- Ran's Vien Dien English School
- Home Of Affection Street Children Centre
- Physio Therapy For Children at Malnoursihed Baby Orphanage
- Toys and Games for children at Tam Ky Baby orphanage, AVO2 Babies Orphange Da Nang
- Salary of Full time Physiotherapist to work at variety of centres in central Vietnam through the Global Volunteer Network
- Funding of Breakfast program and Vocational Training at Redcross Vocational Day Centre
- Help Fundingg new water pump @ Tam Ky Baby Orphanage to preven Hepatitis A.
The Little Feet Company would like to welcome you to the Little Feet Footprints section of our site. As we have previously stated we donate 30% of our profits from sales of items on this website to Orphanages, Street Children centres and other facilities in central Vietnam for underprivileged children.
The Little Feet Company has the unique opportunity of being able to oversee everything that we spend our profits on in Vietnam as I (Sarah Byrnes) Live and work in Hoi an, I have been here for 1 year now and visit the different centres every week.
The Little Feet Footprints section of this website will be updated with our current activities including profiles of the centres and individuals we are helping.
‘Footprints’ is aimed primarily at benefitting and enhancing the children’s education, health and welfare.
Please visit this section again as we want you to be able to share in our joy at helping these children through your support of The Little Feet Company.
- Vien Dien English School.
Vien Dien is a small Village 10km from the Centre of Hoi an. Like most rural areas of Vietnam access to good education is limited. I met Ran a very kind 64 year old man who lives in Vien Dien. He has set up his own English school to help the local children learn, he is worried that without English lessons these poor children will be unable to find good employment in the future and escape the cycle of poverty they now find themselves in.
After talking to Ran I went and taught at this makeshift school. Ran has converted a shed on the side of his small house into a classroom. When I went it was pouring with rain and the classroom was flooded. I was to start at 8 O’clock and teach for 1.5 hours. The kids arrived at 6.30 as they were so excited to see a ‘westerner’.
Although the classroom was extremely basic and flooding I was amazed to see how eager the children were to learn I had the complete attention of 36 pairs of eyes, and when I asked a question every hand was raised!
I was very impressed with both Ran’s kindness and the children’s eagerness to learn that The Little Feet Company is now going to try and help these children more.
Last week I asked ran what the children needed. He told me that some of the children had run out of exercise books and were writing of scraps of paper, and they also would love some new white school shirts so that they could look smart when they study at school.
So The Little Feet Company brought each child:
10x exercise books
Pencils
Pens
1.5 Meters each of white shirt material (As its better for their mothers to make their shirts to fit rather than buy finished shirts!)
Colouring Pencils
Ruler
Sharpener
Plastic pouch for their school books
All 36 children at Ran’s school were very excited at receiving these that they each had gotten me a rose. So they all left laden down with books and school materials, and I left with my arms full of the most beautiful 36 roses!
FUTURE GOAL: As you can see from the pictures Ran’s School is Very basic and I would like to help make improvements to the structure of the building. The priority at the moment is the roof which is going to severely leak when the rainy season hits in a few months.
- Tam Ky Street Children’s Home of Affection
This street children’s centre on the outskirts of Tam Ky houses some of the cutest and happiest children I have met in Vietnam. Through the hard work of the staff and long term volunteers this once rebellious group of children have become a family and really look out for each other. Through the support from organisations such as the global volunteer network and foundation lotus child this centre has greatly improved. The children are always bursting with energy and are always so excited to play games with the volunteers when we arrive.
I have always put a high importance on sports for children no matter where they come from. Team sports not only teach children co ordination and keep their fitness levels up but it also teaches them how to successfully work together and the benefits of teamwork and healthy competition!
They recently got permission from the government to use a piece of unused land adjoining the centre. Therefore The Little Feet Company is helping to build them a new outdoor football pitch as well as goals, footballs and bibs and fencing to go around the whole area.
To say that the children are excited is an understatement! The work is currently underway and I will update this area with photos of the progress the pitch is making.
UPDATE: The football Field is well underway with the land now being flatterned and the whole area has been covered in compacted sand, as the rainy season approaches, we hae decided to hold off layig the grass till it passes. As it stands at the moment if we lay the seed now the grass will not be established enough to survive the moonsoon rains. This hasn't stopped the kids as with the goals in place they are already using the area, and are loving it!
- Toys, Games, Vitamins and More....@ Da NangMalnourished baby orphanage, Tamy ky baby Orphanage, Tam Ky Street Childrens Centre, Agent Orange Baby Cente Da Nang!
Thanks to a variety of supporters back in the UK I have been able to distribute endless toys, games, clothes, vitamins as well as nit combs and headlice lotion!
I have been lucky enough to have had some friends and family visit me here in Vietnma throughout the year and each one has come armed with a bundle of stuff that they have donated to them by schools, friends and famiy that know they are coming.
Special Thanks to:
Sarah Jane Watts - For the huge amount of toys and musical instruments and Vitamins she brough with her when visiting this summer
The Holmes Family - Thank you for all of the millions of baby clothes that you have donated over the last two years, we have some of the best dressed kids around! Special thanks to Finn Holmes for donating his special toys to the children at the Agent Orange Baby Centre.
Ellen Richards and her friends (aka Nanny!) - Thank you to my nan, who with her friends have brought a lot of smiles with there hand knitted teddies, Humpty dumpty was a particular hit!
Jade Andrews - Who valiantly stood in line in the pharmacy in York armed with bottles of headlice lotion and handled the fact that everyone in the shop gave her a wide berth !x
- Salary for a full time Phsiotherapist to work at the orphanages and centres supported by the Global Volunteer Network
Unfortunately there are many many children in Vietnam who are disabled for a wide variety of reasons, often their disablities are made a lot worse by a lack of access and resorces to help them improve their mobility. Phuc is a Vietnamese physio who is now employed full time by the Global Volunteer Network to work with these children . Phuc works in all of the GVN placements in Da Nany, Tam Ky ands Tuy Hoa.
The Global volunteer network is an organisation that enables volunteers to work with these children, but funding is tight within the organisation and ould not strech to pay Phuc for his much needed work full time. Thanks to a very generous donation from Ajay Sethi and his family, The Little Feet Company has been able to support they payment for Phuc this year, this is a program we hope to continue supporting in the Future.
Phuc often recieves training from volunteers who are also trained physios and he inturn helps new volunteers. He has taught us all how to work with the children to improve their abilities.
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