Children of Vietnam

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.

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.

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.

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.