Center for Support and Development of Education and Culture

 (E&C Center)

      Children are the future proprietors of a country’s development. Therefore, we need to ensure we provide for their education and creativity and create favorable conditions for their holistic development. Raising healthy and capable children is not simply the responsibility of parents, but entire community.

       In addition, there are many groups in our community that suffer significant disadvantage. The E&C Center works with a wide variety of partners to develop, facilitate and evaluate projects that meet specific needs of disadvantaged people, with the aim of empowerment and sustainability.

      Projects:

     - Bringing improved education to poor children.

     - Traditional Playgrounds for children in Vietnam.

     - English teaching by active learning.

     - Educational activities and seminars for teachers, parents and students.

     - Projects for disabled

     - Vocational training for disadvantaged youth.

 

Bringing improved education to poor children:

      In the northern highlands of Vietnam, there are a lot of children whose conditions of life are very poor. There is often a serious lack of facilities and conditions for children’s education in schools. We found most children without sufficient classrooms or teaching materials, text books or stationery. Many poor families don’t have enough money to buy these materials, or even clothes for their children. Working with a variety of sponsors and partners, the E&C Center is collecting donations of clothing, text books, stationery and other educational resources and distributing these to schools in the Vietnamese highlands.

      The E&C Center aims to expand this program to other disadvantaged areas of Vietnam in the future and is seeking funding to support the building of new classrooms in these areas.     

Traditional playgrounds for children in Vietnam:

      In Vietnam, children often don’t have playgrounds in their schools. Children’s playgrounds are generally used for other purposes like parking areas, so children can be in danger of accidents when they play football on the road or go swimming at ponds or lakes. In addition, Vietnamese children are loosing touch with their traditional culture, due to increased modernisation and teaching techniques tend to focus on repetition and rote learning. .

      This project gives children the opportunity to

      -  Have a safe place to play;

     - Broaden their learning and skill development through active, creative, and interactive educational games;

      - Re-connect with Vietnamese culture through traditional games    

      -The Traditional playgrounds project is a vibrant affair, using both traditional and modern games and creative activities to provide the best and broadest possible opportunities for children’s learning experience. We also provide recreational infrastructure, so that children have an area to play and to develop their gross and fine motor skills, coordination and social skills.

English teaching by active learning:

      The Vietnamese style of teaching, tends to focus on repetition and rote learning, thereby limiting a child’s ability to understand, retain and utilize the knowledge presented. This is particularly the case when learning a second language. 

      In Vietnam many opportunities for individual and community development depend on the ability to speak some English. It is from this community development perspective that the E&C Center, working with English-speaking volunteer teachers and a psychologist, has developed a program for teaching English in Vietnamese schools that incorporates song, games and other active ways of learning and retaining the language.

Educational activities and seminars for teachers, parents and students:

      A number of our projects thus far, are focusing on furthering educational opportunities for disadvantaged children. Naturally any benefits of these projects will be enhanced by appropriate education of parents and teachers. Therefore, the E&C Center also offers seminars for parents on appropriate care for their children and education for teachers on educational activities for their classes and principles of active learning.

 Projects for the disabled:

      The E&C Center has partnered with the Center for Disability to support a program of vocational training for adults with disabilities. Activities include I.T, sewing, embroidery and making souvenirs. Each program is facilitated by teachers from the Center for Disability.

The E&C Center is now looking into opportunities for individuals from the program to establish and sustain a small business.   

 Vocational training for disadvantaged youth:

      There is a significant need to provide vocational training and mentoring to disadvantaged youth in both rural and urban areas. The E&C Center is working with project partners to develop an education program that addresses this need.