Each child is unique and has a special place in the life but all of them don’t get a healthy life. It is estimated that there are 5 million disabled orphans in Vietnam who are suffering from many problems and lacking the basic opportunities in life. Many poor families are not able to bring up their children properly and send them to an orphanage, with access to education, vocational training and health care. Various community organizations are running orphanage centers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to provide food and shelter for the growing number of orphans and give them a safe and homey environment. These disadvantaged children need attention, love, care, and the opportunity to further education. They need warm, loving family based atmosphere in which children will feel safe and secure and be able to develop their skill in all area social, emotional, physical and language in a non threatening atmosphere. Vietnamese government has been implementing the programs and policies on health care, education, vocational training, employment creation, and production with the aim of creating equal opportunities for and helping disabled people better integrate to society.
Asia Horizon cooperates with various orphanages and childcare centers in Vietnam to improve the lives of some of the most neglected children who live in orphanages. Although some orphanages receive funds from international donors, many of them lack financial support, experienced staffs and other facilities. The orphanages are indeed struggling to cover daily living expenses. We have taken the first step and invite you to join us, walk along with us and embrace this wonderful opportunity. Being an orphanage volunteer in Vietnam, you can make a great difference in the life of these needy and destitute children.
Volunteer’s Activities
As a volunteer, you will teach English to orphans. Volunteers also help in developing creative programs such as art, music, dance, sports, health and hygiene and cooking. You will also assist the local staff with helping them in administration work where possible. Working in an orphanage gives you a wonderful opportunity to share your love and skills with poor children. In childcare centers, volunteers take care of the children, help them to play and assist in their rehabilitation exercises.
Project Skills Required
No specific qualification is required for the volunteers working with orphans and disable children in childcare centers. However you need to be above of 18 years age. Other basic requirement you need is genuine interest and commitment to the Vietnamese culture and open to learn and serve disadvantaged children. Finally you should be kind, learning, unbiased, flexible and having adjustable capacity.
Arrangement of Room/Food/Supervision
We will make an appropriate provision for food, room and supervision for its volunteers from the very beginning of their arrival to the country to the end of their project. You will get a brief orientation about the premise and the schedule of the program, living with the Vietnamese host family is a great opportunity to understand the Vietnamese life, language (especially vietnamese), culture, tradition and people. A typical Vietnamese meal (lunch or dinner) will include steamed rice or noodles, a soup dish to eat with rice, a meat (chicken, duck, beef or pork) or fish dish, and a vegetarian dish. Spring role is the most popular Vietnamese dish either deep fried or served fresh with raw vegetables, grilled prawn, crab, pork or chicken. Volunteers are also equally encouraged to make some dished of their hometown. You can get the breakfast at morning where as lunch will be prepared in 1 pm, you are allowed to take the readymade lunch packet in the project if you want and dinner is served 7 or 8 at evening. You can also get the food from outside if you wish; there are numbers of affordable restaurants and hotels in Philippines. You can’t expect a luxurious bedroom while staying with the host family. However, volunteers joining Asia Horizon-Vietnam’s orphanage program stay with the children in a hostel. Asia Horizon arranges a separate room along with a communal bath with cold water and fan for volunteers in both the host families and hostel accommodations but sometimes they may share the room if the number is large. Volunteers are expected to share same life style while staying with the host family; they may join the daily activities such as cooking, cleaning, washing and so on. Though the local fare will be provided twice a day, you will really enjoy the way of Vietnamese hospitality and generosity to the guest.
Project Location
Placements of our primary school volunteers are located in Hanoi. Hanoi, a city between the rivers, built from lowland, has many scenic lakes and sometime is called "city of lakes”. As the capital of Vietnam for almost a thousand years, Hanoi is considered the cultural centre of Vietnam, where every dynasty has left behind their imprint. The city has many interesting cultural and historic monuments for visitors. With the rapid growth of population, an abundance of shopping centers has been built in Hanoi.
Visa Information
Citizens of certain countries can visit Vietnam (for less than 30 days) without an Entry visa, those countries include: most Asian countries, Korea, Japan and Scandinavians. Citizens from all of other countries are required to get an entry visa before departure or you can get the visa upon arrival to Vietnam. But we strongly recommend you to get a tourist visa prior to your arrival. It saves time and hassle of filling out the form in the airport, making sure you have all the documents required, and queuing up to apply for the visa. But if there is no Vietnam Embassy or Consulates in your country, then we recommend visa upon your arrival to Vietnam.
Project Information
Program Date: Asia Horizon volunteer Program begins with your arrival at the Hanoi Airport in Vietnam on Sunday, the day before of your project. A one-day orientation about the program including project sites, types of work, local food, climate, safety issues, health issues, culture people etc. will be provided in Manila office before you start the project.
Program Fees: Our program fee is 80-100% less than most international volunteer organizations. |
Living, Working and Safety Issue
Living and working in a poor and developing country is really challenging. It demands courage, some experiences and the ability to adapt. It can be overwhelming to adjust in a completely new environment. The climate, food, and atmosphere – everything is different than your hometown. You will be faced with a harsh social reality every day of your volunteer work and experience things a tourist never sees.
Independence, maturity, flexibility and the desire to do social work are required if you want to take part in the volunteer work program. Asia Horizon takes full responsibility for your safety and tries its level best to bring sense of security and peace of mind in you from the time of your first arrival to the completion of your project in a host country. When we receive your flight information, we will make the necessary arrangements here for your airport pick-up. Generally, volunteers arrive on Sunday. Our country coordinator will be there to welcome you at the airport, to pick up and take you to your accommodation, and you will receive basic orientation about your itinerary and placement along with a comprehensive briefing on the country and specific locale by the coordinator and transfer to the project on the following day or after the one week orientation. The staff/ coordinator will accompany you until you have a sense of complete safety. You are allowed to contact 24/7with an assigned person directed by Asia Horizon during your stay. We will be fulfilling our additional duties such as monitoring, guiding and counseling. Our staff/ coordinator will be there all the time supporting, assisting and coordinating you. |
