Community Music Program for Vietnamese Youth

Dear Friends,

We would love to introduce you to our newest violin student, Tran. Tran is 10 years old and in the 4^th grade this year, she is the middle child and has an older and younger sister. Tran lives with her mom, dad, sisters, and her two grandparents. If you wake up early in the morning, like most Vietnamese families, you will see Tran’s father riding his cow cart at 4:00 a.m. to the fishing fields about 2.5 miles from their house. He works in the fishing fields cleaning them after the harvest. It is hard work and provides very little earnings. Tran’s mom stays home most of the time taking care of the three children and the two elderly grandparents. She makes some money by doing embroidery work, but it is not a well-paid job at all. She makes 30,000vnd ($1.50) for one embroidery work that takes her four hours. We are so happy to help support Tran in her studies, have her join our music program and become part of our community of caring teachers and mentors.

In every corner of the world, it is undoubtedly difficult for parents to bring up three children, raise them and send them to school and at the same time have to take care of elderly parents in their homes. Here in Vietnam, things are even more difficult where jobs are not always available and most incomes if there is one, cannot keep up with the inflation of prices now. Music classes, especially for stringed instruments, are something out of reach for kids where life is difficult.

Thus, for us when we are trying to recruit new students to our after-school music program more than often the answer from parents is no, “we have to make sure our kids have a good job in the future,” they say, “the kids have to study to find a job, they cannot join music classes because it cannot help make any money for them in the future.” We are often so disappointed to hear this, but luckily, we have had a great group of kids who have been with the program for a long time and now parents in the community are starting to see these kids thrive and do much better in their studies, and go on to college, and are more willing to allow their children to join classes. As life in Vietnam improves, we hope that people here, especially kids, will be able to feel that music can be accessible to them, especially through programs like ours that are free, and that they can enjoy with all its beauty and benefits.

Thank you for your ongoing support for these kids, it has changed their lives,

Giao

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