By Sara Nerone | Founder
Dear Friends,
It’s very close to the end of 2015 and another great year in our little music and art school in Vietnam. This year we have supported 22 kids playing violin, 4 music teachers with professional teacher training, 80 kids with weekly art classes, 400 kids in our summer music and art camps, and 300 girls with new bicycles. In this update, I wanted to share with you a bit about the life of one of our very dedicated, young students.
This is Tu, he is 13 years old and he lives with his mother who is 40 and older brother who is 17. Tu has been attending our music school for a little over a year and is very, very talented. He has been identified by his school as a gifted student, and won many honors and awards over the years. A few years ago, Tu’s father left the family leaving his mother to provide for the boys alone and to try to keep them in school. School is not free in Vietnam, each family must pay tuition, books, and uniform fees, about $100 each year. In order to do this, Tu’s mom works at a local high school as a cleaning laborer seven days a week, making $80 per month and when she’s not working at the school she works making mango cakes and picking mangos during mango season. In spite of her hard life, she told us that she is determined to work hard to keep her two sons in school.
Tu has been in our music program for a little over one year, and is a very hard working student. When I’ve seen Tu play the violin, it is easy to see how much he loves the music and loves his violin. It is easy to see how he feels about music by the way he moves while he plays. During last summer’s volunteer trip, one of our volunteer teachers gave Tu her violin. Tu’s mom reported to us that he came home that day so happy that he couldn’t believe that the violin was given to him. She says, “Tu practices the violin every day, right when he wakes up, he picks up the violin and plays the music. I feel very happy to see him play and happy with it. The violin turns my son into a happier child.”
Recently, we unfortunately lost the rental we were using for our school, which was very disappointing, but everyone in Cam Duc rallied and found us a new space and moved everything in our new school rental a few weeks ago; instruments, art supplies, furniture, everything. I keep telling our teachers and students that one day my dream is to raise enough money to build a small permanent home for our classes. In the meantime, all of the kids are doing great, taking lessons 2-3 days a week, playing together on Sundays, and just happy to all be working together.
Thank you again for your donations in the past, and please consider again making an end of year donation to help to provide music classes to our students through 2016. Asking for donations is the most difficult part for me running the non-profit, but please know none of this work would be happening without you. Please consider a donation through Global Giving given in someone’s name as a Christmas present, or simply just making a year-end gift that can be deducted on your taxes. If you are unable to make a donation, please consider sharing this report in an email to friends and family. Thank you so much!
Thank you again for everything and Happy Holidays!
Sara
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