Art Mentorship for Poor Vietnamese Children

Dear Rock-Paper-Scissors Art Project Supporters,

We are happy to share some new photos of the kids you have supported in our art program in Vietnam. They are doing great and are so happy to have the opportunity to be artists! Every Sunday morning the kids ride their bikes to our little school in Cam Duc Vietnam to share their talents as young artists and friends. As many of you know, underprivileged kids in Vietnam really never have the opportunity to have art classes or simply have time to be creative, learn, and have fun outside of school.  Sometimes it takes us time to work with their parents to allow them to attend our art and music programs because they feel their kids should work or focus solely on their schoolwork. Once a student attends our program, the parents often see the greater meaning by seeing their children blossom, and become part of a group of students who are talented and motivated in all areas of their lives. 

One such student is our new student Trang. Trang is 17 years old. She is a very talented, self-taught artist. Trang lives with her mom and dad in a small village called Cam Tan. Her father is a construction worker and her mother is a farmer. Trang has 3 other siblings. It is difficult for her parents to support her family, they both work very hard. Trang is a lovely and sweet girl. Her High School teacher began to notice that Trang would draw every time she had free time at school. Trang draws beautifully and is very talented. She often spends time drawing pictures of scenes in her village.  When Rock-Paper-Scissor’s invited her to attend the art program, she was very excited. Every Sunday morning, although it is 5 miles from her home, Trang rides her bike to attend class in Cam Duc with us.  She is a tiny girl, but always rides her bike to the class happily. Trang says that being able to attend the art program has given her a lot of joy and happiness to do what she loves most.

Thank you for giving Trang and the other students this opportunity. We hope you enjoy the photos that were taken last week at the school. Beyond the art classes you can see how much the kids love being together and have bonded as friends. One of our main goals for our programs was to provide a community of support and stability for the kids. I think we are accomplishing that!

Coming Up

This year, we have big plans. We have been working in the province of Khanh Hoa with a number of small ethnic minority communities, by providing bikes for girls within the villages in order to help them travel to school more easily, as well as providing other school supplies. These communities are very poor, with approximately 80-90% of the families falling below the poverty level of $1.00USD a day for a family. During the summer months from June-September the students are out of school and often have little direction, or activities other than working hard with their families. This summer we will be piloting a music and art camp for 1-2 weeks in one of the villages. Our goal is to involve our existing students from our year-round program in Cam Duc to help us as camp counselors. We will also be bringing a small group of volunteers from the United States to help us, and depending on the success of the camps, we hope to continue to recruit volunteers and provide additional camps in 2015.

Thank you again for donating to this project. You have made our art program possible and given this gift to Trang and all the kids. They all say Thank You!

Sara Nerone

Rock-Paper-Scissors Children's Fund

Links:

• Organization's Website
• Organization's Facebook Page