonderful visit in Vietnam! It was such a pleasure meeting Giao and her amazing kind and gracious family! You all are incredible! It was wonderful to have the opportunity to visit your music and art school to experience the students and great teacher you have there, meeting with Men and her family in her home, and visiting with the ethnic minority village where you donated bikes. WOW! Just saying all that leaves me beyond impressed with the strength in the impact you are making. I am so grateful! It is evident that the work you're doing is incredibly important for these individuals. I was very inspired and thankful that I got to see firsthand how selfless and passionate your team within Vietnam is to provide support.”

So we are very happy with this report as you can imagine, it’s wonderful to hear this from someone outside of our team. We hope that many of you will someday be able to visit our school as well!

Thank you again for all of your support in providing such a great opportunity to our students in Vietnam to learn and play music!

Sara Nerone

Rock-Paper-Scissors Children's Fund Music Student

Rock-Paper-Scissors Children's Fund Music School

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Feb 10, 2014
Update on Rock-Paper-Scissor's Music Program

By Patrick O'Brien | Director

Men and her family

Dear Friends and Supporters,

It was a wonderful holiday season for Rock-Paper-Scissors Children’s Fund and we hope you experienced the same with your family and loved ones. We have been humbled by the generosity we have seen in all of you, our supporters. We are excited for the year to come, our program will continue to grow, and we expect an amazing 2014!

We are looking forward to this summer when a number of young musicians from the United States will travel to Cam Duc to play with our students and assist Tuan in lessons with the kids. It has been a dream of Sara’s to bring students from the United States to Vietnam to experience the culture and provide the catalyst for service learning. It will be a breathtaking experience. We really can’t wait!

Especially exciting for us was the news we received from our staff in Vietnam that one of the girls who recently received a donated bicycle, has now joined our music program. Men is a remarkable young girl. Those who read her story in our latest Bikes for Girls report know that she is one of the top students in her high school, a loving daughter, grand-daughter, and sister. The bike has been a remarkable addition to her family and we are extremely happy that she has decided to join our music program. We can’t wait to see what she can do!

We also received a wonderful donation in the last few months and have been able to provide 12 students in our program complete tuition payments to their traditional school for the entire year. This is very important to us, and especially to the students’ parents. When we first started asking parents permission for the sons and daughters to take part in our program we made it a point to offer assistance to pay for their school. In most cases, the free time the child had to participate in the music program would be the time that they would be helping their parents on the farms or around the house to help make the money that would pay their school fees. We want to help to relieve that extra stress for the parents, and of course, the kids. Being able to handle tuition costs, allows each student the free time to express themselves creatively, and their parents the piece of mind that they will never have to worry about how to pay for their child’s education.

This summer we plan on running a summer camp program for two ethnic minority primary schools where students in our music program will travel with us and assist us with the younger children and play music for the students attending camp. Our kids are so great, we are very proud of all the work they do and love watching them grow.

Once again, we hope your 2014 is filled with only great things. Without your support throughout 2013 none of our successes would be possible, none of our future plans could take place, and many, many children would not have experienced the chance to play music, build community, and grow into remarkable young adults.

Health and Happiness to you and your loved ones,

The Rock-Paper-Scissor’s team.

Our students receiving their school tuition fees

Vy receives her tuition fees

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Nov 11, 2013
Thank You Global Giving and all of our Donors!

By Sara Nerone | Founder and President

Dear Friends and Supporters,

We are very excited to share some photos with you and an update on our music programs in Vietnam. As many of you know, we were able to rent a beautiful house in Cam Duc, Vietnam and move the music program out of our music teacher’s living room and into this big beautiful new space. And guess what, the rent is only $75/month! The kids in our program were so happy to come to the new school when we opened it in August.

This summer we spent time visiting some of the kids at their homes to meet their families. We will have videos for you soon, as we interviewed the kids and their parents about how it feels to be a part of a music program. It was so great for us to hear how much the kids love playing their new violins and cellos, and how much coming together as a community and playing an instrument with their friends has made them feel. One of the parents commented on how much they enjoy hearing their child play and practice. The parents are so proud! This means so much to us as founders of this program, and we know so well, that none of this would be without your generosity and care. You all have made a great impact on these kid’s lives. It’s amazing! And we hope that each of you one day will travel to Vietnam and visit with the kids you have helped.

Just to update you on our new music program in Quang Tri Province, we are continuing to raise money to start a small program in the village of Hoa. This is the dream of Luu Phan, one of our new Board members, who was born in this village and lived there until her and some of her family members immigrated to the US after the war. When Luu heard about our programs she contacted us to let us know about the dream she has had about starting a music program near her birthplace. Over the summer, we met Luu and her family in her village to discuss the start of her music program. The head of the village has offered us space in their elementary school to hold our classes, and we are now raising money to hire a teacher and purchase the instruments, and get started with the kids there!

Finally, the photos you see here are the result of our wonderful, in-country staff, Giao and Tuan. They are both so dedicated to make all of this work, and so dedicated to helping the children. Enjoy the photos of our kids celebrating a special Vietnamese Halloween. Thank you to all of our donors, and especially thank you to Global Giving for helping make the kid’s dreams come true! Global Giving, we have a surprise for you in the two video links below! Have fun watching!

Best Wishes,

Rock-Paper-Scissors Children’s Fund Kids and crew

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