The Rotary Club of Wellington North Inc
The Rotary Club of Wellington North decided to support this project as a consequence of Micheal Gorman's daughter Belinda working in Vietnam with the
Christina Noble Foundation.
Christina arrived in Vietnam in 1989 and found tens of thousands of abandoned children that virtually had no hope of achieving a purposeful life due to their poverty at the bottom of the economic scrapheap. Since her arrival in Vietnam, Christina and her Foundation have established over 40 projects in Ho Chi Mihn City and the surrounding provinces to assist over 150,000 of the countries poorest, most vunerable children and their families.
We are supporting one of these projects, to educate some of the 300 children at one of these Schools through Schoolbags of Hope.
The Schoolbag Is monogramed with the Rotary logo and identifies us as the contributor.
Inside the Schoolbag, we have included all the Tools needed to "go to School" - Pens, Pencils, erasers, etc..Also a small GIFT ...probably the first time in their lives that someone has given them a gift.,And also to items that can lead them into some of the social embelishments ....such as a comb,a hair brush, a tooth brush.and other items.
The Hope is that we can give the recipients of these bags some hope in their lives. For a small cost of $30 per year an education will provide these children with opportunities that would otherwise be unavailabe to them. It's about "Not just mending bodies,it's about restoring peoples independence,giving them a life,not just an existence.'[Christina Noble]
The School also provides these children with a safe environment to help them avoid the many social evils that pervade their lives and put them at daily risk.
Our Club [and with the support of some of the other clubs in 9940 District] with your generosity have been able to provide funds to educate 93 students over this past year. And we only sent the Foundation $2800. It's afar cry from what we are used to paying in this prosperous little country. The profiles of some of these children can be seen here.
The Plan for 2005/06 is to continue with the support. We will look for a more efficient way to source the bags and for a way to cut back on postage costs.It would be nice to support the whole school and claim it as the "Wellington North School" and to monitor the progress of their to students.We need to raise three times what we have to date so there is a challenge still to come.
