Step up for children - Give the gifts of opportunities and dreams to students at Cau Han School

Cau Han School of Love is an educational support project launched in 2000 for disadvantaged children affected by HIV/AIDS, children of migrant workers and orphans in Han Bridge - Ma Lang area of District 7, Ho Chi Minh City.

Children born in migrant families in extremely difficult situations often cannot enroll in public schools because their parents are illiterate or have no identification documents. In response, this community-based social development project has been ongoing for 23 years with funding from the Terre des Hommes Foundation (Germany) and supervision from the Children's Sponsor Association of Ho Chi Minh City with the goal of bringing knowledge, opportunities, and comprehensive education integration for more than 1000 children.

However, after the Covid-19 pandemic the Cau Han School faced many difficulties. Without sufficient funds, the school could not open any classes and had to close. In early 2023, the CSR Department learned that Cau Han Charity School might have to stop operating, which would have put 67 students at risk. The CSR Department visited the school to better understand the actual situation and found that the school has only 2 small, poorly equipped classrooms with 5 teachers, who are actually retired teachers who are still enthusiastic about the cause of nurturing young people. Some wall fans did not have protective covers, which can be quite dangerous for students if they accidentally fall.

Education is an area that N.H.O focuses on because education can help completely change a child's life. Accordingly, the CSR Department was determined to implement the "Step Up for Children" campaign to give the gifts of opportunities and dreams to students at Cau Han School. The campaign was a success thanks to the participation and cooperation of N.H.O's staff, who took on the "Steps Challenge" to raise additional funds for children and contributed items needed by the school through a new online giving platform.

"Steps Challenge" activity

Within just 2 days of announcement, 63 participants contributed more than 25 million VND for classroom equipment such as 10 folding chairs, 5 standing fans and hanging fans, 25 Vinamilk milk boxes (each with 48 of 180ml cartons), 13 sets of textbooks and 55 sets of learning tools for students.

On June 1, some N.H.O members visited the Cau Han Charity School to share the joy with the children through many activities such as:

· Giving meaningful gifts,

· Playing fun science games together,

· Sharing how to collect milk cartons for recycling to protect the environment,

· Preparing nutritious lunches for students.

N.H.O members visited the Cau Han Charity School

“I've never had such good food!” exclaimed a student during lunch time, which made all 9 N.H.O members attending the gift giving ceremony extremely emotional.

Witnessing with their own eyes the smiles and positive energy of the children, the teachers and parents present in the morning said: “I find your program very good, especially the educational aspect which helps the children expand their understanding. Normally, other companies only come to give gifts, so I hope there will be many more opportunities for the children here to have fun while also learning such useful knowledge."

The CSR department feels that this campaign of “Connecting People – Sharing Love” is very special because it not only brings joy to children but also connects employees to better understand each other, feel happier and experience meaningful moments when participating in community activities.