Who We Serve
Their Futures Are Locked Behind Barriers of Poverty, Geography, and Disability.
At the heart of our mission are the children and families facing Vietnam's most severe and interconnected challenges. These are not abstract issues, but human stories defined by geographic isolation, systemic disadvantage, and the crushing weight of poverty. We meet them where they are, in the most difficult circumstances, and stand with them as they fight for a better future.
Children with Disabilities
Isolated by Stigma, Locked Out by Barriers
In Vietnam, a child with a disability often faces a world without understanding, confined by isolation and societal stigma. Their families bear a crushing double burden, the emotional weight of caregiving and the financial strain of needing specialized healthcare and therapies, often forcing a parent to sacrifice their livelihood. The result is a devastating exclusion: more than half of all children with severe disabilities are never given the chance to enter a classroom. We see their potential, not their limitations, and strive to remove barriers which thwart their efforts to achieve fulfilling and independent lives.
Ethnic Minority Children in Mountainous Regions
Born into a Geography of Hardship
Beyond the cityscapes, in Vietnam's breathtakingly beautiful, but remote and resource deficient highlands, poverty is ever present. For ethnic minority children, the simple act of getting to school can mean a dangerous journey over washed-out roads. Their homes often lack clean water and sanitation, leading to illness and malnutrition that impede their ability to learn. These children are not without dreams, but they are fighting a system stacked against them from the start, where 1 in 5 are already developmentally behind by the time they are five years old. We meet them where they are, providing essential support to thrive.
Children at Risk of Dropping Out
When Poverty Forces an Impossible Choice
In Vietnam, the heartbreaking decision to leave school is rarely about a lack of ambition. It is a result forced by poverty. A child is pulled from the classroom to work, to care for siblings, or simply because a uniform or textbook is a week’s wages their family cannot afford. While the country celebrates educational achievements, nearly half of all children, predominantly the poor, do not graduate high school, trading their long-term potential for their family's short-term survival. We work to remove the financial barriers that make this choice seem inevitable.
Children in Single-Mother Households
Caught in a Cycle They Didn't Create
When a single mother in Vietnam struggles, her children feel the consequences most acutely. Facing systemic inequities in employment and credit, a mother’s struggle to provide for her children can feel hopeless, putting her family's stability and even their ability to stay together at risk. Her children live with the constant anxiety of uncertainty, their futures limited not by a lack of love, but by a lack of financial stability. We believe that empowering a mother is the most direct path to empowering her children, breaking the cycle of poverty for the entire family.
“When women and girls receive an income, they reinvest 90% of their income into their families.” Income in women’s hands translates into improved child nutrition, health, and education.
World Bank, “Vietnam: Helping 8,000 Poor Students Pursue Their Academic Dreams”
