ChildFund Vietnam has a 5-year ongoing project to provide safe and supportive Semi-boarding Schools for students. This is a multi-sector project, linking education, health, social and emotional learning and child protection systems. Many stakeholders are involved including; local authorities, teachers, parents and caregivers.

With funding support from the GSRD Foundation, ChildFund will integrate a component of critical life skills training and coaching to the current design. It is expected that all students in these schools will be well-prepared for future life with or without higher education.

Why is the support needed?

Bac Kan and Cao Bang province in Vietnam are distinguished by a widely dispersed population across mountainous terrain, interspersed by rivers and streams making travel to basic services difficult. Many students travel long distances to attend school (generally between 6-16 km) and thus cannot go to school and return home during the day, some even have to stay in temporary shelters. They can only go home during the weekend to meet their family and take food or supplies. These students are from ethnic minority groups in the most disadvantaged areas with extremely difficult socio-economic conditions. Many of them have to drop out high school due to unaffordable cost and go to work without any essential skills for future life and many are at the risk of child labour or early marriage.

About ChildFund Vietnam

ChildFund Vietnam is the representative office of ChildFund Australia – an independent international development organisation that works to reduce poverty for children in developing communities. ChildFund Australia is a member of the ChildFund Alliance – a global network of 12 organisations which assists almost 23 million children and their families in 70 countries.

They began working in Vietnam in 1995 and work in partnership to create community and systems change which enables vulnerable children and young people, in all their diversity, to assert and realise their rights. Their projects focus on child rights and child protection, education, health, and wellbeing for children. ChildFund Vietnam also prioritises building the resilience of young people, by giving them the opportunity to take part in sports, life skills learning, and supporting their participation in local decision-making processes. Read more about our partner here.