Please consider donating $10 for the sound system for the school for the blind

This has been an incredible week for me.  A visit from Son Michael Pham, Founder and Director of Kids Without Borders has led me to parts of Vietnam that I haven't been before and that are out of the normal tourist track for most visitors.  There was so much to take in that I will need a week or two to collect my thoughts to be able to share all we saw during this week.

Part of our travels took us back to the school for the blind in Haiphong.  The women in the International Expat Group of Haiphong have been able to raise almost all of the $4000 plus needed for the sound system for the students. The fundraising effort ends in a couple of weeks and we are almost there.  Any extra fund would be used to purchase software and hardware for the computer lab.

During our second visit we had more time to visit with some of the students and heard more success stories on how the sound system will help many students be able to learn a skill that they can use to help support themselves.

The gentleman in yellow in the picture above is a former student and is now the music teacher at the school.  We were listening to the young lady (standing) sing while the gentleman next to her accompanied here on the organ. The sound coming from the students was lovely.  Having access to music at the school enabled the teacher to enroll in a public high school and then in a special music school so that he could get the training needed and is now teaching and helping other blind students to be successful.

This young lady in the photo above has very limited vision.  The director of the school created this desk top that can lift to allow for a better angle for the students and has lighting that doesn't go into their eyes but onto the paper.  The desktops were designed and built at the school.  Notice how beautiful her handwriting is.

Ms. Nhung - John's assistant at Peace Winds is a teacher at heart. The students seemed to realize this and surrounded her during their recess.  This young lady wouldn't let her go.  

We still need to raise about $300 - I am hoping my friends, family and the KWB supporters can help by donating $10 each.  We will only need to find 30 people to each donate $10 on the KWB website. You can help by sharing and liking this post and mentioning your support.  Or just share and like with a mention of the fundraising effort.  

The government of Haiphong supports the school at about 50% of the cost.  The parents who can afford it pay the rest of the cost for their student.  Anything else that is needed is provided through fundraising and donations. The biggest priority of the staff is keeping as many children in the school as possible so their fundraising covers the cost of the scholarships for parents who can't afford to pay.  

Once they are out of the school there are very few options for these kids.  Most don't go on to public high school.  I know we can all imagine what it would be like to not only be sight limited, but to have a future with nothing to look forward to.  There aren't many non-profits or charities around to help.

The Director and staff that we met with care so much about the students and work really hard, as do all teachers.  

Donations can be made online at http://kidswithnoborders.org/donate0.aspx.  Please be sure to put Blind School Project in the designation line.  KWB is a 501c3 charity and your donation is tax deductible. If you use the "other" designation be sure not to use $ or a decimal point.  If you have any problems with the donation button contact smp@kidswithnoborders.org.  

If you have any other questions - please be sure to email me at dawndsanders@gmail.com