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Volunteer for Community Development and Environment Education (VFCD) is a non-government, non-profit volunteering organization based in Hanoi, Vietnam. VFCD was established by experienced, enthusiastic people who have participated in long-term workcamps of International Volunteer Organizations and the Vietnamese Voluntary Network of Youth. VFCD was established under the Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment (VACNE) and all activities and operations are directed by the principles, purposes and regulations of VACNE. VFCD works in close partnership with UNESCO Vietnam.

Our mission
To set up International Voluntary Projects that develop communities and promote conservation of the natural environment. To exchange, explore cultures, broaden experiences and develop skills between Vietnamese Volunteers and International Volunteers. To design and implement meaningful voluntary projects that have a real and sustainable impact and make our world more and more wonderful.

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PROJECT SUMMARY
Local and international volunteers are needed provide orphaned and street children with a basic education. This will be done through educational games and activities created by the volunteer. This center works with children who are forced at a young age to earn a living by collecting rubbish, begging, polishing shoes, working in handicraft factories and other like activities. Currently the center houses seventy students are hold three classes- two in the morning and one in the afternoon. As a result, the students are not receiving a full curriculum and the staff are over worked. Volunteers are desperately needed to act as teachers assistants and organize educational games and activities for the students. This project needs local and international volunteers to work cooperatively to create educational programs which include both Vietnamese and English subjects. VFCD wish to improve their level of education and their access to knowledge in the hope that these students can lead better lives and be integrated into the community. The center is the only hope that they have for a better life.

AT A GLANCE
PROJECT LOCATION No 19/5 Mai Am, Phuc Xa, Long Bien
START DATE Available now
MINIMUM PROGRAM LENGTH 2 weeks
FOOD Communal meals both at the center and at the VFCD house
ACCOMODATION VFCD volunteer house or home-stay is available if preferred.

[phamquocdat41191]

NGUYEN VIET XUAN ORPHAN SCHOOL PROJECT


Project background:
In 1969, the Nguyen Viet Xuan School was founded with the aim to house orphaned military children. Since 1993 its mission changed to take care of the orphaned and disadvantaged children from the general populace. The school is currently fostering more than one hundred orphaned children; from parents infected by HIV/AIDS, children whose parents are in prison and children orphaned by conflict.
Currently, the orphanage is facing serious problems. The school only receives merge sponsorship for each child�s housing, welfare and education cost, to the tune of 300.000 VND (17$) per month. This sum does not even cover each child�s nutritional needs. Also the school�s facilities have suffered from this lack of funding too. The children have little chance to participate and integrate in social activities or improve their knowledge due to lack of reference books, computers etc.
Project goals:
VFCD is in a position to help these children. We offer a variety of programs such as extra-curricular activities, English skills, and IT skill training. We believe this can give these children an opportunity to integrate into the community. Our projects can boost confidence in a group of children that are often stigmatized by their circumstances. With long-term plans, the projects can help shorten the gap of knowledge and skills in every social field.
In addition, communal activities organized by volunteers such as growing vegetable can raise their awareness of protecting environment and helping repair the dilapidated school can give them a sense of public duty, amongst others.


Volunteers responsibilities:
� Join into English and IT skill teaching to improve their knowledge.
� Join into communal activities such as planting trees, vegetable, clearing the campus, painting wall etc�
� Join into vocational activities such as art, photography, dancing. Volunteers should clarify their best ability so we can hold class for children.
� Suggest ideas to build other extra activities such as sexual education, soft skill training, picnic�
� Work with VFCD staffs to build projects for fundraising, donating for school


Contact Info:
Website: http://vfcd.org/
Email: [email protected] (Ms.Keren)
MSN live: vfcd.org
Skype: vfcd.org

[phamquocdat41191]

Volunteering in Halong Bay

PROJECT SUMMARY
Movement for international sea cleaning named International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) was initiated by Ocean Conservancy. Since founded, ICC has been implemented in over 100 countries. In Vietnam, VFCD program has already started this activity in Ha Long bay- a famous World Heritage.With mysterious and wonderful scenery, it's reasonable for UNESCO to recognize Ha Long Bay as a world heritage. However, Ha Long bay is suffering from consequences of human activities. Due to the fast economic development and tourism, the environment of Ha Long bay has been affected seriously, especially with floating garbage on the area along the Northern shore of the heritage.
VFCD cooperates with Ha Long Bay Management Board to ensure that the VFCD's volunteer program for preserving world heritage will be sustainably implemented in Ha Long. With the participation of local people and international volunteers, this program is expected to contribute to protecting this treasure for future generations.
The main goal of the program is to contribute to improving people's awareness on environmental protection, especially the young people in the community living near the heritage site. Activities with VFCD to clean the beach can not immediately solve the problems affecting the environment, but this event can help educate the people and raise their awareness about the seriousness of environment preservation. The main program's message is "build up awareness on environmental protection through real activities" This is also a statement of VFCD with the commitment to keep water clean and sustainable for long-term.


AT A GLANCE
PROJECT LOCATION The in the northeastern part of Vietnam
START DATE This workcamp running for two weeks duration from February to November each year
MINIMUM PROGRAM LENGTH 2 weeks
FOOD Communal meals both at the fishing village home stay and at the VFCD house
ACCOMODATION All volunteers will live in home stays at the fishing village and at VFCD house
WORK HOURS 6 hour per day.
PARTCIPANT FEE $ 300 for two week
SUPPORTERS Vietnam Volunteers & VFCD Coordinator


EXTRA ACTIVITIE
o Fishing
o Visit Cat Ba National Park
o Kayaking in Halong Bay
o Stream bathing
o Opportunity to join special events such as: love market�
o HANOI city tour will be available in the beginning of the program(free) & HALONG Bay tour at the end(free)


Contact Info:
Website: http://vfcd.org/
Email: [email protected] (Ms.Keren)
MSN live: vfcd.org
Skype: vfcd.org

[phamquocdat41191]

Work camp in Sapa (North-West of Vietnam)


PROJECT SUMMARY
This unique program is an opportunity for volunteers to share experiences with the local community, bringing participants a meaningful volunteer program combined with ecological tourism and unique cultural exchange.
Project Background: The hill-tribe groups of Vietnam are a collection of diverse, exotic communities. Despite the natural beauty of their environment they have some of the lowest standards of living, health and education in the country. Many young people from these communities do not attend school and begin working at a very young age.
Project Goals: Work with local ethnic minority groups to develop English language skills, improve environmental awareness, assist with natural conservation and help improve the interactions of local communities with the tourists on whom they depend. During the work camp, volunteers will have many chances to make contact with local people, discover their culture as well as help the community preserve their unique living environment.
AT A GLANCE
PROJECT LOCATION The north of Vietnam
START DATE from February to December each year. Each workcamp will run for two weeks duration that starts in first week or third one of each month
MINIMUM PROGRAM LENGTH 2 weeks
FOOD Communal meals both at the center and at the VFCD house
ACCOMODATION All volunteers will live in home stays at Ta Van village.
WORK HOURS 6 hour per day.
PARTCIPANT FEE $ 300 for two week
SUPPORTERS Vietnam Volunteers & VFCD Coordinator
YOUR ROLE AS A VOLUNTEER
� Provide conversational English lessons to local youth broaden children�s knowledge and help improve education and studying conditions for the village children.
� Assist villagers to improve their language and communication skills and to develop more effective techniques to approach and sell their products to tourists.
� Assist with setting up and improving local home stay projects. Provide advice on food safety, cleanliness and other factors that may make the home stays more appealing to tourists.
� Guide locals and tourists to throw waste in right place and to protect the environment and wildlife. Work with the local community to educate and raise the people�s consciousness about natural forest protection.
� Participate in tree planting projects to help regenerate the natural environment.
� Help people harvest crops and perform other everyday tasks unique to village life.


Contact Info:
Website: http://vfcd.org/
Email: [email protected] (Ms.Keren)
MSN live: vfcd.org
Skype: vfcd.org

[phamquocdat41191]

BLIND SCHOOL PROJECT IN HA NOI- VIET NAM


About Nguyen Dinh Chieu Blind School:
Nguyen Dinh Chieu is a school for blind children and a center for blind adults who have difficulties in their daily activities. Established in 1985, the center aims to provide vocational training, cultural education exchange ideas and organized cultural performance for blind people in Hanoi and other provinces of Vietnam. Children there come mainly from Hanoi, but the school also receives children from other provinces who come there for schooling because of the school�s high training quality. At this school the children�s accommodation and schooling fees are paid for. Children are encouraged to take part in important events such as the ceremony for 35th birthday for Cooperation between Vietnam and Japan. Talented musicians from the school have also performed in France as well. There is a focus on real-life skills, children are taught massage and computer skills so that when they graduate from school they can find a job and earn a living by themselves.


Project Rationale:
One of the most effective ways to learn English is to communicate with people from English speaking countries. Unfortunately children at this school do not have many chances to talk with foreigners, so this is a good opportunity for them to practice. Improving English skills will help them a lot in their studying, because many Braille documents are written in English. Volunteers, staff and students will learn about each other through cultural exchange and volunteers are encouraged to help the teachers and staff with many tasks in the school.


Duties and responsibilities:
- Teach English skills to children, including pronunciation, grammar and other aspects of the English language, Volunteers will be responsible for their own classes which may have more than 10 students each.
- Teach computer usage skills to students using specialized computer programs designed for blind users
- Organize educational leisure activities for children.
- Create a friendly and encouraging environment to aid learning.
- Talk with students to understand more about their learning processes and use this information to create better teaching methods and tools.
- Help create self-study tools for students to be used when no tutor is available
- Record �English tales� or spoken sentences on tapes in English as resources for children to learn how to hear and understand spoken English.
- Encourage students to speak English as much as possible to improve their speaking skills.
- Monitor and evaluate study progress of students and suggest improvements to study plans.


Participation fee:
The fee for this project is USD $450/month. This covers project costs, food and basic accommodation in the LTV House.


Contact Info:
Website: http://vfcd.org/
Email: [email protected] (Ms.Keren)
MSN live: vfcd.org
Skype: vfcd.org

[phamquocdat41191]

Volunteer English Teacher and Assistant

PROJECT SUMMARY
Volunteers can choose to teach English to children either of kindergarten, primary or secondary age at a community based center.
Volunteers will work at language training centers as phonetic teachers and assistants. The money raised in this project will be distributed in two ways. Part will go directly to a charity fund and distributed to victims of poisonous dioxin and other disadvantaged people. Part will be used to fund conservation projects. With this project the volunteer receives $ 400 per month pocket money.
We are also looking for volunteers who are able to teach foreign languages other than English such as French, Spanish, Korean, Japanese etc.
AT A GLANCE
PROJECT LOCATION Hanoi Capital and other provinces
START DATE Annual April and August
DURATION From 3 months to 36 months
FOOD Communal meals
ACCOMODATION VFCD house/ guest house/ home stay
WORKING HOURS
POCKET MONEY 5-6 hours per day
$400 per month


Contact Info:
Website: http://vfcd.org/
Email: [email protected] (Ms.Keren)
MSN live: vfcd.org
Skype: vfcd.org