By Sara Nerone | Co-Founder and volunteer
Dear Friends,
At the end of this week, Vietnam will begin its week-long holiday to celebrate Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. Tet is the most important celebration in Vietnamese culture, and carries love and hope; signifies family and friend kinship; and promises a better year ahead. The year that my family lived in Vietnam, we were able to celebrate Tet there and it is one of our most memorable experiences. This week our students are celebrating with our teachers in each of our programs, with fun, yummy snacks, and small gifts. So Happy Lunar New Year everyone!
This month we are very happy to introduce you to one of our newest students, Han. As many of you know we have a program to give bicycles to girls livening in rural areas to be able to more easily get to school. Since we began our program we have given over 2000 bicycles. So last month our staff visited one of the local schools to gift 20 girls with new bicycles, and one of those girls was Han. This is her in the photo above, receiving her new bike.
Han is nine-years-old and in the third grade. While at the bike giving she learned that we also provide afterschool programs in music and art, and Han approached our staff to ask if she could join. Han’s favorite subjects in school are art and music, and her dream is to become a music teacher one day. So, of course, we invited Han to attend our classes!
Han’s family has had to live through quite a bit of hardship, especially in 2014 when she was only a toddler. Han’s father is now forty-five years old, suffered a traumatic brain injury that year, the result being that he was never able to work again. Han’s mom had to both take care of her husband, but also her two daughters. Han’s mom has had to find ways to support them all and has been doing multiple jobs all these years. She works as a farmer and makes a bit more money as a hairdresser. After High School, Han’s now 19-year-old sister had to go to work but lost her job due to Covid-19 when the country went into lockdown in the spring. As you can see though, regardless, Han is always smiling. She is a wonderful child and so thrilled to now be part of our music program. Here are a few photos of her with her new violin, teacher, and fellow students at our school.
Thank you all for giving to our music program over the years, it has been very successful in terms of the impact it has had on our students, several of whom are now in college!
We hope that you can stay safe this spring, and please let us know if you would like any more information about our programs, or just have questions!
Thank you again,
Sara
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