Here I report that I could deliver your donation to 201 Vietnamese poor children by hand-to-hand this year again.

Vietnam occupies the east half of the Indo-Chinese peninsula and 80% of the country is mountain zone. As for population with 88,770,000, 88% of the population is Vietnamese.(Kin tribe) , the remainder 12% is formed with 53 ethnic minorities.They are a multi race nation.   Most Vietnamese live in the urban district and the plain section, as for remaining population, ethnic minorities, they live  in the plateau and mountain side.  Recently, in the plain section they began to prosper little by little with economic growth, but ethnic minorities remain mostly in old conditions, an agricultural centered poor life. The area we visited was hard bombed during the Vietnam War era and mass defoliant was used.  The dioxin still remains in the underground water.  In general, foreigners are prohibited from visiting this area, but due to the local support and member persuasion, I could visit a village in this area.

I have been visiting with my wife but due to my wife’s sudden accident, she broke her hips, I was  the only person from Japan. I joined eight Vietnamese volunteer members at the site.

Our target was delivering support goods to three elementary schools and two kindergartens. And we could visit two elementary schools and one kindergarten this time in Truong Xuan commune, which is located in the mountain side of Quang Binh province, which is mid-Vietnam.

On Sunday morning November 27th, I presented to each child study scholarship funds, study goods, which included a pencil case, pencils and notebooks, as well as four tetra packs of milk to total 87 children by hand-to-hand. These 87 children are under difficult circumstances, so we included scholarship funds.  The rest of study goods without scholarship funds were presented to one elementary school, which has 114 students.   

I presented 85 nylon beds to two kindergartens this time, too.  (see the attached photos).  A number of the students have to stay at their schools because their homes are located very far from the school and the road is not good to walk back on after school. They usually sleep on very thin straw mats on the classroom’s concrete floor.

Due to visiting on Sunday, many parents were waiting for our arrival just outside of the schools. It was a cloudy day and all the students from grade one to three were line up sitting in the schoolyard. When the children saw us, they said “Welcome back, Ito-san and thank you.” in Japanese in chorus, having just practiced their Japanese. Then they said “We all pray for your wife’s quick recovery.” in Japanese in chorus again. I was so impressed with this very kind words.  Then they clapped their hands and sang three songs in chorus for us.  After the principal spoke I delivered my message, which was  “Have you been studying hard and playing a lot?” Then I started presenting the goods individually, by hand-to-hand delivery, with the supporters’ help. Each child said “Arigato” in Japanese with a nice smile when I presented the goods and study scholarships. Then all the children sang a song in chorus called ‘The earth is ours’ followed along with my recorder play.

The total amount of donation budget which I gave them this year was US$5,000.

This US$ amount is worth ten times that amount in this area in Vietnam.

Vietnamese main volunteer supporters;

Nhat (Mr);

He has been supporting NPO-LESA and acting as a coordinator for my contribution work for last nine years.  He helps preparing supporting goods like ordering study goods, beds and exchanging good rate Vietnam Don(VND) from US dollar. He belongs to an international NGO called ‘Save the Children’ and has experience working as a HIV/AIDS human rights project manager. He also helped me as an interpreter between Vietnamese and English. He brought his only son, Bin.

Huong (Ms);　 

She has been working for an international NGO called PLAN International as a site support leader. She has been focusing on child education at the site and lives in Quan Binh province. She has been supporting NPO-LESA for last four years.  She brought Nam, her husband, Sue and Candy, two daughters this time.

Ly (Ms);

She also has been working for an international NGO called PLAN International as a site supporter.

Viet (Mr);

He works for Vietnam government in HR div. He helped me when I got to Hanoi. He originally introduced me to Nhat at the beginning.

These four Vietnamese supporters usually work for large, nationwide NGOs on big projects.  But due to our NPO mission, they willingly tried to help us on a complete volunteer basis.  They paid their transportation cost by themselves and gathered from different cities. 

Itinerary NPO-LESA:

11/26(Sat):  Narita 9:30 →Da Nang 3:40pm

                    Viet picked me up at the hotel and took me to Hanoi railway st.

                    Left Hanoi st. at 8:30pm by night train  

11/27(Sun): Got to Dong Hoi st. 6:20am

                    Met Nhat and Nam and had breakfast together.

                    Bought 384 milk packs then made 87 study scholarship envelopes together   

                    10:00am Visited the first elementary school and presented study goods with scholarship

                    by hand-to-hand delivery.

                    10:40 visited one kindergarten, met kindergarten master and confirmed delivered nylon       

                    beds

                    11:15 Visited the second elementary school and presented study goods with scholarship

                    by hand-to-hand delivery.

                    12:30  Luncheon meeting with all supporters in Dong Hoi.

                    5:30pm  invited to dinner by Nam and Huong family

                    stayed in a hotel in Dong Hoi

11/28(Mon): 8:50 Nam and Huong took me to Dong Hoi airport from hotel

                    left 10:00Dong Hoi → Ha Noi 11:20am

                    Viet took me around Hanoi and stayed in a hotel

11/29(Tue): left Hanoi at 11:30am

Here I would like to say thank you very much again to all of our donors from this year. I am vey happy to be able to give a light to a poor, small corner of the world through NPO-LESA's contribution work. I will continue to visit the same area next year, too.

The target donation of next year is US$5,000.    

Best regards,                                             

(Dec.12, 2016  Mr.Ito wrote)

You can see a lot of photo report when you click the next ‘PHOTOS’.