July 22, 2016 by ECO Vietnam Group

Project 1608 :”JUMP UP”

General:

Name of project: Jump up
Time: 23/5 – 5/62016
Location: Phong Thanh commune, Cau Ke, Tra Vinh province.
Participants: 3 EVG supervisor
28 Singaporean ( OVE hall 12, NTU) + 5 Vietnamese (volunteer)
Main roles:

+ Teaching English.

+ Build up playground.

+ Visiting poor households.

+ Housing.

+ Culture exchange.

Detail:

23/5/2016:

23/05/16:

14:15:Mr Harry and 1 supervisor from EVG + 3 volunteers gather in Tan Son Nhat airport.
14:30: greet Singaporean team (Steam) + take picture.
15:00: depart to Phong Thanh.
17:00: dinner
20:00 – 21:30: clean the accomodation, restrooms and take relax.

24/5 – 03/6:

During 11 days: playground building, teaching, housing, culture exchange and poor house visiting.

Playground building

For us, playground building is totally new but attractive. Although we prepared knowledge carefully, we face with many hardship and confusion. However, we put all forth and contribute almost the playground for Phong Thanh’s children.

This work is divided into some steps.

Step 1: wood preprocessing, rope tightening.

Step 2: tire painting.

Step 3: assemble and complete games.

For the first three day, we get difficulty of tools lacking and materials delay but later then, we spend at least 1h a day for replaning the routine that we mostly catch the right time for completing everything.

Besides that, it is difficult to use the machines for non – experienced volunteers. Nonetheless, we highly appreciate the support from EVG in hiring an expert and buying more tools for us.

In this project, we do learn much from each other. In some electronic failure days, both Steam and Vteam decide to take energy from nearby household. We are really good at team working and discussing. Thanks to this, our effort is more effective.

Weather is also an unexpected thing for us but all team members still stay strong and work hard. That is the memorable moments deepened in our hearts.

On the last day, we totally complete the swing, tire – mountain and we also check the safety and the using ability of them. Our time deserve the happiness and smiling of volunteers and children around

Teaching

Teaching is considered as an important and full interactive activity that brings big experience for each member. The lessons and teaching tools are prepared carefully by Steam, Vteam support the teaching method and instruct for children.

In some days at the beginning, we are dissapointed and confused because of student quantity. It turns out the main reason that is rainy season so that families disagree for students to go to school. In more positive way, the number of student is markablly increasing later because of enthusiastic volunteers and interesting lessons.

Housework

This is also an important activity in this project. Housework team has a chance to explore and experience local culture through going to the market with the cook, prepare for the meals. Besides, this activity includes cleaning living area and toilets. Comparing to two activities above, this is not hard but skilful and meticulous are in need. This is also the fist time of many S-team member on cleaning toilets or washing dishes, however, they did a good job. In addition, when we have free time, we talk to each other to get closer and know more about our team members.

Libray Event

One of the successful tasks of this project is that event. We do organize and prepare everything of outdoor games and science activities. This event gets nearly 150 children and they are really happy as well as attracted.

Sport exchange and fishing

This time is for relaxing. There is no doubt that sport exchange makes the good heath and raises the solidarity among people. Fishing also gets a lot of fun, especially for first time volunteers. After that, the communication and feeling are more closed, tight and warm.

Culture Night

This is the exchange culture between both V-team, S-team 1608, 1610 and local people in Phong Thanh Commune. The performances are prepared and staged elaboratedly with the participant of non-professional actors has left many memories. The songs of the children are very cute, charming traditional dance, lively dance performances and collection of traditional costumes from all the volunteers were very impressive. The end of Cultrure Night are campfire, everybody dances ad takes photos together.

What do we think about 1608 project

Firstly, this project brings us various kinds of experience of building the playground, some necessary skills such as team work, problem solving,… Morever, we have made good friendship, the love among co – workers.

Secondly, we desire to share about the pre trip thinking. We almost worry a lot: language barriers (with Steam), building skills,… some of us are afraid to see and work with different language strangers. However, we overcome successfully. At first, we are thankful for Steam attitude. They are so nice and friendly. Despite the hardships we face, they are always beside Vteam, help and encourage us to keep working, create the warm environment to tighten the human love and working responsibility. That also helps Vteam learn the solidarity and wonderful team work of Steam. We also appreciate our members – Vteam. For some first days, we get problem not to understand and share the emotion, thought,… But later then, we sit together and frankly feedback for each member through the openess and solidarity spirit that we believe each person has been better, not only for project target but also for individual character. In addition, we feel respectful for EVG members, Harry and many hiding people that always take care of us, support the solutions for us when we are in conflict, give us the good treat that we woud never forget.

Lastly, we just want to say: Thankyou for everything. We hope that future projects for community are more going up for both quality and quantity. We hope that our young life would be more meaningful when we are confident to join, talk, share and work for society. Once again, we believe we will see you soon! Thank you!.

July 19, 2016 by ECO Vietnam Group

Project 1605: “I’M WITH YOU”

Project Overview

Name: I’M WITH YOU

Time: 11/05/2016 – 24/05/2016

Location: Hòa Ân Commune, Cầu Kè District, Trà Vinh Province.

Participants: 16 students from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) – Hall 6 along with 4 Vietnamese volunteers.

Achievements:

Finished 5 biogas tanks

Taught English for local primary school’s kids

I’M WITH YOU is a community project in Hoa An Commune with the participation of 16 students from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) – Hall 6, along with 4 Vietnamese volunteers.

This project aims to finish the installation of 5 biogas tanks for the local community as well as teaching English and science for local children at Hoa An A Primary School. Holding a joint performance called Culture Night is also a part of the project’s main objectives.

Working Process

The First 2 days:

On 11/05 in the afternoon, Vietnamese volunteers along with Ms.Yen welcomed Singaporean volunteers from Nanyang Technology University at Tan Son Nhat airport.

After greeting each other, everyone took a group photo and then headed for Ha My 3 hotel. The group rested at the hotel for about 2 hours and had a quick visit to Vinmart Supermarket (Vincom A Center) and Nguyen Hue walking street afterward.

For dinner, we had a warm meal in a traditional Vietnamese restaurant with the presence of Mr.Harry (president of EVG). While on the bus, everyone had chance to know more about each other through the bonding game “Name Introduction” and teaching Singaporean friends the song “Con vit”.

The group departed for Hoa An commune in the early morning of 12^th May. Having arrived 2 hours earlier than the planned time, we were confused at first, but everyone quickly tried to set up the place, had lunch and prepared for the welcome ceremony.

The welcome ceremony was also organized by the local authority in a friendly and warm manner.

Then, everyone continued setting up the living space and having living orientation before dinner. In the evening, despite all the tiredness after a long day, we spared 45 minutes to teach Singaporean friends some Vietnamese songs with all of their eagerness.

The Working days in Hoa An Commune:

Biogas: For the first few working sections on biogas, everyone was new to digging and biogas tank installation, so our work was a little bit inefficient.

However, due to the willingness to learn and the effort, everyone had gradually learnt how to make our work more productive.

We tried to coordinate, assigned suitable tasks to suitable people, took over one another tasks if we were tired.

Some were named “master digger” for boys and girls, “strong girl” during the biogas working days.

Every biogas working day is a new challenge because different households have different biogas tanks’ sizes and digging sites, but we saw it as a game and made our best effort to complete our tasks while trying to learn and have fun.

Moreover, we really appreciated the help from EVG’s local supervisors – Ms. Vy and Ms. Uyen, and the technician – Mr. Thanh, thanks to their helpful and timely guidance, we were able to finish the installation of 5 biogas tanks.

We also want to extend our gratitude to the household owners for helping us in our work and treating us their local specialties with all of their hospitality.

Teaching: Teaching was also an area that the project focused on and put a lot of effort because we saw the meaningful impact that we might have on them in the long term. On the first day, the children were very shy and we find it hard to control the 70-student class effectively.

From the second day on, the students were divided into two classes, so it was much easier. Along with the exciting and stimulating lessons, the children were more confident and involving.

The volunteers taught the children simple topics like greeting, animals, days and months, personal hygiene, etc., through colorful teaching materials, short songs, funny demonstrative gestures and so on.

We were impressed by their willingness to learn, their hunger for new knowledge and novel teaching methods.

Every day, both the “teachers” and “children” came home and could not wait until the next lesson. Not only the children learned our lesson, we learned a lot from them as well. While we can choose what is good for us, the children there just have what someone chooses to give them, which makes us cherish more what we have now (education, facilities, urban environment, etc.). In the final lessons, both children and volunteers were sad and some even cried when saying goodbye.

Housework: Along with teaching and construction works, housework was also an important part of our time in Hoa An.

The housework team was responsible for keeping the living area clean and helping the cook to prepare meals before everyone getting home after work.

They did a very good job by preparing iced lemonade or coconut to ease everyone’s thirst in the boiling hot weather every afternoon. The housework team also went to the local market with the cook, it was also another cultural experience for the volunteers to get immersed in the local culture.

Culture Night

It was a fantastic night which helped the local people know more about EVG, Singaporean volunteers, help S-team friends learn more about Vietnamese culture and people. There are a lot of lovely performances by the local students, EVG members and Singaporean volunteers. The most special was the Vietnamese song “Mot con vit” performed by Singaporean volunteers and a joint dance of both V-S teams through which any language, culture barrier disappeared and we all became one.

After the culture night came the campfire, joined by S-V volunteers and children of Hoa An A primary school, we danced to the music, run around the fire and sang happily with each other.

Agricultural exchange.

This is the activity that most of us are curious about and look forward to doing it. We walked to the farm on a peaceful countryside road under the shade of bamboo trees, being excited to do an activity we had never done before.

After having been instructed how to planted cucumber, we worked hard despite the hot morning sunshine. All the tiredness seemed to disappear with our jokes and chats. This activity not only taught us how to plant cucumber with coconut organic compost but also showed us how hard the lives of Vietnamese farmers are.

Visiting households

We visited the local poor households in the afternoon the day we had agricultural exchange with the local farmers. Having been tired for hard-working labour activities, two Singaporean members being sick and having the cultural night ahead, we divided into 3 teams, two teams of 3 to 4 members to visit the poor households.

We were surprised at first because of the difficult plight of those poor households. Not only were they impoverished but also having fatal diseases. Each household has different stories which touch the deepest parts of our hearts. Those memories of the household-visiting experiences are the most memorable moments to us throughout this trip.

Feelings of Evg volunteers:

Bảo Ngọc (Ane):

Project 1605 has gone – 15 days together, at first I thought that it would be a very long time (and I also intended to register any projects which were a little bit shorter than this one: D) but when I actually experienced 15 days, I realized half of a month wasn’t enough, I want to stay there much longer. Right now it is still a mix of feeling inside me, I miss the feeling of digging, filling each piece of land in order to install the biogas bags, I miss the feeling of standing in front of a class, in front of the children who were only about 9-10 years old and called “Các em ơi, các em àaaa” every time I wanted to draw the attention of students with the lessons from S-team, I miss the feeling of chatting with the S-team and V-team members on the ways walking from our work sites to the living area, I miss the feeling of saying the sentence “Mời ăn cơm” (good appetite) and then everyone just focused on eating after a hard-working day, I also miss the feeling of playing the super “brain corruption” but very funny and interesting bonding games with the S-team like black magic, how many memes jump over the wall, bang bang… oh noooo, I do really miss those feelings!

1605 – I’m with you, has left many feelings, memories, the bloody experience, valuable lessons, the truths of life which are unforgettable. 1605 is actually a burst-into-tear project for me, with this project, I had seen the tears of happiness, sadness, moments of tiredness and also the tears of feeling stressed, and also I could see the smiles, the anxiety, the happy faces because we had contributed a little bit of effort on enhancing the quality of lives for the unprivileged communities surrounding us, these were actually the breaking emotions.

Thanks EVG, thanks NTU – hall 6 members, thanks V-team for everything, thank you all of you guys for giving me a chance to experience a full-filled and memorable project like this!

Hải Yến (Amy)

I involved in this project in a lucky and accidental way. I got rejected for project 1609 but then accepted to this amazing project after asking for the second chance. It has been a challenging yet life-changing experience to me. I’ve got more truly friends, learnt from all the great people who have different perspectives to teach me and have many memorable moments that I really cherish.

For the 2 weeks with new friends in a new different environment, it felt like I’m back the real world with my phone totally being broken, losing connection to the world. I felt alive, great and there are no-words-to-describe-how-wonderful-it-is!!!! Even for the time being when I’m back home, the afterglow in me seems to ever exist.

Finally, I would like to thank Eco Vietnam Group for giving me the opportunity to involve in this amazing service learning project. I really appreciate what you have done to make it happen. Thank you!!!!

Hằng (Hana)

Perhaps the most unfortunate thing for me is to leave the project early when my happiness had just started. Because when I left, I began to realize the true value. Anyway, I had a few memories with my friends. 8 days together, sometimes it had made me sad and disappointed, and I thought I would give up. But thanks to the whole team’s encouragement, I tried and felt the joy in the last minute.

I want to thank you sincerely to the V-team and S-team for helping me, sharing my work with me when I didn’t feel better.

Finally, I want to thank ECO Vietnam Group for giving me the opportunity to experience. 8 days together, although the learning outcomes I wanted to learn were not perfect, until I know what I need to do to improve them in the future. Maybe I need more experience.

Phụng (Na)

When participating this project,I didn’t think I must prepare many things like that. I simply thought it’s an usual volunteer trip. The first day of this project,I felt very tired because the workload is relatively more. Our rest time became fewer,worked all day was very tired but we must have reflection at night. There were some reflections lated until 2 am. In addition,the environment was one of the reason that made me want to give up:many mosquitos,hot weather,no wifi,homesick,… and I had a big problem is it was hardly for me to connect with S-team because of the language barrier and I was very shy. But when I wantted to give up, Ngoc,Hang,Yen encouraged me and I started to involve with S-team. Thenceforward, everything becam easier. I was more confident, open-minded and began to get used to being there. Through the project,I studied many things from V-leader,S-team and Hoa An’s people. It made me stronger and mature. This trip not only taught me many useful things but also gave me many great memories,help me create good relationships with international friends. I sencerely thank ECO Vietnam Group has created an opportunity for me to work and learn many useful things

March 27, 2016 by ECO Vietnam Group

Project 1602: ” DAYLIGHT”

About the project:

DAYLIGT Project
Time : 2/1/2016-14/1/2016
Place : Phong Thạnh Commune, Cầu Kè District, Trà Vinh Province
Participants: 20 students of Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and 5Vietnamese volunteers (including 2 EVG members)
Achievements:

+ Complete part of community library and toilet

+ English teaching for local children

+ 32 solar lamp-streets

Daylight is the second project at Phong Thanh Commune but it is newly performed and worked under connections between Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and ECO Vietnam Group to build up Community Volunteer Center. Most of the students enrolling in this project have different educational background but they had tried their best to complete tasks with all their heart’s content. The main focus for Daylight project is to develop vital facilities as well as construction works around community library. Furthermore, there are chances for students to practicing English teaching methods in primary level and conversely treating children well with better education and new teaching technologies. During 14 days of the project, 20 students from SUTD, the official participation of 5 Vietnamese volunteers and the support of 2 EVG members has come and worked in their high sense of responsibility and willingness to fully help unfortunate people and experience their own youth time in Vietnam rural area.

The main activities of this project include: be supportive of helping workers to complete library toilet, teach English at Phong Thanh A Primary School, do housework everyday, organize Cultural Exchange and Culture Night with local residents.

Activity process:

2/1/2016

8.00 am, 5 Vietnamese volunteers with Harry (EVG’s president) gathered at Tan Son Nhat airport.
9.00 am, Vietnamese team met and took picture with Singaporean volunteers at the airport. After official greetings, we took the tour bus and went straight to Tra Vinh province.

1602_!

12.00 am, had lunch at Minh Tam
2.00 pm, we arrived at Phong Thanh Commune.
2.15 pm, we started to clear up dust and sand in many rooms before staying here for nearly 12 days and shared rooms with another team – 1601, who also comes from SUTD.
5.30 pm, dinner time and tidying the kitchen and washing dish.
8.30 pm, bathing and resting time.

3/1/2016:

7.30 am: we ate breakfast and after that set up Welcome Ceremony at People’s Committees Center in Phong Thanh Commune.
8.00 am to 9.00 am: Welcome Ceremony was taken place.

9.00 to 10.00 am: SUTD students were divided into two groups to pay a visit to 4 local households. Staple food were brought along with the group to give to these poor people. Apart from this, teams and local residents had a chance to know each other.

1602_3

About 15.00 pm, after bonding games between V-team and Sing-team, all members of the Daylight project had joint working with 1601 project to help pack up all of wooden-related bars, water bottles and tools for house construction to community library and took team photo.

4/1/2016 – 13/1/2016:

The main jobs in 9 days here were: continue building and completing the toilet, teaching local children English (grade 4 and 5), solar street-lamp construction, doing housework and running Culture Night with local residents.

Teaching English for local children

We have English teaching lessons everyday from Monday to Friday, one class in the morning and one in the afternoon, each lasts for about two hours. We had indoors and outdoors activities based on lesson plans prepared a day before coming to class. Through different simple lessons about English language studies, we provide local kids to adapt new teaching methods used commonly nowadays, namely communication skills, team working skills, leadership, etc. After daily lessons, we all gathered the kids together to review what they had learnt and most remembered importantly and then game play began. We all hopefully expected the lessons we had given to them would lay something foundation to shape their bright future of their study and own personality.

1602_4

1602_5

Teaching with kids bring out a lot of joyful and happy moments when we could revive our naïve instinct from childhood back to life. Observing those innocent eyes we caught when standing on the platform and pose our pictures about particular topics. Not only that, we also surprised about the way they acted. Noisy as they were, they were very well-behaved when we teachers told them to be quiet and students from SUTD were very willing to spend their time to play with them and speak some Vietnamese just to make them laugh.

1602_7

Teaching somehow could become barriers for us to get through, on the other hand. There are some assumptions that we never got in touch so close with these kids when we were in the commune, but it turns out that everything worked well with this. The main problems would lie on lesson plans because we always wondered whether the lessons would help children and they could easily understand what we meant. Sometimes the reality was not as we had expected, especially combining games after each part of lessons. Sometimes we felt discouraged and worried before going to class because we were afraid of that children felt bored and refused to be present in our class. However, later on we were fine because the kids always were right in the class and things were ready when we got to school. The thing is in each day we went to class, we encountered new faces among those present and stayed close to class time and then again we had to review carefully and considerately about the previous lessons. We did try our best to bring good knowledge about daily lives and English study for all the kids we had taught because we wanted to captured every best moment with them.

1602_6

Result : We always made sure that the lessons must be repeatedly taught so that the children grade 4 and 5 would remember most of the lesson part specializing in colors, subjects, morality and discipline and the habits of acting orderly in certain group or community, how to use technological computers, how to tie shoelaces in sequence and etc. The happiest thing is that they day by day have improved themselves and pushed themselves to be confident in making short conversation in English. Moreover, we are closer with the kids, not only in class, but also in extra hours besides class like Culture Night and Tour Visit to some famous places near our accommodation. Although grade 4 found the lessons hard to catch up but they were on high focus and eager to try everything just to improve their English skills. Teaching seems to not be so hard as other tasks we have to accomplish in the commune mainly due to the laugh we got when teaching and playing with kids. They were welcome us very sincerely without any manipulations and they shines our project to be more significant and cheerful.

Toilet construction

We built toilet next to community library. Thanks to masons and a 12 year-old boy, every work we did was smooth and nothing had serious damages. The brick foundation of the toilet had already done before we walked there and see. Our mission at that time was to complete these responsibilities: mix mortar, overlap bricks to build a square shape for the restroom and put ceramic tiles on the wall.

Mixing cements were never easy and required lots of efforts, especially for those who did not try it before, but it was worth a try. It is interesting to combine all the materials including cement, sand and water and stir all together in a hole under the appropriate proportion the mason told us. During the first day of the project, it would not be easy to fill out the tasks of sweated working, but we still got over it after the next few days. We even surprised a couple of days later because we did all the constructing stuffs ahead of time without any flaws.

During the work, we cannot forget all the enthusiasm of all male volunteers, who was in charge of bringing all needy tools, from cement, brisk to water. Sometimes they were quick, sometimes they were slow, but they all met our demand when we needed.

1602_13

The final stage is to mix ceramic brick to the wall and one of female member did a great job and even more dedicating than the male ones.

Assuming that we got used to construction so fast, we did our best to finish and switch to help solar street-lamp team.

Results: We complete 90% the toilet and we were there standing in front of our achievements with joyfulness and pride. After the trip, we acknowledged that working as a mason is not easy at all, but we still broke out our limits to complete the toilet construction in the best way as we could. We were also proud that we were close together to solve the problems and language and cultural barriers to unite to work for the community.

Thank you the builders so much for helping, teaching and supporting us day by day, despite all our clumsiness and recklessness.

Solar street-lamp construction

The installation looked really difficult when first encountered but the work was actually not hard as many of us thought before if we could understand and apply its principles of operation in a proper way. SUTD students are experts of these and were willing to give some instructions to Vietnamese volunteers. It did not require lots of muscles to complete 36 streetlamps but to make the tasks smooth, we would need to be patient and careful about what we did and the installation to link pipes, electricity wires and solar panels. The preparation was the most important part because we have to make sure that the utilities fitted together in the exact proportion, but we could not deny that the reality did not happen like the way we thought it would be. We faced few problems during the setting, which were the insufficiency of installing tools and materials, street-lamps malfunction and foundation for streetlamps. On finishing the streetlamps, we acknowledge some of our drawbacks in our preparation sections and immediately fixed them as soon as possible. We one more time needed the supports from the masons and we were grateful that they always were there when we were in troubles. Things have done after all and we one more time stood together to enjoy what we achieved. It is expected that all these lamps would alternate all expensive and wasting conventional energy and protect the environment.

Results: there are completed 36 streetlamps in total located around library community. These lamps would provide more additional and conditional to improve quality of living in the commune as well as the library. As we said streetlamps improving the commune because towards the streetlamp installation, local people would see its benefits and gradually use this renewable energy equipment as an alternative of conventional electricity equipment.

Housework

This was done by a team included 4 to 5 Singaporean volunteers and 1 Vietnamese volunteer, we changed the team doing housework everyday so that they could try other work too. Because we cooperated with the other project 1601 so we have lots of human resources to make household chores effortless. However, we still had to cope with problems such as mosquitoes, excessive dishes everyday. All we had to do is: set up the table for breakfast, lunch and dinner, wash dishes, clean the sleeping place and toilet once a day. Moreover, we also helped the cook prepare the food, dessert, sweep the school yard, replace the garbage bags and take the garbage around the school.

All the logistics needed were well-provided by ECO Vietnam Group and local government. The works were divided to the teams very clearly. But the S-team was not used to washing dishes or cleaning stuffs, so the housework did not bring the best results in some first days, especially in the very first day. Later, when we got used to the cleaning work, we cooperated and did it more efficiently. The living and activity environment were clean and met the requirements.

Results: All housework was done with high responsibility and willingness to cooperate.

Culture night

The Culture Night was on stage from 6h30 pm to 8h00pm, and then Camp Fire till 9h30, with the attendance of Vice President of Phong Thanh Commune, Representatives of ECO Vietnam Group, local residents ( especially cute kids), V Team and S Team.

1602_19

We had performances of local police, the children, V-Team, S-team, a Vietnamese traditional dancing performance of both team. We danced various types including group singing, flash-mob and acoustic playing.

Camp Fire was organized with enthusiasm and enjoyment of all people attended. We danced and played together in a warm and joyful atmosphere.

We ended the event with a mini game for the kids, then gave gifts to them.

Result: The performances occurred in a warm and friendly atmosphere with a lot of laughs. All the kids and the people came and enjoyed the show and the Camp Fire. All the kids were given gifts. Security was well controlled. We all had a successful night.

Thoughts about the project

Thought of Tri, Vietnamese volunteer of ECO Vietnam Group:

EVG 1602 PROJECT “DAYLIGHT”

Feelings after project 8:00 pm, Nov 6th 2015, feelings of confusion, hesitation with a bit of hope, desire; and I decided to register for the project. It was not a hard task to fill in that form, but I had to be careful because I got rejected last time. Days passed, I got the result of the application form round with happy, and it was much happier when I also got through the interview round. Tri the Great was the chosen one.

…

Prepared for the project …

Ran the project

…

During that whole time, I received many complaints, kicks as to my way of working, attitude under the title of ‘leader’ (I know the reasons for such things happened). With my point of view of an open, liberal one, I accepted my mistakes but… not yet change. Memorized it, but… left it there, deal with it later.

And it came to an end of the project, leaving a mass mess in my mind. There were joy, happiness, sadness, inferiority; having no idea where to start, unknowing which one to solve first, I chose to… go to… sleep.

I have few friends, whenever and wherever I met them, I talked to them about my journey with a proud attitude, a bit arrogant: it was so meaningful, helpful,… but in my mind, angrily thought ‘how come I know it was such that perfect when I don’t even think about it?’

…

A place where the cool wind blows gently, the green grass blended with faded yellow grass covers all around, a place which are spacy enough, airy enough in the center of Sai Gon, perhaps there is only this place. Feeling exhausted after running more than three kilometers.

…

Poch! I sat down. “hey, feel easy, slowly, take a deep breath! What should I do now? Yes, let’s think of what I have learnt after a tiring month of preparation and two hard weeks of running for the project in the mosquito-covered area.”

…

And, I realized many, many things that turned me to be felt inferior to everything around. But I made up my mind shortly after that and decided to change step by step.

About my teammates, I met them there, each person with individual style, individual way of thinking,… with desire and passion to grow higher, better. I felt so lucky because I have understood and learned from my friends in many aspects: character, thoughts,… Thank you a lot!

…

I have some close friends. Oh gosh! I can’t stop talking when meeting them. They asked me about my trip to Tra Vinh province. With confidence and pride, I did share what I had been through, lessons I had learned and tell them about people whom I had met…

That’s it! Time passes, I’m still heading forward to my idol, finding new challenges.

“Gold is just in your way, feel to find it”

1602_20

END OF FILE

But not end of life! Keep moving forward! And you’ll see!

March 27, 2016 by ECO Vietnam Group

Project 1508 : ” The Platform “

Introduction:

Name : PLATFORM
Slogan : Come and rise with us
Project code : 1508
Program date : 22/11- 5/12/2015
Destinations :

+ Phong Thanh commune, Cau Ke District, Tra Vinh Province (22/11-2/12)

+ Ho Chi Minh city (3-5/12)

Participants:

+ V team :

Project management :Yến and Mr. Hân
Supervisor : Ms.Yến
Volunteers : Oanh, Linh, Chính, Minh, Trúc

Nhi (participated in the pre-project planning)

+ S team :

5 teachers(4 females and 1 male)
26 SAJC students (18 girls and 8 boys)

1508_1

Achievements:

+ Complete 80% library’s outside walls

+ Teach 6 classes with 13 English lessons, students have learned how to sing some songs.

+ Visit 10 poor households in Phong Thanh

+ Successfully organize culture night between locals, SAJC and ECO Vietnam Group.

+ Visit War Remnants Museum, Cu Chi Tunnels and Ben Thanh night market.

+ Exchange with Center for Service Learning of Hoa Sen University.

1508_8

Project’s Activities:

Project 1508 took place in Phong Thanh for 10 days with many unforgettable activities and memories.

At the first day November 23rd, V-team and S-team attended local ceremony then cleaned and rearranged stuff in the living area. V-team also introduced S-team about accommodation and some regulations while living and doing volunteer work here. First impression was local’s warm welcome and hygienic and cozy living area that so much better than our expectations.

1508_2

The second day November 24th to the morning December 2nd daily tasks included building library, teaching elementary students English and doing housework.

1508_3

Firstly, building library team was 2 members from V-team and 12 members from S-team. Construction activities consisting of mixing cement, moving bricks and building walls started at 8am to 11am and 1pm to 5pm. We always worked under the guidance and help from uncle Duc – the main builder – and other builders. Mixing cement was simple and did not take much time. We just needed 2 buckets of water, 1 bucket of sand and half a bag of cement. Moving bricks required good stamina and diligence – most members did the job enthusiastically. Building the walls demanded meticulousness and careful observation. Everyone tried their best to get good feedback from the builders. The last construction day, we all had mixed emotions. The walls were built higher even though it was not an easy job. The whole process was our hearted dedication. So sad to leave the library undone!

1508_10

1508_11

Secondly, teaching team was 2 members from V-team and 6 members from S-team. We taught English for students from grade 3 to grade 5 indoor and outdoor based on school’s flexible itinerary. At first, students were all quite stiff and awkward but then teaching team put more efforts, changed different teaching methods to have realistic impact on students’ desire to learn English. After 10 days, they were able to sing songs, learn about personal hygiene and remember some vocabulary of emotions, weather, body parts… Teaching was tough and fun at the same time. Seeing innocent young kids playing, excited of learning new things and waiting for us throughout the project gave us hope about young dynamic generation with brighter future.

1508_7

1508_6

Finally, housing team included 1 V-team member and 8 S-team members. The first day was always the most difficult days since S-team was unfamiliar to the working process and how to do the housework properly. As the same for 2 previous tasks, by time passing by everyone got better and did the tasks very well. Housework was washing dishes, cleaning toilets, going to the market, helping Auntie Tu, setting up tables…. The tasks were easy but we had to do them properly. After first 3 days, we all knew our tasks and worked more effectively. One of the unforgettable memories was water cut in the afternoon that was 2 days before we left for HCM city. Housing team had nothing to do but repeatedly sweeping and waiting for dinner time. We did not have enough clean bowls that we were about to eat in plates. After dinner, we had to wash a pile of dirty dishes. We worried whether water cut again the next day but still kept positive attitude and were ready for any problems ahead. Looking back, we really missed the joyful time doing housework in Phong Thanh.

1508_12

Time flew so fast that 37 people had worked together, ate together and had so much fun in Culture night and Campfire for 10 days already. Remembering those first few days everyone was all so awkward and shy, V-team seemed like listening to choir music than speaking with S-team. But we had great time singing, laughing, talking about bunch of nonrelated topics, sharing about life and culture differences… Then we had to sadly say goodbye after 3 days in HCM city. Time did fly!

1508_!8

1508_14

February 18, 2016 by ECO Vietnam Group

1511: “CHANCE COMES FROM ALL LITTLE THINGS “

ABOUT THE PROJECT:

Apple Project
Time : 21/11/2015 – 30/11/2015
Place : Hòa Ân Commune, Cầu Kè District, Trà Vinh Province
Participants: 20 students with 3 teacher of Yishun Junior College and 5 Vietnamese volunteers (including 1 EVG members)
Achievements:

+ Complete the building a toilet for students.

+ English teaching for local children

APPLE is the first project in a series of projects at Hòa Ân Commune and also the last project in project season of 2015, in association with 20 students with 3 teacher from Yishun Junior College, the official participation of 4 Vietnamese volunteers and the support of 1 EVG members, to teaching English and help complete the building a toilet for primary students – contributed to improve living & education condition of local residents, especially for the local children there, create conditions for development of education at local.

The main activities of this project include: build 1 new toilet and fix 2 old toilets, teach English for local children, do housework everyday and oraganise the Culture Exchange with local residents.

ACTIVITY PROCESS:

21/11/2015:
13:00 pm, 4 Vietnamese volunteers with 1 EVG’s member and Mr Harry (EVG’s president) gathered at Tan Son Nhat airport.
15:00pm, Vietnamese team met and took picture with Singaporean volunteers at the airport.
7:00 pm, had dinner at Tín Thành, Trà Vinh Province
8:00 pm, checked-in at Hoàn Mỹ 2 hotel.
22/11/2015
6:00 am, checked-out at Hoàn Mỹ 2 hotel.
7:00 am, started the trip to Hòa Ân , everyone had breakfast on the bus.
8:30 am, arrived at Hòa Ân, all members unloaded logistics to two hall together.
9:00 am, had a Wellcome Ceremony at Hòa Ân commune.
10:00 am, everyone was divided into 3 teams to set up a toilet and 2 hall.
12:00 pm, had first lunch at Hòa Ân.
13:00 pm, prepared and divided into 3 teams to ready for moving to the workplace : building team; teaching team and housework team.
13:30 pm, had the first a working session at Hòa Ân.
17:30 pm, had the dinner.
18:30 pm, bathing and resting time.
23/11/2015 – 27/11/2015:

The main jobs in 5 days here were: continue building and completing the new toilet, renew old toilets, teach English for local children ( primary school and secondary school) ; do housework; run Culture Night with local residents.

Building the toilet

Building the toilet in Hoa An B primary school is the first experience of team. There are two small toilets in here but it was too old and downgraded for students to use. So bringing for them a new toilet was necessary. We had to build a new toilet for boys and restore two old toilets for girls.

In the afternoon of the first day in local, we went to the construction site, the walls of new toilet was being built to the sixth or seventh brick lines. And our mission was: continue put bricks to the walls, to plaster and whitewash the walls. Beside it, we had to make the sand to the same level, mix the cement, bring bricks and sand, clean the old toilets before restore it. Everybody was always full of energy for the days since we started. There were 7 or 8 people of S-team and 2 people of EVG-team for a construction day. We divided works for every small groups and began to do it. Then we changed for ensuring that everybody could try the same experiences.

Building the construction was harder than we thought. The first bricks which were putted were so clumsy and ramshackle. It was too difficult to get cement enough and put it in a straight line. We plastered the wall together, we tried our best to plaster up the wall but it could not. Mixing the cement or whitewash the walls has its own difficulties and it made us very embarrassed. After the building workers helped us to complete what we did, we yelled: “Wow!!! Oh no!! What is it?? That is great!!” “We are building or we are making it worse”. J. But everythings was better when we observed the building workers again and were instructed enthusiasm by them. Everybody made 100% effort in our works. So working is very hard but very happy when we worked together and saw the results after that.

But one problem was happened. We saw very a lot of garbage in here and were treatment by fire. So we had a discussion to solve the problem in that night. The days after, beside building, we had a team to collect the garbage and grass to one place to treatment. So we had a lot of things had to complete.

In breaks, although we were very tired but all people, especially S-team always went out and played with the primary student where we were building. The children in here are so cute, we very happy when played together. Difficult to understand, team and the children in here were very closely although we are different about language.

So building the toilet was a meaning thing, we had a lot of memories and lessons in here. We tried our best to contribute a little bit part and hope the students have a better life.

Teaching English for local children

From Monday to Thursday: we have English teaching lessons, one class in the morning and one in the afternoon, each lasts for about two hours.

On Friday: we organize outdoor games for local children.

Teaching is a happy, interesting and joyful job. Having opportunities to meet, to teach,to play and work with the cutest kids must be the luckiest experience for each of us. The children are all cute, active and kind. Not just teaching, we also learned many important things from them, especially their spirit to learn, to find about new things, their spirit to win, to overcome all the barriers that make their learning not just easy as children with better conditions in other places.

Teaching was not a simple task. On the contrary, it was so difficult and complicated in many times.

Ø First, it was difficult to control the class well. They are all children, they are active and sometimes naughty and hyperactive. They just cannot concentrate on the lessons all the times.

Ø Second, because of language barriers between S-team and V-team, between S-team and the local children, sometimes the result is not good.

However, we improved this job day by day thanks to the reflection after each teaching session. We wanted to bring as much as knowledge that we could, because the children are really precious.

We focus on teaching them small and simple conversations and vocabulary. Besides, we tried creating games during the lesson with small and special gifts to attract them. Not only stopped at teaching English, we also taught them how to do good personal hygiene and Science.

Result : We made sure that after each lesson, at least 80% students can understand and remember what we taught, that they can be confident when have short conversation in English. Moreover, day by day, we are closer with the kids, not only taught, we also played with them after class, talked with them, sang with them. We understood them more and more, love them more and more. We made them understand that: everyone all loves them and hope them have better learning condition. Teaching activity was also a great chance for us : V-team and S-team became more closer, deleted our gap between us, helped us interact with each others more, and helped us have better teamwork.

Housework

This was done by a team included 4 to 5 S-team people and 1 EVG-team, we changed the team doing housework everyday so that they could try other works too. All we had to do were: fill full all tanks of water, turn off lights, help the “master chef” prepare and set up the tables for breakfast, lunch and dinner, wash dishes, clean two halls and toilet twice a day, sweep the yard, through the garbage… So we had to get up at 5:30am

All the logistics needed were well-provided by ECO Vietnam Group and local goverment. The works were divided to the team very clearly. EVG-team always instructed, found a lot of things to S-team do, and of course did it together. J We usually asked: “are you ok?” all people said: “ok”. But we knew they were always more tired when did the housework. J We made it by the ways as fun as possible. The living and activity environment were clean and met the requirements.

Results: All housework was done with high responsibility and willingness to cooperate.

Culture night

From 5h30 pm to 6h00 pm, we serve dishes made by S-team to everyone.

The Culture Night was on stage from 6h00 pm to 8h00pm, and then Camp Fire till 9h30, with the attendance of Vice President of Hòa Ân Commune, Vice president of ECO Vietnam Group, local residents ( especially cute kids), V Team and S Team.

We had performances of the chidren, V-Team, S-team, a performance of both team.

Camp Fire was organized with enthusiasism and enjoyment of all people attended. We danced and played together in a warm and joyful atmosphere.

Thoughts about the project

Thought of Vietnamese volunteer of ECO Vietnam Group:

Before going to the project, each of us had learned and we were aware of the service model of ECO Earning Vietnam Group very much. However, all would have stopped the only theory if we hadn’t joined in volunteer trip in Tra Vinh. For each of us, although we were very tired but the trip was an experience a lot of the joy and pride.

We get a lot of the care and support from the local government as well as local people, especially M.s Linh, during the day project implementation. After Culture Night, water ran out but all volunteers of Vietnam hadn’t the bath, a police of commune led us went to the house of Ms. Diem’s parent. Here, we got a chat and know more about the condition of her parent as well as the people here. They gave us the gift of the village they had.

During the days of the project activities, we like to be grown up, matured through each day and really understand deeply about service learning model. We have learned a lot from the experiences we have been in this project and it will help for our steps in the future easier.

Thank organization EVG gave us the chance to participate in this trip and has joined with us to prepare for 1511project. Thank local government, local residents of Hoa An helped us as well as the affection of them for us. And also thank students with teachers from Yishun Junior College school always work closely with us to complete the project in the best way.

Thought of Diễm, Vietnamese volunteer of ECO Vietnam Group:

Before the project began operating, I have always been obsessed by the thought, the worry of myself, although there are silly worries. During the first day of the project, Singapore team, local residents and other members of Vietnam team proved to me that all my worries are in vain.

Later that day, along with everyone, I have a lot more confidence. All of us have actively to create the topic to talk together, a chance to know more and more about each other. Really happy when we understand each other in all actions. Overall, I think Singapore friends are really lovely, estimable and extremely cute. Hopefully, we will have the chance to see them again.

We really liked the people here and really thankful them when they always ready to help us when we need a help, grateful for the sentiments of the people here for us, especially the students. They often went to the place we had work to talking with us, playing and propose with us for them to work together. I still remember the last afternoon when we finished the teaching and building, after school, all children went to the committee and bicycle closed the entrance, car of 16-seat should not be parked in the road outside the committee.

I grew up a lot during the project, on a day has passed when I acted to improve myself, simultaneously, I discovered the problem in myself, then I thought of the action to solve the problem to come the next day I was acting along my thought. Just like that, I’ve learned so many things that even I did not think about before.

I am relly want to sent thanks to the organizing EVG, thanks for Singapore friends as well as locals and especially thank the members of the EVG team give me the opportunity to explore and develop myself more than what I hoped.

END OF FILE

But not end of life! Keep moving forward! And you’ll see!

January 30, 2016 by ECO Vietnam Group

1507 : ” Strong Hands” Project

Project overview

Name: STRONG HANDS

Time: 13/11/2015 – 28/11/2015

Location: Phong Thạnh Commune, Cầu Kè District, Trà Vinh Province

Participants: 16 students and 2 teachers from Nanyang Girls High School

along with 6 Vietnamese volunteers (including 2 EVG members)

Achievements:

+ Finished 1 EVG Love House.

+ Finished 1 toilet.

+ Taught English for local primary school’s kids.

+ Organized a carnival for Hoa An’s children.

STRONG HANDS is a community project in Phong Thanh commune with the

participation of 16 students and 2 teachers from Nanyang Girls High School,

along with 4 Vietnamese volunteers and the support of 2 ECO Vietnam Group’s members.

This project aims to finish the construction of 1 EVG Love House, 1 common

toilet for the local community as well as teach English for local children

at Phong Thanh A Primary School. Organizing a carnival for children

in Hoa An commune and a joint performance called Culture Night is also part

of the project’s main objectives.

2. Working Process

The First 3 days:

The morning of 13/11/2015, the Vietnamese volunteers along with

Ms. Mai Anh, Ms. Duyen (vicepresidents of EVG) and Mr. Harry

(president of EVG) gathered at Tan Son Nhat International Airport

to greet the Singaporean volunteers from Nanyang Girls High School.

Despite the unfamiliarity at first, everyone was quick and happy to mark

the first moments of the project with group photos.

The group then departed for Tra Vinh City. The two sets of volunteers

from Vietnam and Singapore had some initial interactions during meal

time at noon and in the evening in Tra Vinh City.

On 14/11/2015, the group departed for Phong Thanh commune.

After the travel, everyone was eager to help bring all the logistics

for living and working into the storage area. Despite the tiredness,

the settling of the group in the living area was quick thanks to

everyone’s positivity. The Welcome Ceremony was also organized

by the local authority in a friendly and warm manner.

On 15/11/2015, the group had its first household visiting session.

All the life stories and sharing about everyday’s life of the locals

were touching and eye-opening. They helped all the volunteers, especially the Singaporeans,

to gain an insight into the living conditions of Phong Thanh commune

as well as the cultural characteristics of southern Vietnam’s rural communities.

The work days in Phong Thanh:

Following the first few days of settling down and getting accustomed to the

life and people of Phong Thanh was the series of work days, where our

hard works were to be placed.

Construction works seemed to be the one that interested everyone the most,

despite the long distance from the living area and its demanding nature.

We spent the majority of our time plastering the brick walls. This work

demands great patience and also good techniques so during the early days,

the volunteers took a lot of time just to learn how to do it properly and

the results were usually not as good as we expected. Despite that, the volunteers,

with their own efforts along with the tireless support from the professional workers,

were able to improve day by day. There was also a variety of other works that

the volunteers did such as mixing the cement, flattening the floor, whitewashing

the walls or tiling. Each and every single work was done with a lot of effort and

passion from the volunteers. Because of that, we all felt happy when we handed

over the finished buildings to the recipients and witnessed the joy in their eyes.

All the best wishes to everyone, especially to Bay’s family (the recipient of the

house) and the two granddaughters: Han and Hieu.

Teaching was also another interesting work during our days in Phong Thanh

commune. Along with the sessions in classrooms, we also had sessions

outdoor, of which the open air and bright sky made our lessons even more

active and fun. The volunteers taught the children simple topics like greeting,

family, personal hygiene… through short songs, which helped with the learning

of vocabulary. Although at times, controlling a class full of energetic and curious

kids was really challenging, the volunteers overcame this issue with their playful

attitude. Interacting with kids was no longer a challenge. At the end of the project,

to see the kids use some English words we taught to describe simple things or

just to greet us made us happy and emotional. Despite the short time we had there,

at the least we had instilled the interest of learning English to the kids.

Along with teaching and construction works, housework was also an

essential part of our time in Phong Thanh. The living area needed to be kept

clean and meals were to be prepared before everyone got home after work.

Although not directly involved in the development of the community,

those people who did the daily chores had indirectly helped with the morale

of the group. From cleaning the toilets to mopping the corridor, the volunteers

did all the chores with a bright attitude, singing and laughing as they did.

The housework team also got to go to the local market – yet another cultural experience for the volunteers.

Outside the primary works, the volunteers also had household visiting sessions,

during which the talks with the locals gave many insights into the daily life here

in Phong Thanh: from the concerns, difficulties to the optimism and positive view

of life of the locals. There were tears in small ramshackle houses where the only

inhabitants were the elderly and kids… Those memories were unforgettable and

really drove us to rethink about our lives and what we could do to change the

lives of those who need help.

Hoa An Carnival:

The project didn’t contain itself in just Phong Thanh commune, but also the nearby Hoa An commune. The volunteers had a day here to organize a carnival for the children and also parents. For the kids, this carnival was truly a fun occasion where they could try many interesting and challenging games. It was also a chance for everyone to relax, temporarily forget their daily concerns to enjoy a festive and joyful atmosphere. As for the volunteers, preparing and organizing the carnival was an opportunity to connect even more with each other. Everyone spent the morning working as a team to prepare enough gifts for all the kids; then did the decoration of the booths together; and last but not least, controlled and instructed the children together. The joy of everyone during the carnival helped the volunteers to appreciate the teamwork that brought about the success of the carnival.

Culture Night:

Culture Night was the night of performances from the locals, EVG and also the Singaporean volunteers. The participation of many people helped make a night with different emotions and feelings: excitement with the locals’ performances, the performances full of cultural uniqueness from all the Singaporean volunteers really caught the audience with awe, and the performances of EVG volunteers brought a strong Vietnamese flavor to the night. All the emotions and feelings were transfused to the campfire; the light of which reflected back on all the things and memories we had had in Phong Thanh, and also shone the way to a hopeful future with all the projects to come.

… and many more anonymous memories. The 15 days of STRONG HANDS project has been filled with impressions, memories and experiences that are truly memorable. All the Vietnamese volunteers have moved closer together through all the hard works and reflections; through all the disagreements and tough times. We worked as a team and grew up as a team. Though we have left Phong Thanh, all the love and sharing, all the friendship and compassion stay here, deeply in our hearts and souls.

3. Sharing from volunteers

From Tuyền- volunteer project 1507- Strong Hands

From the beginning when we prepared for this project to time it began, I was the main person who take-care of logistic, but due to my schedule in school as well as my carelessness, my “unknown” about how to arrange and plan reasonably, I became the most-worrying- girl who made people crazy about my responsibility. This is also the most difficulty I need to overcome, and I am always grateful to other volunteers, Mai Anh, Duyen who are willing to point out my mistakes and help me to fix and improve myself.

Before taking part in this project, I just thought that Strong Hands is a normal voluntary project with normal activities like others, but lasts long and mỏe professional working environment. But when I was “thrown” to, it seems like that I come to another new life with such energy, inspiration everyday. This project teaches me more than what other programme did for me.

I was such paintful seeing life which can’t – stand- living, seeing beautiful and smart eyes of kids, too young to have to quit from school joining labor without thinking about future. I also appreciated Reflection times when we could hear sharing from team members, hardness, bonding games, fears of “someone” and cried for the last reflection in Can Tho too. I wanna tell the kids many thing: “Just look at your parents, neighbors, fighting! We’re not here forever to teach you anything…” but I couldn’t, cause when basic things aren’t enough, they can’t think further. I learned from serving, many things that is so strong to shocked! I am mature and wanna do more for society.

We’ve made many efforts, with co- operation, thorough work contributed to project. Those are small but valuable. I know that our trip hasn’t finished yet, everyone is their personal plan; but after all, we all have our own lesson for ourselves. Thank you EVG for such a meaningful project like this!

October 23, 2015 by ECO Vietnam Group

OSL HSBC: CSR Program

Project overview:

CSR PROGRAM
Time: 5/9/2015 – 6/9/2015
Location: An Hiệp commune, Ba Tri district, Bến Tre
Participants: 34 members from HSBC; 03 ECO Vietnam Group members Achievements:
Hygiene Training for the student in An Hiep 1, An Hiep 2 and An Binh primary school
Giving gifts to student who have difficult life.
Fanissh building 03 water purifier RO system in 3 primary schools

CSR Program is a project operated between ECO Vietnam Group and HSBC. Through this project, ECO Vietnam Group hopes to improve the water quality of the locals and support hygiene training for children in An Hiep Commune, Ba Tri district, Ben Tre province to a certain degree.

TIMELINE

Ngày 5/6/2015:

5.00 am, EVG members, Mr. Harry and volunteers from HSBC gathered at HSBC head office
5.30 am, Everyone loaded logistics to the bus
6.00 am, everyone met up and took a photo, ready to depart for Phong Thanh.

9.00 am, the team arrived in An Hiep, unloaded logistics and separated into 3 groups moving to 3 primary schools

9.30 am, team A và B started to teach hygiene training for children. Meanwhile, team C built water house to place RO system at An Binh school
11.30 am, the whole team had lunch.
1.15 pm, 3 team came back to schools to finish water house construction.
5.30 pm, Team moved to the People’s committee, prepare for the culture night.
8.30 pm, back to the hotel.

Ngày 6/9/2015:

8.30 am, started to place the RO system.
12.30 am, finished placing and having a check on RO system, the whole team moved to 3 Tons Bridge.
1.00 pm, back to HCM City.
3.00 pm, , the whole team stopped and had lunch in My Tho province
5.30 pm, arrive in HCM City, finish the project.

Tập huấn vệ sinh cá nhân cho các em học sinh tiểu học

When arrived in An Hiep Commune, we started do hygiene training for students. The children there were rushed out and greeted us warmly. Despite of taking place under the hot sun, all of the student showed excitement and happiness on their faces.

The training session included step by step oral hygiene and hand washing instruction. The volunteer carefully prepared the real visual to help kids learn faster. Moreover, they transformed hygiene steps into dance movements, combined with playful music, so kids were very quick to grasp and remember.

At the end of the training session, the volunteers gave presents to more than 200 pupils who have difficult condition.

Achievement: nearly 100 percent of children remembered all the steps of hygiene training and also learned two lovely dance songs.

Build water house and install RO system

The installation of water purification systems has 3 parts: building water house, creating electric net and placing the RO system.

Construction is the work takes a lot of effort and time. However, thanks to the enthusiastic guidance and patience of instructor, the volunteers were quick to grasp and follow. Although construction seemed to be too much for girls , but very interesting that the volunteers regardless of men or women all wanted to give it a try and eager to work. At the end of the first day, the house was finished, ready for RO installation tomorrow

The work on the next day was RO system installation, including installing faucets, checking RO systems and electrical wiring.

The work seemed very simple but it took a lot of time. Checking RO system and pipes had to be very careful to ensure no leakage.

Achievement: Although consuming a lot of effort, the volunteers had learned lots of lessons: teamwork, mutual support, observation skills, patience and construction basics such as using a shovel, mixing cement, paint walls…

Culture exchange

Cultural exchange took place from 6.30pm – 8.00pm, includes the musical performances of committee and the volunteer.

Achievement: The culture night took place in cozy and intimate atmosphere, full of laughter and clapping. The volunteers created conversation with the local people to know more about their lives here and enjoy the delicious food from the west of Vietnam.

Feeling about the project:

Being busy with personal life, those memories with new people, going to new place, having a chance to contribute to community made me feel very happy.

After this project, I learned lots of precious lessons, understood the fact that construction is energy and time consuming process. Besides, it require ingenuity, observation and experience from the predecessors.

Thanks to this trip, I know that although there may be many differences between us, they do not tear us apart when we always have a strong and effective glue to heal. It is the happiness of contribution and helping people.

I will keep in mind the moments when my body is tired and weary at the end of the working day, but my mind is dancing with the images of cute students, smiles and support of teammate, friendly handshake of local people there.

Thank EVG, for your support and giving me this opportunity to experience.

October 18, 2015 by ECO Vietnam Group

OSL 1505: “MORE THAN WORD”

Project details:

Name: “MORE THAN WORDS”
Time: 13/6/2015 – 21/6/2015
Place: Phong Thanh commune, Cau Ke district, Tra Vinh province.
Participants: 39 members from Camp Out Reach- NTU including deaf people; 11 Vietnamese volunteer including ECO Vietnam Group members
Achievements:
Finish refurbishment of 3 classrooms at Phong Thanh A primary school
Teach English for children
Visit and give presents for 5 poor households in Phong Thanh commune.

“More than words” is the second project mutually operated between ECO Vietnam Group and Camp Out Reach-NTU. Through this project, ECO Vietnam Group hopes to bring a chance for both Singaporean and Vietnamese youngsters, especially the deaf ones to experience, learn and acknowledge their own value to society, besides improving living qualities of the locals in Phong Thanh commune, Cau Ke district, Tra Vinh province to a certain degree.

The main activities throughout the whole projects included refurbishing 3 classrooms at Phong Thanh A primary school, teaching English for local children, visit poor households, joining farming trip and holding a Culture exchange night with the locals as well.

Timeline:

13/6/2015:

6.00 am, V-team gathered at EVG Hub Center on Nguyen Huu Canh street to load logistics to the bus.
7.00 am, V-team and Mr.Harry gathered at Tan Son Nhat airport
8.00 am, V-team meet up and take a photo with S-team at airport
8.30 am, the whole team departed for Phong Thanh .
11.30 am, the whole team stopped and had lunch in Ben Tre province.
12.30 am, the whole team kept moving on the way to Phong Thanh
3.00 pm, the team arrived in Phong Thanh, unloaded logistics and luggage into the warehouse.

4.00 pm, A welcome ceremony took place

7.00 pm, V-team and S-team cleaned up and prepared the sleep areas.
7.00 pm, the team had the very first dinner in Phong Thanh.
8.00 pm, the team was divided into 3 teams: washing dishes, cleaning the kitchen and cleaning toilets.
9.00pm, the first meeting between leaders took place.

14/6 – 17/6:

The main jobs during 4 days in the commune comprised: cleaning, painting 3 classrooms; doing housework at the People’s committee; teaching English for students at grade 4-5 in Phong Thanh A primary school.

Refurbishing 3 classrooms:

The first job of refurbishment was to clean up all 3 rooms, including moving out all of desks, chairs and rubble indoors, and then cleaning these classrooms. To accomplish these tasks, both young Vietnamese and Singaporean volunteers had to work really hard. It seemed to be a overwhelmingly harsh job to girls, however, it was fortunate that every volunteer of both genders still tried at their best to complete their job. Eventually, it was timely completed on the first day.

On the second day, the volunteers started painting rooves, roofing, scrubbing the walls and window frames, and disassembling these windows. It seemed to be such hard work again, which made the volunteers a little bit embarrassed. However, after that, they regained their energy to complete jobs earlier, beyond expectation.

On the third day, all volunteers together repainted the walls and windows. Everyone seemed to be interested in this new job. It turned out to be the mildest working day.

On the last day of construction, all volunteers continued repainting the rest unrepaired walls and windows. Besides, they had to clean up the classrooms and assemble the windows to the frames. In that afternoon, after everything was almost done, logistics team started checking and packing all tools while the others supported to set up the stage for Culture night.

Outcomes: Although it cost too much efforts to complete, this work worth doing as both Singaporean and Vietnamese volunteers acquired a lot precious things: patience, passion and commitments to task completion till the end, pro-activeness, prudence as well as basic knowledge of working like how to use scrubbers, paint walls and windows, how to assemble things, and so on.

Teaching English for primary students

On the daily basis from June, 14^th to June, 17^th , teaching team including both Vietnamese and Singaporean volunteers went to school twice to teach and revise English for students at grade 3 and 4 in Phong Thanh A primary school. They learnt from the basic things such as Alphabet, Numbers, to the upper level of vocabulary for colours, familiar items around them.

It was noted that Singaporean volunteers had prepared carefully teaching tools as well as funny interactive classroom activities in order to draw attention among lively students.

Outcomes: It seemed that every class finished so successfully that the students took in all the lessons taught.

Doing housework:

Every day, one team of 6-7 Singaporeans and 2 Vietnameses in turns did housework. The main tasks in a day included: setting up tables for meals, cleaning after meals, washing dishes, cleaning sleeping area, cleaning toilets twice a day. In addition, they also helped the cook to buy food in market, cook meals and prepare disserts.

All tools for housework were well equipped. Work was well organized. At first time, as the volunteers were not used to washing dishing, cleaning, etc., it took long hours to complete tasks. However, with support from V-team members and patience and high commitment of S-team members, tasks were all completed quite quickly and neatly. Furthermore, good ideas of wise working popped up while working to improve working effectiveness.

Outcomes: The house was usually clean, neat with the responsibility of working hard in harmony of all volunteers.

Culture night

From 6pm to 9pm, Culture night took place with 5 well prepared performances, 2 from Phong Thanh A primary school, 2 from V-team and 1 of S-team. After distinct musical performances, all participants were so excited to join in camp fire in music theme. It was such an unforgettable night of S-team and V-team members and the local as well. They learnt more about each other’s cultures through performances and get much closer beside the cozy fire in the cool night.

Outcomes: Culture night took place in such a cozy, friendly environment. The locals participated excitedly. The night turned out to be successful.

Households visiting

The delegation of 50 people divided into 5 groups, each group has 10 people, including two Vietnameses, visited 5 poor families in Phong Thanh Commune. Visiting each household, the Singaporeans gave gifts include rice, sweets, toys for children and some other necessities. Through this visiting, volunteers also had the opportunity to exchange and learn more about the lives of local people. Many volunteers failed to contain the emotion when hearing the households shared their difficult life with an income equivalent to 1 dollar / day.

In the afternoon, representatives from Singapore volunteers with some Vietnamese volunteers conducted to give the gifts left for other households at People’s Committee of Phong Thanh commune.

Outcomes: The households visiting was short but it helped the Singaporeans and Vietnameses to understand more about the lives of the people here, as well as to respect more what we have.

Farming activities

After returning from households visiting, the delegation consisting of 50 people continued to move to the nearby pond to catch fish. There were about 15 people including Singaporeans and Vietnameses, directly waded into the pond to fish. All volunteers had a wonderful and interesting time cause it was the first time we have experienced farming in this countryside: First time puddled, first catched fish with his bare hands and first slapped the water in field.

Outcomes: We catched 20 fish. These are also the fish for our supper.

Amazing race

Amazing race was a special activity of 1505 project, it was well prepared by V-team members and only for COR. Although of getting up too early to come to Mango park and prepared for the games, V-team members still kept tremendous spirit and supported with all their heart and soul.

40 S-team members were divided into 4 teams and each one had its own unique name, which represented for superheroes: Hulk, Captain America, Wolfverin and Spiderman. All teams had to pass the 4 stages with many challenges that required high teamwork skill , extreme tricky puzzles and ultimately they must find out the mysterious person of race.

Outcomes: The competition was extremely lively, the team raced hard to the finish, and the final victory belonged to the Wolfverin team since they finished earliest and “encapsulate” the mysterious cute girl of V-team. Through the race, we all learnt solidarity, listen to teammates, and also improved our agility and observation skills.

Interaction with Hoa Sen University

1505 project had 2 exchanged sessions at Hoa Sen University. The first meeting was to communicate with the Service Learning Center and Deaf Cultural Organization of HCM City. The meeting content was mainly about Service Learning model and introduction to learn through community service and COR also shared their comments after the trip.

The second session was the cultural exchange between COR and members of the Deaf Culture Organization of HCM city. People shared the common stereotypes about deaf people, their love for deaf-mute sign language. The meeting took place in a fun and lively atmosphere based on the spirit of sharing and listening.

Outcomes: Two meeting sessions brought knowledge and useful information about community learning model and culture of deaf friends.

City tour

Despite of the erratic weather of rain and sun in HCM City, tour plans still kept going well. The S-team and V-team spent really fun time shopping at Ben Thanh Market and were full of experiences in the War Remnants Museum.

Outcomes: The city tour around Ho Chi Minh city was an unforgettable trip to S-team, through which they could expose and learn more about Vietnamese.

Feeling about the project:

The sharing of Hanh:

What matter me the most after coming back from an OSL project is the questions of the kids “You come and you go, no one stay with us?”. I am still lingering with that question and how to help them learn English more effectively. Other parts are perfect already, especially for refurbishing 3 classrooms. I am satisfied with the classrooms. Our labor work and effort are paid off.

The sharing of Linh:

Thanks for that week, I could do many things for the first time I hadn’t experienced before especially doing construction. It was such harsh work ever that honestly at the first time doing, I wanted to give up and regretted to do, but eventually I did overcome those difficulties. Thanks for that week, I tried for the first time to communicate, integrate with deaf friends using sign languages which I had never thought I would before. 1 week with Camp Out Reach- NTU, I got used to using my hands freely to describe while talking. I think if we had more time together I could have been able to communicate with them easily. That’s quite a big achievement after that week.

October 1, 2015 by ECO Vietnam Group

NARROW THE GAP FUND – THE VICTORY RACE OF ECO VIETNAM GROUP

“For the Environment” project initiated by ECO Vietnam Group cooperated with Lotus University (HSU) to deal with Ben Tre environmental issues has won 150 million dong of Narrow the Gap Fund, the most notable award competed by 28 non-profit organizations.

The final round for three-project competition was held at Ho Chi Minh University of Social Sciences and Humanities during the afternoon of September 26^th, 2015. The three best projects selected from 28 environmental initiatives would come and compete with each other to win the most honorable donation from Narrow the Gap Fund for the Environment. In greater details, the final round had such non-profit organization: CHANGE, DCOH and HSU-ECO Vietnam Group.

“For the Environment” innovation from HSU-ECO Vietnam Group has been appreciated by the fund hosts as well as highly received the highest votes from the public. With the continual attempts, this project finally won the first prize with the highest donation from the Fund valued 150 million dong.

PhD. Ha Minh Tri from Open University, one of the examiners, gave highly praise to those who delighted the project. He said the key advantage of this project is to make use of HDPE technology which is not only brand new, sanitary and eco-friendly but also gives people the possibility to afford with a relatively reasonable price. The environmental aspect was also depicted in the clearest way when compared to other projects.

This project built up in the middle of environmental crisis happening in Ben Tre Province. The initiative came from the people’s urgent needs of adapting clean water as well as excrement non-pollution. On a usual basis, current measures from rain-water storage system as well as biogas storage with plastic bags or insanitary trenches are out of date and too expensive for the residents to afford. Meanwhile, this remaining issue has been lasting for a long time without mentioning social health and surroundings in which people are living. That is the reason why Lotus University cooperated with ECO Vietnam Group was trying to publicize HDPE (High Density Poly Ethylene) products when Narrow the Gap Fund officially started. We have developed bags made by HDPE materials to store fresh water besides other HDPE biogas bags that are cheap, well-sustainable and easily approached by un-wealthy people.

Training program to raise Ben Tre’s public awareness about the environment and climate change is also additional purpose this project trying to achieve. The main ambition is to expand the project throughout Mekong sub-region and later on, even the whole country. After that is the sustainable development for the products to keep the cost at low level. Then 20% of the profit will be spent for community-led reinvestment and also other continual research in pond-garden-sheds model.

Narrow the Gap Fund is a well-known funding program raised by LIN – Center for Community Development. The aim of LIN is to “bring local resources together to support local nonprofit organizations that are tackling the most pressing problems in Ho Chi Minh City and other adjacent provinces. By engaging people with a shared vision, by pooling available resources and by investing together in projects that address local needs, a Community Fund helps

February 2, 2015 by ECO Vietnam Group

S2-Bep Xanh

Project: Bep Xanh (Rocket Stove)

Time: 12 Sept – 14 Sept, 2014 (3 days)

Sponsor/partner: HSBC

Member: HSBC staffs & EVG volunteers

Achievement:

Building 50 rocket stove for ethnic people on mountainous area Gia Bac village, Di Linh district, Lam Dong province.
Teaching personal hygiene for children.
Giving gifts to 350 children of Gia Bac’s primary school.

‘Project Rocket Stove’ is one of the many EVG project with the partner, HSBC. In the past, we build many water tanks to save water for people who don’t have the money to build their own. This time, we come to Gia Bac village to help people to build Rocket stove.

Untitled

Rocket Stove uses the concept of maximizing the heat from burning wood to for cooking purposes. It releases little exhausted air. The air it releases is CO, less poisonous than CO2, which normal stove release. Due to the lifestyle of the people in Gia Bac, their houses do not have window and the stoves are usually near to where they sleep. These normal stoves within the house are hazardous to health. Thus, the Rocket Stove will be a better alternative to people in Gia Bac.

On Sept 12, all EVG volunteers and partners departed from Ho Chi Minh City, arriving at Gia Bac village after 7 hours on bus. In spite of the tiredness from the long transport journey, we had our lunch and prepare for work immediately. We are highly motivated, to have the opportunity of serving the village, and make a difference to the villagers’ life.

10606361_10152687540865977_946639135881057912_n

“Never give up and keeping working hard” is the motto that the volunteers and our partners uphold throughout the work. In our life, we have been working long hours for the company, studying hard for the school, in the midst of all the hectic lifestyle, we tend to forget about a lot of basic life values. We forget about being passionate about our work, we become cold-hearted and do not give back to the community, and we no longer feel the youthful exuberance in us. Thankfully for this project, we discovered the spirit of giving back to the society and what it means to be aware of what is around us.

We worked as a team to build stove step by step, starting from constructing of frames to mixing of concrete, build stove, gathering of bricks… etc. We changed our job scope with another one so that everyone gets to experience the different job scope.

1424459_10152687543750977_7684826335481102526_n

Besides building stove, one part of the project was to educate the children with personal hygiene. They were very excited to attend the lessons, and gain a lot of useful knowledge from the sessions. We used reward system, to encourage them to participate more during the lessons.

After teaching, we gave them 350 token of gifts. We hoped that these gifts will encourage them, to study hard and be optimistic about life. We gave them from the bottom of our heart, and we want them to know that they are not alone despite their hardships. There are many out there, who wants to share the love with them, they have to be confident that the world is full of opportunities. They got to keep the belief, and only then, they will have the strength to overcome all challenges.

At the end of the project, we all learned our useful life skills, forging new friendship, and gave a hand in helping to improve the society, and ensure sustainability in the life of Gia Bac Village.