Children of Vietnam
Building Bright Futures by Lifting Children Out of Poverty
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Over the last few decades, Vietnam has made remarkable progress in reducing poverty, even though there have been setbacks caused by the pandemic and severe effects of global warming Political and economic reforms launched in 1986 have transformed Vietnam from one of the poorest countries in the world, with per capita income below $100, to a lower middle-income country with per capita income of $3,756.50 by the end of 2021.(World Bank) Yet, Vietnam’s poor and ethnic minority children and their families still have challenges. Delving deeper into the intra-country statistics, there is evidence of a growing disparity between those who shifted from agriculture to the manufacturing and service sectors (Asia Fund Managers: https://www.asiafundmanagers.com/us/) and those most vulnerable populations including manual laborers, people with disabilities, women, migrants, children and ethnic minorities.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Increasing Opportunities for Children with Disabilities Initiative: Hope System of Care
We empower children with disabilities and their families by providing individualized and comprehensive services to improve health, educational opportunities, safe living environments, nutrition and hygiene. Greater opportunities for independent living, higher education and vocational training allow youth to thrive and achieve their life goals and their families to develop stable incomes.
Keeping Children Nourished Initiative: Lunch and Learn
We nourish young children’s bodies to ensure healthy physical, intellectual, social and emotional development, partnering with organizations which produce vitamin fortified meals. We distribute them to 2-5 year olds attending kindergartens in rural and mountainous regions. Further, we work with local school systems to provide daily nutritious soy milk to kindergarten children. We train school staff on soy milk preparation and equipment and the school system provides the needed space to produce the milk.
Educating for the Future Initiative: Bright Scholars University Scholarships
We enable university students from poor families to graduate with degrees that will prepare them to gain full employment, raise their standard of living, and fulfill their dreams by achieving lifelong goals.
Educating for the Future Initiative: Study Steps Tutoring & Life Skills
We empowers bright students from poor families by financially supporting their educational goals. Students receive long term scholarships and after school tutoring in core subjects. They engage in enrichment activities which support their ability to lead, collaborate, develop brainstorming and problem solving skills, as well as build self confidence, ingenuity and resilience in their fast changing environments. After graduation, many students become recipients of our Bright Scholars University Scholarship program.
Educating for the Future Initiative: Kindergarten Building Blocks
We facilitate young (2-5 year olds), ethnic minority children living in remote, mountainous villages with a strong educational foundation by constructing well built, permanent and easily accessible classrooms. Vietnamese teachers, equipped with fully furnished classrooms with preschool teaching tools supplied by COV, instill a love of learning that will serve the children well and encourage them to seek further education in their communities.
Empowering Single Mothers Initiative: Empowering Foundations for Women & Their Children
We invest in groups of enterprising, poor, single mothers with school age children to face financial and personal challenges with dignity and strength, believe in their own abilities, and achieve fulfilling futures. The mothers are offered micro-loans for small businesses and the training needed to run them; educational scholarships for their children; and community building opportunities to share their challenges and knowledge with others in their group.
Delivering Clean Water and Sanitation Initiative
We ensure children have access to clean water, sanitation and good hygiene to promote healthy development, and a safe environment in which to thrive.
Where we work
Awards
Champion Medal honored Ms. Huong for ten years of service 2009
Danang Foreign Affairs and People’s Committees
Remarkable Contribution for the Economic and Social Development of Province 2008
Quang Nam People's Committee
Contribution in humanitarian Activities of Danang City 2008
Chairman of Danang People's Committee
Excellent Achievement in Work for Poor Children of Hai Chau District 2008
Hai Chau People's Committee
Significant Achievement in Work of Protection and Taking Care of Children 2008
Hoa Vang People's Committee
Top Rated 2021
Great Nonprofits
Affiliations & memberships
AmCham 2020
External reviews

Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsNumber of schools built
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Ethnic and racial groups, Age groups
Related Program
Educating for the Future Initiative: Kindergarten Building Blocks
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Kindergarten classrooms for (2-5 year olds) built near remote, ethnic minority villages.
Number of academic scholarships awarded
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adolescents, Children, Extremely poor people, Low-income people
Related Program
Educating for the Future Initiative: Bright Scholars University Scholarships
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of children with disabilities receiving early intervention services
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Health, Adolescents, Children, Extremely poor people, Low-income people
Related Program
Increasing Opportunities for Children with Disabilities Initiative: Hope System of Care
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of clients who complete job skills training
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Extremely poor people, Low-income people, Working poor
Related Program
Empowering Single Mothers Initiative: Empowering Foundations for Women & Their Children
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of children reached with a meal each school day
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children, Extremely poor people, Low-income people, Working poor
Related Program
Keeping Children Nourished Initiative: Lunch and Learn
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
COV has identified three groups of children who are particularly vulnerable: children with disabilities, poor rural and ethnic minority children, and children living with single mothers. While these groups have similarities – low socio-economic status, limited educational and/or medical access, etc. – each also has unique challenges, strengths, and opportunities to have an improved life and brighter prospects.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
COV’s key strategies include effective, individualized, comprehensive, and best practice programming which targets specific populations: children whose families live below the poverty line, have intermittent and low-paying jobs, and severely limited number of breadwinners in a family. We focus on children with disabilities caused by the long-term effects of Agent Orange over generations and who have other health and genetic conditions. We support ethnic minority children whose families live in remote, mountainous regions and live on subsistent farms. We build stronger single-parent families by providing micro-loans and job skills training for single mothers. We focus on the education of poor children as a means to end the poverty cycle.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
COV has significantly benefited from strong, visionary, and goal-driven leadership over the years. Our new, high energy, change making Executive Director transitioned into her new role smoothly as of August 2022. COV’s 17-member, working Board of Directors form a strong team, designing and evaluating an up-to-date three-year strategic plan (2022-2025) which includes committees for programming, marketing, fundraising, and financial growth. We value gender equity at the board and staff levels.
Our Vietnamese staff members work as a team and are expertly managed by our Vietnamese Country Director, a co-founder of our organization. They are well trained (receiving regular staff development) and give our beneficiaries compassionate, dedicated, and effective support. Our U.S. staff is lean and efficient in working with our donors and managing administrative responsibilities. All staff members are experienced, flexible, open to innovation, and productive in implementing programs and improving the lives of the poor children and their families we serve.
COV’s Executive Director, Country Director, Board of Directors, and staff members communicate effectively. Our Executive Director, and Board meet quarterly; our committees meet monthly; and our Executive Director, Country Director, and Vietnamese staff members meet weekly to exchange information and carry out the organization’s mandates.
COV builds capacity by partnering with local Vietnamese government officials and non-profit organizations. We seek partnerships in the U.S. to help achieve our goals. (Rotary Clubs, Kiwanis, Rise Against Hunger, and charitable foundations). In addition, we have built a relationship with the Vietnamese Rotary Clubs, American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, and VUFO-NGO Resource Center. We enlist Vietnamese professionals in the medical, educational, financial, and psycho-social fields to partner with us in providing the best services to our beneficiaries.
COV’s best practices include the using technology to create accurate and concise records, in the field and at the office. Each child and family has a log for recording assessments and achievable goals. Especially for children with disabilities, each child has an individualized care plan and a committed team of medical, educational, and psycho-social experts working together for the good of each child and their family. All programming includes monitoring and evaluation over multiple years to compare achieved results; gain feedback from the beneficiaries, educators and doctors; and improve programming strategies based on results and feedback.
COV implements programs that support the tenets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well-being, Quality Education, Gender Equality, Clean Water and Sanitation, Reduced Inequalities, and Partnerships for the Goals. These tenets are achievable by designing programs that address the needs of children and their families.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Children of Vietnam has been operating in Central Vietnam since 1998. We started as a very small organization doing relief and crisis work. We now work to build the capacity of individuals along with our local partners to increase community sustainability. As of 2020, we have:
Empowering Foundations for Women & Their Children
433 Total number of single mothers
795 Total number of children
University Bright Scholars
222 Total number of university graduates
126 Total number of female university graduates
Study Steps Tutoring & Life-Skills
Five groups totaling 125 children beginning in 6th grade
Hope System of Care
875 Total children with disabilities
446 Girls
429 Boys
Nutrition School Food Distribution
Over 1 million meals yearly
Kindergarten Building Blocks
54 kindergarten classrooms for children 3 through 5 years
COV enables children and their parents to become changemakers in
their own communities by providing them with the knowledge and
skills to be economically self-sufficient, build community with other families, know their rights as citizens, access government and other resources to improve their lives and the lives of those in their communities.
What's next?
Under the leadership of our new Executive Director, COV is undergoing extensive reviews of programming, finances, marketing, media presence, communication, and staff development, both in Vietnam and the U.S. In addition, board involvement, donor relations, partnerships, technology, and capacity building and sustainability is also being reviewed and improved.
COV stays current in our understanding of Vietnam government policy changes, new and important areas of development, additional best practices with programming, training staff to adjust to local conditions and better addressing of beneficiary needs, and being prepared to support our children and their families in times of personal crisis, as well as during and after natural disasters.
We continue to develop ways to increase our scholarship students’ preparation for the demands and needs for 21st century skill development. We encourage students to gain important knowledge in fields of interest, foster their creativity, innovation, critical thinking, problem solving and collaboration skills. We engage them in technology and share ways to use the technology both at school and at home, in preparation for the working world. We emphasize their abilities of self-direction and adaptability in order to thrive in their ever changing environments.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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Who are the people you serve with your mission?
Children with disabilities, Ethnic minority and rural children living in poverty, children living in poverty at-risk for dropping out of school, and children living in single-mother households.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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What significant change resulted from feedback?
1). modified our livelihood workshop schedules for single mothers to accommodate the women's daily personal schedules, providing more opportunity for group sharing of their successes and challenges. 2). developed life and career development skills workshops for our h. s. and uni. scholarship students. 3). led COV to improve the selection process for children and their families’ enrollment in various programs. 4). followed suggestions to improve care plans for children with disabilities. 5). better communicated our goals, mission, vision and methods for achieving our goals, resulting in a 2022-2025 strategic plan, updated our website & social media platforms. Our financial information is professionally monitored and evaluated and 990s are up-to-date.
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Children of Vietnam
Board of directorsas of 02/24/2023
Scott Willis
Sales Director
Term: 2018 - 2026
Benjamin C. Wilson
No Affiliation
Dabney W. Schmitt
Retired Development Director
Elliott Wilson
President, TRC Professional Solutions
Debbie Baker
Retired Educator
Scott Willis
Sales Director
Thao Sommerville
Self-employeed
Steve Wolstenholme
Group COO, Hoi An South Development Ltd.
Kathy Orms
Retired HR/Organizational Development Executive
Lyn Greer
Public Relations Executive
Desta Raines
Director of Sustainability, Sephora Americas
Helena Berger
Retired CEO disability non-profit
Giang Tran
Deputy Regional Director, Mekong office, ASSIST
Maddi Niedbanck
e-Commerce Coordinator, Hermès
Kevin Vo
PROJECT MANAGER MANEUVER AMMUNITION SYSTEMS, JPEO A&A
Kim Vo Dzung
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 02/20/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.