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. 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 within a quarter of a century with per capita income of $2,343 by the end of 2017. Yet, Vietnam and its children still have challenges. The devil is in the details. Delving deeper into the intra-country statistics there is evidence of a growing disparity between those advancing in the new economy and those most vulnerable populations including the poor, people with disabilities, women, migrants, children and ethnic minorities as well as those living in specific geographic areas such as rural versus urban.
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 to gain confidence in their abilities, believe in their worth, and achieve purposeful and productive futures.
Keeping Children Nourished Initiative
We nourish children’s bodies to ensure healthy physical, intellectual, social and emotional development partnering with kindergartens in rural and mountainous regions.
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 empower bright students from poor families to embrace education, believe in their own abilities, and achieve a future without poverty.
Educating for the Future Initiative: Kindergarten Building Blocks
We facilitate young, ethnic minority children with a strong educational foundation, building schools that instill a love of learning that will serve them well, and help them achieve purposeful and productive futures.
Empowering Single Mothers Initiative: Empowering Foundations for Women & Their Children
We invest in enterprising, single mothers to face challenges with dignity and strength, believe in their own abilities, and achieve fulfilling futures without poverty for themselves and their children.
Delivering Clean Water and Sanitation Initiative
We ensure children have access to clean water, sanitation and 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
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
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
COVID 19 impacted student participation in our Educating for a Future Initiative because of quarantine and lockdowns.
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
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
The pandemic limited our ability to expand to additional single mothers.
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
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
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?
Our programs are designed to decrease challenges and increase strengths and opportunities in multiple areas adapting to each specific target population. We are providing individualized, comprehensive, “wrap-around" support either working directly with the child, the parent, or the community or all simultaneously.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Children of Vietnam’s Hope System of Care works to keep children with disabilities at home with their families and to help these families receive adequate support so they can provide the best possible environment and quality of life for their children. An interdisciplinary team is invited from the community to review the child’s situation and to work collaboratively together with the parent to create a sustainable care plan. A range of comprehensive services is made available to the child so that he or she can develop to the fullest.
Children of Vietnam works to ensure that all children in difficult circumstances, with equal emphasis between boys and girls and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to appropriate learning and life skills opportunities including transportation, funding, study equipment, psycho-social support, and parent outreach. We focus on both school-aged children and college-aged children.
For single mothers living in poverty with their children, access to education, healthcare, and adequate nutrition is extremely challenging, if not impossible. Empowering Foundations for Women & Their Children works to break this cycle of poverty by assisting head-of-household, single mothers with a powerful combination of wraparound services including small livelihood microloans, livelihood training, healthcare, scholarships for their children, small household improvements.
Good nutrition is an essential need for children, particularly young children, where malnutrition and stunted growth increase their risk of suffering impaired cognitive ability, weakened performance at school and work, and dying from infections. Children of Vietnam’s Young Child Nutrition partners with local charities to distribute vitamin-fortified meals to kindergartens in rural and mountainous regions to children most at risk. The meals are granted by a partnering NGO, Rise Against Hunger, which has formulated the meals to align with World Health Organization standards. Further, where needed, clean water filtration systems are provided for communities.
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
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 Children Living in Single-mother Households
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Paper surveys, Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), Case management notes,
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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 strengthen relationships with the people we serve,
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What significant change resulted from feedback?
We modified our schedule for livelihood workshops for single mothers to accommodate the women's daily schedules. We developed life-skills workshops for our university scholarship students based on their feedback.
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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
The people we serve, Our staff, Our board, Our funders, Our community partners,
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How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?
We seek and incorporate feedback from our participants during the monitoring process. We modify our programming accordingly.
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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?
The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time,
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
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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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 2/17/2022
Rhonda Grissom
Radiologist
Term: 2021 - 2024
Benjamin Wilson
No Affiliation
Rhonda Grissom
Physician
Dabney Schmitt
Retired Development Director
Scott Smith
Chief Commercial Officer, Shearer's Foods, Inc.
Elliott Wilson
President, TRC Professional Solutions
Debbie Baker
Retired Educator
Scott Willis
Sales Director
Thao Sommerville
Self-employeed
Steve Walstenholme
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
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? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
No data
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 02/08/2021GuideStar 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 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 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.