Playing time when the weather is not so hot

This time three students joined us. Huy and Quang will definitely be good fathers as I saw the way how they played with the kids. Quynh was also taking care of Ha so much that it was good to see...

Quynh, Quang, Ha and Lap.

Quang with Lap

Huy and Binh

Learn brushing teeth

Linda came from Canada as a volunteer of Humanitarian services for Children of Vietnam. She wanted to teach the younger children how to brush their teeth. So we went to help her.

 Games with questions....

     Demonstration










They really liked the fancy tooth brushes which they got from Linda.:) And also they were quite eager to win some fruits by practising the teeth brushing movements.;)

University students' visit

There was one-two months break in our visits in Hoa Phuong Orphanage because we went to our countries for a holiday during Summer.
But we returned at the end of July and keep visitining the kids, even if are a bit back with the posts.

As we also teach English for Vietnamese university students as volunteers, we could invite them to the orphanage. We were very very happy to see how easily they could find the way to play or communicate even with the handicapped children. We were really amazed by the students' instinctive supporting behaviour. And we were also very happy because not only girls but some boys also joined us and they played with the handicapped kids as naturally as they would do with their own relatives. They were feeding them, talking to them and playing with them.

It is good to know that even if we have to leave Vietnam, maybe they will visit these children in the future.

We thought every children like playing with plasticine and drawing with chalk, so we brought some for the handicapped kids. We were right, they really enjoyed.:)

Lap was enjoying :) maybe throwing it or grabbing something not so hard.

Ha liked the colourful plasticine necklace, bracelet which was created together with the girls.:)

Birthday cake

Thanks for Thuy who gave me a huge birthday cake, I could share with the orphans. We went to the handicapped house and tried to draw the other kids' attention on the way. Even if they couldn't understand us many of them realized quickly that it is a good reason to follow us if a big cake is in my hand.:) So they gathered around the handicapped house from the garden.

There was a queue in front of the entrance. They were waiting patiently for their slices. Meanwhile we started to feed the handicapped kids who liked the Vietnamese cake more than the European style before.:)
It was amazing to see that small things can make them happy so much...

The other kids dispappered so quickly with their cakes so we could only take photos about the handicapped children.;)

Tap is always smiling.:)

This time it was not so difficult to ask Binh to leave the "mother" for couple of minutes.;)

We hardly can see Trieu to smile but the whipped cream helped...:)

Some cake then walking. Even if it is so hard for "My", she always wants to try and do it.

Breathing fresh air...

After a successful fund raising we have the possibility to set new aims. Apart from continuing the music project, we also would like to concentrate on the handicapped kids.

We are planning to invite a pysioterapist to check the disabled children's condition and then we can take them out to the garden with wheelchair or pushchair to get more stimulation for them. Meanwhile we started this "wheelchair program" with kids who can walk or who can sit properly.

Here are some photos about our first "trip" to the garden and playground.

Tap is riding the horse and really making effort to use his muscles.

Ha and Binh are see-sawing. Good opportunity to meet with the healthy orphans.

Ha always embraces somebody.:)

Raffle in Harbour View Hotel

Thanks to Harbour View Hotel we could arrange a fund raising raffle at the end of April. We were selling the raffle tickets all around Haiphong. The event took place on a special Brunch in Harbour View Hotel. The orphans who have been attending the violin and guitar classes since we had started the Music project in Hoa Phuong Orphanage, were also invited and they gave a performance. It was amazing to see how much they improved during the last 8-9 months. And they could not only play a complete piece but also stand there confidently and they could really be proud of themselves.

Thanks to other supporters the orphanage received a synthesizer. Now we are looking for the proper teacher.

During the brunch other young children (not from the orphanage) also were playing violin and piano. The management of the hotel invited them to motivate the orphans as they see everything is possible, even small kids can play instruments on an advanced level.

Thanks to Monobuoy Company the children in Hoa Phuong Orphanage can also start to learn playing on electrical guitar.

The raffle helped us to collect 31.000.000 VND (around 1600 $) which gives the opportunity to keep going the music project and also start supporting the handicapped kids in the orphanage.

We would like to thank all of the sponsors who supported the raffle by excellent prices.

Sponsors of the raffle:
                                  - Harbour View Hotel

                                  - Anantara Sikaro Resort & Spa

                                  - Anantara Hua Hin Resort & Spa

                                  - Anantara Baan Rajprasong Hotel

New member, new ideas

We met Michael (from Kids without Borders) in the orphanage. After we introduced our new member, Bettina (from Denmark), we received a lot of great ideas about fundraising and sustainable support from Michael.

He also provided a special edited child care book (written in Vietnamese) which can be very useful for the "mothers" to improve their knowledge about proper nutrition or curing illneses, etc. We will make copies of the book to supply all the houses.

Meeting women who used to be orphans here and now living their own life was very nice and also useful opportunity. We can learn from their experiences how to support the 18 year-old kids who have to leave the orphanage. This year four 18 year-old kids have to leave, 3 of them still need support to get the opportunity to attend a university which could make their dream come true.

Thank you Michael for the ideas, hopefully we can use them as effectively as it possible.