A 4-year-old stands on a busy sidewalk in Vietnam. She sees a group of strangers and walks up to them. Wordlessly, she holds up some pieces of paper and goes around to them one by one. They’re careful not to make eye contact with her. They shoo her away. She goes back to the street where her mom is waiting, and they keep walking, looking for more people to approach.

This was Tú’s life from its earliest stages. At just 4 years old, she began selling lottery tickets alongside her mom. Selling lottery tickets earns very little income, and the tickets hold very little value for the people who buy them. As a result, selling lottery tickets is akin to panhandling. People buy them out of compassion for the person selling them.

And out of desperation, parents often recruit their young children to sell them — hoping to invoke more pity, compassion and sales.

No one chooses this life. Tú’s mom sells lottery tickets because she has few other options. Her husband is no longer in the picture. She lives with her two children and four other family members in a charity house built by the government. Their entire household income is $473 USD a month, which includes a salary Tú’s uncle earns from his construction job — and the $4 a day that Tú’s mom earns from selling lottery tickets and also shelling cashews. As she grew, Tú helped support her family — also contributing ticket earnings of about $4 per day. But the family’s income barely covered the needs of seven people.

Tú is 16 now, and on a rainy day in December our Holt team walks down the trail leading to her house. Their home is surrounded by ponds used for raising and harvesting shrimp and fish. A narrow stretch of grass between the pond and a concrete wall leads to their tall brick home. Everyone is soaked by the time we reach it.

Tú comes to greet us. She’s bubbly and welcoming — her cute bangs framing a face with bright eyes and a warm smile. She’s excited to tell us about herself and how Holt donors have been helping her.

Dropped Out of School

A few years ago, when she was just 12 years old, Tú decided to drop out of school.  

“I went to school, but I don’t achieve good grades, I didn’t achieve a good outcome,” says Tú, “that’s why I decided to not continue school.”

This is a common occurrence for children living in poverty who aren’t doing well in school, and who don’t have the support they need to continue. If a child is part of a wealthier family, their family may pay for additional tutoring — or even go to a private school where they’ll receive more support in their education. But this is not an option for children from poor households. Many children simply drop out and start working to support their families.

This was Tú’s reality.

Tú decided to continue selling lottery tickets with her mom. But she soon found that an already difficult sell was only becoming harder.

“I was happy because I could accompany my mom,” Tú says about selling lottery tickets. “But I was not happy because, you know, the sell is very slow.”

Over the past several years, the Vietnamese government has discouraged the buying and selling of lottery tickets — especially with children. While not a viable option for people to rise out of poverty, when children engage in the practice, it’s also essentially child labor. Suddenly, Tú and her mom weren’t selling as much. Trying to abide by the government’s new laws, people weren’t buying lottery tickets anymore.  

As we speak with Tú in the back, open-air room of her house, the rain begins to pound even harder — making loud thumping noises on the tin roof. While we’re talking, her brother comes home from school. Although he’s 14 now, he’s small and appears to be about 8 or 9 years old. This is due to severe malnutrition. When a child doesn’t have enough food to eat, they’re often stunted in their growth. In impoverished communities across Vietnam, many children have little more than rice to eat. They rarely get enough protein and other vital nutrients. And they quite often go without meals. Both Tú and her brother have likely skipped many meals through their childhood. Their mom is tiny, too. Less than 5 feet tall and extremely slight. This is what poverty looks like.

And poverty, it seemed, is what Tú was destined for.

Holt Vocational Training in Vietnam

Tú had a sixth-grade education. And now her plan for making money wasn’t going to work, either. But Tú was smart and determined — and she kept her eye out for any opportunity to escape her situation.

“When I was selling the tickets, I found I could not earn much income,” Tú says. “But I saw people in town who did nails and hair in a salon.”

This caught her attention. What if she could do this too? It would certainly be a more stable and higher-paying option than lottery tickets. But this would require training, which required money — money her family didn’t have.

Thankfully, around the world, Holt provides just this kind of support for young adults and parents struggling to support their children. In Vietnam, Holt’s economic empowerment program helps parents and youth just Tú.

Soon, Holt donors stepped in and began making Tú’s dreams a reality.

The local government had identified Tú’s family as needing help meeting their basic needs. As in many of the countries where Holt works, the government of Vietnam has a strong relationship with Holt — and often works in partnership with our local team to serve children and families in need. The government reached out to Holt and shortly afterward, a Holt social worker, Ms. Phum, came to Tú’s house. She sat down with Tú and began talking about options for her future. Since she wasn’t going to school anymore, she’d have to plan for her future – plan for a life where she could rise above poverty.

Tú shared about the hair and nail salons she’d pass in town, and how she dreamed of working in one someday.

“I like it. I love it,” Tú says. “So I decided to do it.”

Ms. Phum enrolled Tú in Holt’s donor-funded vocational training program. Through this program, youth like Tú receive job skills training to help them find a job and earn a sustainable  income. Some choose to open a food cart. Others raise animals or learn administrative skills. With the generous support of donors, Holt helps provide the startup costs for a business or, as in Tú’s case, the tools and training required to learn the vocation.

Holt helped connect Tú with a woman in town who owns a salon. Every day, Tú rides her bike 15 minutes into town to observe, learn and progress in her skills. After just six months, she has already mastered the basic skills of manicure and pedicure, simple haircuts, hair washing and more — and will soon end her apprenticeship and begin working as a professional.

A Beautiful Future for Tú

During our visit, we leave Tú’s house and travel to the salon to see her in action.

The salon is a small shop on a busy road that is good for business. A ramp leads up to the glass-fronted room, and inside it feels clean and well set up. Several salon chairs and tables for doing nails fill the small room.

Tú’s instructor owns her own salon and is successfully running her business. She has long, auburn-dyed hair that stretches long down her back. Her mannerisms are soft and patient. She is training several other girls in addition to Tú. She sits down and allows Tú to paint her nails, serving as the model for her pupil to demonstrate her skills.

Tu smooths the pink polish over her trainer’s fingernail, hunched over her hand in concentration. She quickly and fluidly performs the motion, and the result is perfectly painted nails.

Tú is so proud of herself. She is also very thankful to everyone who helped her achieve her goal — especially the donors who funded her training.

“I would say thank you very much for your support,” she says, when asked what she’d like to say to them.

By the end of this year, her training should be complete. She will need additional support to start her business — and hopes that Holt donors can help cover these costs as well.

“After my graduation from the vocational training, I want more tools that can help me to open a small shop,” Tú says. “But I’m thinking about how I can get the money to purchase those things.”

As we finish up our time with Tú at the salon, an elderly woman shuffles up to the front of the salon. She’s selling lottery tickets. She wears a pointed hat, covered by a yellow poncho over her clothes. She lingers, asking again and again if anyone from our group wants to purchase one. Her eyes are sad. After a short, polite “no thank you,” no one engages with her. She shuffles away. 

The timing is almost poetic — as if this elderly woman symbolizes the difficult future that is no longer Tú’s. Instead of becoming like this woman, and her mom, Tú has another option. She’ll have the skills and opportunity to make her own way in the world and overcome poverty. As she gives her clients beautiful hair and nails, what’s most beautiful is the difference she’ll be making for her own life.

Lift a Mom Out of Poverty

When you give a gift of chickens, a garden or a sewing machine, you will bless a mom and her children.

choose your gift

The post A Beautiful Future appeared first on Holt International.

But hunger is also one of the biggest needs Holt donors help meet.

Your gift to help feed a hungry child can look several different ways in the field. But by whatever means, you help meet children exactly where they are — rushing food to them in the moment they need it most.

Here are 5 ways you help feed children around the world!

1. Emergency Food Delivery

For families already living in poverty, all it takes is one crisis to send them over the edge. Whether it’s a natural disaster, a lost job or moving to a new city, this can be all it takes to cause children to skip meals, or even go days without food. For these children and families, the help you give is immediate. Holt’s on-the-ground staff and partners quickly deliver food and other immediate essentials to families in urgent need.

2. Free School Lunch

So many kids show up to class with empty stomachs and nothing to eat. But hunger pains make learning extremely difficult. That’s why you help provide free school lunches to Holt-supported schools and daycares! For so many children, this is the only regular meal they receive each day, which makes it so important! Our staff around the world ensure that these meals are nutritious and filling — often including whole grains, milk, hard-boiled eggs and more.

3. Formula for Babies

The first months and years of a child’s life are so critical. It’s when their brains and bodies grow exponentially, setting the trajectory for the rest of their lives. That’s why nutrition during this time is so important. But this becomes difficult for babies in orphanage or foster care, or the babies of families living in poverty. That’s why you provide them with nutrient-rich infant formula. You help to ensure that no matter their difficult situation, they receive the nutrients — and the chance — to grow healthy and strong.

4. Gardening

One of the most sustainable and empowering ways to feed a child and their family is to teach them to grow food themselves! That’s why in places like Thailand, Vietnam and Ethiopia, you give families the tools and training they need to grow a garden. Whether it’s a “kitchen garden” of composted food scraps and small pots on urban windowsills, or larger garden plots in rural areas, so many families can now feed their children with fresh garden fruits and vegetables. Equipped with buckets, fertilizer and garden seeds, children and parents can enjoy gardening together. Even more, when families grow their own produce, they have nourishing food to feed their children. And they can sell any surplus in the marketplace — generating additional income to support themselves.

5. Livestock

A goat or cow or chickens might seem like a strange gift to give a family living in poverty, but a gift like this can absolutely change their life! Raising livestock can provide a family with fresh milk, cheese, eggs and meat — all critical protein for growing kids. Livestock can even provide fertilizer for a family’s  garden, and any excess food or animal offspring can be sold for a profit. Your gift of livestock to a child and their family prevents malnutrition for years to come.

You Can Help a Hungry Child

When you give Food Every Day, you not only help a child learn, play and grow — you help keep their family together.

give food now

The post 5 Ways You Feed Hungry Children appeared first on Holt International.

Something was different about Bao. “Wrong” – the neighbors told his parents. At 3 years old, he didn’t talk, he would throw objects across the house, bang his head against the wall, and wasn’t even close to being potty trained.

“Every child is different,” his mom, Mai, reasoned. “Some develop quickly, and others slowly.” Just because Bao was different than his older sister didn’t necessarily mean something was wrong. But then her husband, Tuan, began to wonder if their son was different, too…

Each night, Tuan read to Bao. But Bao still didn’t respond and learn the way Tuan expected. Tuan wondered if Bao had autism — and began to read and learn more about the condition — but Mai was unconvinced.

“I did not accept it,” Mai says. “I had no idea what autism was at the time.”

They took Bao to a doctor for a checkup, and he was diagnosed with developmental delays. About a year later, he received an official autism diagnosis. 

“I just felt very, very sad,” Mai says.

When he turned 5, they enrolled Bao in the mainstream kindergarten that other children in their neighborhood attended. Within a few months, they tried three different schools, and each one was the same.

At each school, Bao just sat in the corner holding his backpack and wouldn’t move. At lunchtime he wouldn’t eat.

“We decided not to send him to school anymore,” Mai says. “We were very sad and thought there was nothing we could do for him.”

Bao couldn’t go to school. At home, Mai and Tuan didn’t know how to help him either. His behavior was uncontrollable. He kept harming himself by banging his head, and sometimes he would jump and jump, seemingly unable to stop. They couldn’t really leave the house with Bao anymore.

“We decided not to send him to school anymore. We were very sad and thought there was nothing we could do for him.”

As a family, they felt hopeless. Stuck.

But thankfully, there was a place that could help Bao. A place he would be understood, and receive the exact help he needed. This place was the Kianh Foundation.

The Kianh Foundation

The Kianh Foundation is down an unassuming rural road on the outskirts of a thriving fishing village and popular tourist destination in Vietnam. Surrounded by farmland, it’s gates open to reveal a vibrant playground in the courtyard with accessibility ramps leading up to the building. As you walk down the open-air hallway that traces the building’s perimeter, children’s artwork covers the walls, and music wafts out of the large classrooms.

Inside, teachers sit on the floor, many of them working one on one with students. Children in one classroom sing and dance to a song with enthusiastic full-body motions. In another, children sit at different stations — buckling motorbike helmets, brushing and styling dolls’ hair, and tying shoes. Children range in age from early elementary schoolers to older teenagers, but they’re divided into classrooms based on ability, not age.

Children and their teachers alike are smiling and calm. And every child here has a disability. 

Disability in Hoi An

The Kianh Foundation is a school for children with disabilities located on the 17^th parallel, the dividing line of conflict between north and south Vietnam in the Vietnam-American War. What makes this even more significant and relevant is that this area was a hot spot for Agent Orange, the chemical herbicide used by the U.S. during the war, now known to cause devastating health issues and birth defects.

Disability is about 15 to 20 percent higher here than in other parts of Vietnam, yet there are still so few services for children and adults with special needs. In Vietnam, the government provides some resources to children and adults with disabilities — but they don’t stretch very far. Many parents, especially those living in impoverished communities, are not familiar with many disabilities, especially ones like autism.

The Kianh Foundation is the only school of its kind in the entire province. There’s room for 80 students at the school, but the waiting list stretches to over 200. And the reality for the children who can’t attend here is heartbreaking.

Without the specialized therapy and education to help them engage in society, a child with disabilities — who grows up to be an adult with disabilities — rarely leaves their home. Unable to control their body or emotions, there’s no way they can leave. They are often locked in a room all day in an attempt to keep them contained and safe. But it ends up causing even more damage to their development.

“This is the best choice for them.”

Some parents attempt to take their child to mainstream schools, but with class sizes of 30-50 students, the teachers simply can’t provide the individual time and attention they need. Especially if a child has never learned to communicate or control their behaviors, it’s impossible to learn.

“This is the best choice for them,” says Hoang Pham, program development director at the Kianh Foundation.

A School for Children with Disabilities

The children at Kianh have many different conditions.

Some use walkers or wheelchairs due to cerebral palsy. Many have Down syndrome, or other congenital disabilities that affect their physical or emotional development. “But the most challenging is autism,” Hoang says.

He remembers one specific child with autism who came here after a traumatic experience at a mainstream school.

“The first time he came here, we did the assessment at the gate because he didn’t want to come in,” Hoang says. Every day, this child would come to school, but no farther than the playground. His father or mother stayed at school with him each day, and a teacher worked with him on the playground.

“For about six or seven months, he was outside the classroom,” Hoang says. Finally, once the child was familiar with his teacher, he came inside. The teachers began working to help him communicate, with help from a book of pictures that taught him to associate pictures with different words. Little by little, he began to learn.

Because of support from Holt sponsors and donors, ordinary families can afford to send their children to Kianh Foundation — even those living in poverty. Fees are based on each family’s ability, with some paying just $10 a month. The staff has found that a financial investment, even if it’s small, helps families be invested and engaged.

It’s clear why so many parents want their children to come here. The school is cheerful and bright, playful feeling, but it’s also state of the art. There’s a fully equipped physical therapy room, toys and art supplies, nutritious daily meals in the cafeteria, and special events and activities that the children enjoy. The lessons are very focused on life skills, and as the children age and develop, some even begin vocational training such as sewing, housekeeping or gardening – skills that could help them earn an income in the nearby tourist area. But what makes the most difference is the nurturing care and expertise of the staff — teachers, physical and occupational therapists, and experts in the field of special education.

But for a child to have the best success, the family has to engage, too.  

Learning for the Whole Family

“Especially at the beginning, we try to integrate the family first,” Hoang says. “Step by step, we figure out the individual parent and child. We don’t focus on formal or general training for the parent, but we focus on helping them with their kid only.”

In the beginning, it’s not uncommon for the teacher to have daily check-ins with the parents after school to discuss their child’s progress and train the parents on what to work on at home.

When Bao enrolled at Kianh, so did his parents. At the time, there were no spots open at the school for him. So instead, his family joined a special community program where they could learn how to help Bao.

Funded by Holt sponsors and donors, this program taught them about their son’s condition — and what he was experiencing in his interior world.

“The first thing is the knowledge about what autism is and what the children with autism are like,” Tuan, Bao’s father, shares. “Many parents didn’t know about that before.” He remembers a specific example that helped both him and other parents of children with autism understand.

“For example, looking at a banana, we don’t know what it looks like in the eyes of a child with autism,” Tuan says. “Many people look at the banana, but it’s just a banana. But in the eyes of the children with autism, it’s different.”

For the first time, Mai and Tuan learned to understand their son.

When Bao was 5 years old, an in-person spot opened up at the Kianh Foundation. This is when everything really began to change for him.

Bao began to learn how to communicate using a booklet of pictures. The teachers also helped him learn how to use the toilet. And as Bao learned new skills, so did his parents.

“It’s very important that I learn what the teacher trains my child [to do],” his mom, Mai, says, explaining why she works closely with his teachers. “Then I can train him exactly the same as the teacher trains him.”

Finally able to communicate, Bao was so much less frustrated and began to act more calm and happy — at school, and at home.

Bao at Home

Bao’s home is a couple of streets off the main road – where it quickly turns from bustling businesses and car exhaust to expansive rice paddies and wide banana leaves that overhang the path.

It used to be very difficult for Bao to have visitors come to his home. Because of his sensory issues, any extra noise was very difficult for him to tolerate. But today, it is no problem for visitors to stop by. He has improved so much.

Bao is now 8 years old, and he’s been attending the Kianh Foundation for three years. He knows how to use the toilet, get dressed, and even follow instructions like retrieving bottles of milk from the fridge.

Their house has two rooms, and the main room in the front has a large, wood-look foam mat that the family sits on. Bao walks from the back room and comes to sit with his mom. He brings his communication book, and points to different pictures to show what he wants. He’s hungry — his mom hands him a plate of food. He flips to another page in his book and points to a picture of a salt shaker. His mom sprinkles the salt on his food. She’s beaming. His progress is incredible, and she’s so proud.

“His improvement is very meaningful to us. I want to thank the [Holt] donors and the sponsors very much, because the Kianh Foundation is the right place that we can send our son.”

One of the biggest changes they’ve made since Bao began attending Kianh is talking more with him at home. Mai says she never knew if he understood her, and had assumed it didn’t make a difference how much she spoke with him.

“I’m not sure how much he understands now,” she says. “But I know he likes it. Now I talk to him a lot.”

Like every child at the Kianh Foundation, the goal for Bao is as much independence as possible. To be able to engage with his family, with his neighbors and in his community. And his progress means life-change for the entire family.

“His improvement is very meaningful to us,” Mai says. “I want to thank the [Holt] donors and the sponsors very much, because the Kianh Foundation is the right place that we can send our son. They train my son with all the skills he needs. I just want to say thank you so much for everything that my son receives from Kianh Foundation.”

Helping More Children

Back at the Kianh Foundation, it’s an ordinary Tuesday as children learn and play in their classrooms. But from the courtyard, a child is yelling. He’s not hurt or in pain, he’s perfectly safe. He’s just new. His one-on-one teacher follows him around the playground, expertly engaging with him to calm down.

The yells don’t phase the other teachers or staff. But when he’s especially loud, a couple of them exchange a knowing glance, and a calm and knowing smile. This is how so many of the children here started out, but they know the potential for progress that each child has. There’s hope for every child, because of this special place.

Give to the Molly Holt Fund

Your gift helps a child with special needs receive the surgery, medicines, and specialized care they need!

Help a child now

The post Hope for Every Child appeared first on Holt International.

Four-hundred-and-nine. Four-hundred-and-nine children evacuated from Holt child care centers in Vietnam in the spring of 1975. The most notable being the Pan-America “babylift” flight out of Vietnam on April 5, 1975.

The flight took off from Saigon, current-day Ho Chi Minh City, just before the city was overtaken by the northern Vietnamese army.

John Williams, who some years later served as Holt’s president, was working with Holt in Vietnam at the time of the airlift.

“All the kids had arm bands and leg bands on every limb to identify them so they wouldn’t get mixed up or lost,” John says of the children on Holt’s flight, most of whom were already matched with adoptive families in the U.S. at the time of the emergency evacuation.

“It was a long, long flight,” he recalls.

The plane flew from Saigon to Guam to Honolulu to Seattle to Chicago and finally New York. Beginning in Honolulu, and at each stop along the way, children united with adoptive parents who were extremely relieved to know their children had made it out safely. Because this wasn’t the case for everyone… An evacuation flight just days before — a flight the Holt children had nearly been on — tragically crashed several minutes after takeoff.

And just a few days later, John Williams – upon his return to Vietnam to help Holt staff evacuate – described the scene as “total anarchy in the streets — which were littered with uniforms and military equipment discarded by South Vietnamese soldiers fearing for their lives.”

This year marks 50 years since Operation Babylift, which was a defining and iconic moment in Holt’s history and legacy of caring for orphaned and vulnerable children.

But this flight was not the beginning of Holt’s work in Vietnam, and it certainly didn’t mark the end.

Holt Began Work in Vietnam

Holt first began working in Vietnam in 1972. The program primarily helped place children with adoptive families in the U.S. Because of the decades-long conflict in Vietnam, there were an estimated 900,000 homeless children in the country at the time.

Holt opened a child care center in response to this great need, providing the food and care that children needed while searching for permanent families for them through international adoption.

While some of these children had no known living parents, many of them did.

“Because of the conflict,” John says, “there were a lot of parents of children who were under great duress and thought their children would be better off in an institution because they were short of food and medical care.”

Realizing this, Holt’s team in Vietnam believed there should be alternatives or options other than international adoption for birth families to consider. Holt sought and secured a USAID grant to help reunify children from institutions with their birth families and empower families in poverty to continue caring for their children.

This is how Holt’s first family strengthening program began — in October 1974.

“The program was getting off to a very good start,” explains John, a former community development Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand and USAID agriculture and refugee resettlement officer in Laos, hired by Holt to manage the program. By January 1975, John says the number of families in the program was significant. But as it became clear mid-to-late March that Saigon would soon fall to the North, the program was cut short — and Holt’s team on the ground realized it was time to make plans to leave the country.   

International Adoption Today

After the babylift, Holt couldn’t fully serve children in Vietnam again until 1989, when the Government of Vietnam invited Holt to help support and operate orphanages. In the ensuing years, Holt continued what they started before the babylift in 1975 — developing programs throughout the country that enabled children to stay in the loving care of their birth families.

International adoption from Vietnam to the U.S. occurred mostly off and on throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, as adoption legislation and country agreements changed, and was suspended in 2008. But in 2014, Holt was specifically invited to reopen the international adoption program to begin finding families for older children and those with special needs.

Today in Vietnam, similar to in the 1970s, most of the children in orphanages have living parents or extended birth family. But the reasons they remain in orphanage care are complex, from neglect or abuse to poverty or other crises that keep their families from being able to meet their child’s basic needs.

Child welfare centers are meant to provide temporary care for children — with the first goal being to reunify each child with loving birth family. Domestic adoption is pursued for the children who can’t reunify with their birth family. And only once these options are exhausted, international adoption is seen as the best opportunity for a child to grow up in a family, and not an institution.

Huong Nguyen, Holt’s Vietnam country director, explains that the government has strict criteria for who can and can’t be enrolled into orphanage care. “First, [the government] sees if the child has any kind of relatives who can take care of them,” she says. “And even if a child does come to live at the center, they have a plan for reaching out to the family to discuss when they are able to reunite the child and the family.” 

Holt partners with both government-run and private child welfare centers across the country, providing caregiver trainings and other services to ensure the best care possible for the children who call these centers home.

While many of the children living in the centers are healthy and developmentally on-target, there is a much higher rate of children with disabilities and special needs living in institutional care than you’d find in the general population. The resources needed to care for a child with a disability are so much greater, and for a family already living in poverty, it can feel impossible. 

While orphanages in Vietnam have a high rate of children with disabilities, this reflects a higher overall rate of children born with birth defects and disabilities than other countries — particularly in certain regions of Vietnam. And the reason for this is tied to events from over 50 years ago.

While it was their grandparents and great-grandparents who lived through it, even generations later, Vietnamese children are still feeling the physical effects of the war. One region that was especially impacted is the city of Hoi An.  

Special Needs in Vietnam

Hoi An is a World Heritage Site and a beautiful coastal town that was once a significant Southeast Asian trading port in central Vietnam. It’s also the location of the Kianh Foundation – an incredible school for children with disabilities and special needs that’s supported by Holt sponsors and donors.

“The rates of disability are about 15 percent higher here,” says Hoang Pham, the program development director of the Kianh Foundation. And the likely cause is Agent Orange.

During the Vietnam War, American forces blanketed Hoi An and the surrounding region with the deadly chemical compound Agent Orange as they tried to fend off enemy troops. Thousands of innocent civilians died from exposure. And for more than two generations, women in areas once hit by Agent Orange have given birth to children with much higher-than-normal rates of physical and developmental disabilities.

But in this region with such high needs, there are few resources specifically for children with disabilities. That’s why the Kianh Foundation is so important.

The Kianh Foundation is an incredible, one-of-a-kind school for children with disabilities and special needs in Vietnam. Here, they learn life skills, have access to occupational and physical therapy — and grow and develop beyond what their families ever dreamed possible.

Every day, children with autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and more come from the surrounding area to learn. But there are many more who want, and need, to come.

“We have a wait list of about 200,” Hoang says. “And the school can hold just 80.”

Through word of mouth, parents hear about the Kianh Foundation and desperately hope their child can have a spot. Attendance here is one of the greatest hopes they can find for their child to thrive, and have as independent a life as possible.

Throughout Vietnam, some families know about Holt and come to us for help. But the majority are referred to Holt by the local child welfare officials. Since the end of the conflict in Vietnam, and the reunification of the country, Vietnam operates through a strong centralized government, with local branches in each province and city. Holt works closely with the government, often filling in the gaps to provide help.

“We support the parts that the government cannot,” Huong says. This can be Holt donor-funded programs like the Kianh Foundation, as well as individual families throughout the country who are living in poverty.

Family Strengthening in Vietnam

Life in Vietnam has dramatically changed in the 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War. Economic reforms have led to greater prosperity for many people. But they have also increased disparities between rich and poor, rural and urban, and ethnic majority and minority families. Rural families often migrate to cities in search of work, putting children at risk of family separation, trafficking and exploitation.

Because of this, Holt’s family strengthening program – which began because of the needs children and families faced towards the end of the war – is active and strong today, serving more than 6,000 children and families across the country.

The Vietnamese government is quick to identify families living in poverty, however they often don’t have enough resources to provide the help children and families need to overcome it. This is where Holt Vietnam and Holt donors come in with education, single mother support and economic empowerment programs.

Helping Children Go to School

Helping children go to school is one of the foundational ways Holt donors help children in Vietnam. While some aspects of school are free to students, essentials like tutoring fees, school supplies and more can easily force a child to drop out sooner than they should. But with the right materials, and the caring oversight of a Holt social worker, thousands of children are excelling in school and on their way to graduation.

This begins at even the earliest ages, at Holt-supported daycares and preschools throughout the country. Many families living in poverty would never have the option to send their child to preschool, or even have a safe place to send their child while they go to work. And because of the nutritious meal these children receive each day at preschool, malnutrition rates have dropped significantly!

Older children receive the economic support they need to continue in their studies. And for older teenagers who may have already dropped out of school — a common occurrence for those who don’t pass the entrance exam for secondary school — Holt sponsors and donors help provide vocational training. By learning a trade such as hairdressing or running a food cart, they have the opportunity to learn a stable trade to support themselves.

And the support Holt donors provide stretches to help the entire family.

Strengthening the Entire Family

“They are the poorest of the poor,” Huong says of the families in Holt’s family strengthening program today. “They’re really in need of support, and we come at the right time, when they are at the risk of family separation or at the risk of children dropping out at school.”

Some families, out of desperation and poverty, will place their child in an institution if they aren’t able to provide enough food, medical care or other basic needs. But keeping a child in the loving care of their family is Holt’s biggest goal.

They are the poorest of the poor. They’re really in need of support, and we come at the right time, when they are at the risk of family separation or at the risk of children dropping out at school.

Huong Nguyen, Holt Vietnam’s country director

To do this, Holt’s family strengthening program comes around families living in poverty, equipping them with the tools to become self-reliant and independently provide for their children.

Once these families are identified with help from the local government, a Holt social worker will visit their home, get to know their family, understand their needs and begin to make a plan with them. For many families, this can mean helping them start small businesses or other income-generating activities like raising ducks or goats, opening a small shop, and more.

“We work with them to identify their potential and abilities, and make a business plan for them,” Huong says. “It’s very individualized. It’s a case management approach.”

In Vietnam, this often works in combination with providing education to their children. Or, if they are young, single mothers, Holt’s team in Vietnam also provides support and resources as they learn to care for their baby.

The result is that each family receives just the help they need to make their life better, overcome poverty and stay together.

While Holt’s work has grown and changed over the years, its goal and the dedication of Holt staff and donors have remained the same since John Williams first arrived in Saigon in October 1974 to help create Holt’s first family strengthening program.

Amazing Commitment in Vietnam

“The degree to which the staff, under tremendously stressful circumstances, did their job…” John trails off as he fights back tears, recalling the days leading up to the babylift in April 1975. “Their commitment was amazing.”

And this amazing commitment continues today from the Holt staff, and the Holt sponsors and donors who make Holt’s work in Vietnam possible — all for the sake of children and families in need.

Help a Child in Greatest Need

Give emergency help to a child who is hungry, sick or living in dangerous conditions. Your gift will provide the critical food, medical care, safety and more they need when they need it the most.

Donate

The post Fifty Years After the Vietnam Babylift, Holt’s Work Continues appeared first on Holt International.

Dai lives with his elderly grandmother in a small charity home on the property of a church. Inside, it’s dark with no windows. And they don’t have many belongings.

When we visit in early December, his grandmother sits on the edge of her bed in the front room. Her eyes are sad as she shares about the injury that keeps her from working, and being able to provide for her grandson.

A year ago, she was selling lottery tickets on the side of the road — a means of miniscule income akin to panhandling, commonly seen in Vietnam among those who have no other way to earn a living. A motorbike hit her, shattering her leg. It easily could have done more harm to her very fragile frame.

Dai, by contrast, is tall with an athletic build. He has black hair and a wide smile. He’s softspoken as he sits next to his grandmother, sharing about himself, his life and his dreams.

“He speaks very well, very intelligently,” says Huong Nguyen, Holt Vietnam’s country director, who translates for him during our visit.

Dai is 17 years old. He likes playing sports — basketball, soccer and badminton. He loves to read, and he loves studying geography. His grandmother says he’s very responsible, doing most of the housework and cooking since her injury. He comes home as soon as he can after school to take care of her.

“I had difficulties before Holt’s support,” Dai says. “The biggest difficulty is that it’s only me living with my grandmother.”

Dai has two older brothers. One lives nearby and visit somewhat regularly, but he’s not in contact with his other brother. His parents got divorced when he was just 1 year old. When this happened, they both moved away and left him with his grandmother. They don’t send any money home to help his grandmother raise him.

Dai and his grandmother have always struggled to get by. But after the motorbike accident, things took a turn for worse.

“I would have to save my breakfast money and use it for school fees,” Dai says. It was a desperate attempt to cover the cost of school supplies, tutoring, student health insurance and other school fees required to continue his education. But the breakfast money alone wasn’t enough. He was on the edge of having to drop out of school entirely.

He needed help. And then, one day, help came… in the form of a Holt sponsor.

Child Sponsorship in Vietnam

In every province where we have programs, Holt’s team in Vietnam works closely with the local government. The government refers children and families to Holt who they’ve identified as living below the national poverty line. While the government provides as much aid as possible, they can rarely provide all the help a child needs to thrive, or even have their basic needs met.  

This is where Holt comes in.

In Vietnam, as in all Holt programs around the world, our local team or partner staff implements a personalized, case-managed approach for each child and family. This means a Holt social worker meets with the child and every member of their family. They get to know them, assess their biggest needs. They make a plan to help, and then continue meeting with the child and family for years into the future, ensuring their success.

“We discuss the solutions with them,” Huong says, “and that’s why the program is effective and sustainable.”

This level of help goes beyond what most governments, and even other nonprofit organizations, can offer. It requires a lot more resources. But it’s also the best, most sustainable way to help a child. And it’s only possible due to the compassion and incredible generosity of Holt’s child sponsors.

“Sponsorship is focusing on children,” Huong says. “And it’s a relationship between the donors and the children, a direct relationship.”

Still in School, Because of Sponsorship

When Dai got matched with his sponsor, things immediately got better. His sponsor helped cover his school fees. And not only did Dai not have to drop out of school, but he didn’t have to worry about the money required to attend anymore. He used his breakfast money for the nourishing food he needed, and he didn’t go to school hungry anymore.

“I can pay the school fees right away,” Dai says. “And I can buy books as I want or I need.” 

And Dai loves books. Lately he’s been getting lots of books about geography, his favorite subject. He is one of the top geography students in his entire province, and he will soon take a competitive exam on the topic. 

“I was not very good at geography before,” Dai says about his life before he was enrolled in Holt’s child sponsorship program. But now, without the financial worry, he’s able to follow this passion.

“[Now] I have more books to learn more from and focus on geography and also improve my knowledge of geography,” Dai says.

Thanks to his sponsor, Dai is absolutely excelling in school.

Additionally, sponsorship opens the door for a child to be known, and for their needs to be known. So when new difficulties arise, they can be helped. Already in the past year, this has happened in two big ways for Dai.

The Extra Help He Needed

When Dai first entered Holt’s child sponsorship program, his Holt social worker saw that he needed safe transportation to and from school. He used to walk a half hour to and from school each day. Holt Vietnam communicated this need with Holt’s team in the U.S. Soon, a donor made it possible to give him a Gift of Hope that made his life and getting to school so much easier — a bicycle! Now, he gets to school on his bike in less than ten minutes and uses the time saved to study or go to the library.

He keeps the bicycle safely inside the front room of his house, easily accessible for his ride to school each day.

Not only does being a part of Holt’s child sponsorship program help meet his basic needs, but it goes above and beyond to make his life better.

Another of Dai’s needs was recently met on the spot, the last time his Holt social worker visited him at home — along with our team that visited in December.

Sponsorship Makes All The Difference

“I cannot see in the distance, not even two meters,” Dai says during the visit. “I think I need glasses.”

But the cost of an eye exam and glasses, just $40 USD, is more than he and his grandmother could ever afford — even though it poses a serious safety risk as he rides his bike to school.

But once again, this is where the safety net of child sponsorship makes all the difference.

Immediately, Dai’s social worker pulls his grandmother aside to talk to her. They coordinate a time for Dai to go to the eye doctor — the very next day. His social worker finds a Holt donor who happily covers the cost of his exam and glasses — a Gift of Hope that will drastically change his life.

A day later, Dai is proudly wearing his brand-new black rimmed glasses — looking every bit the scholar that he is.

A Clear Future

Dai starts gathering his school bag, and pulls his bike out of the front room. He has to go back to school soon for an exam.

This young man is smart, driven and passionate about his future. But the reality is that Dai’s motivation and intelligence likely wouldn’t have been enough. Poverty steals potential. But child sponsorship can stand in the gap.

Dai’s sponsor, and gifts from other generous Holt donors, have helped meet some of his biggest needs. Help came at just the right time, and it is helping him to achieve his dreams.

“I want to be an environmental engineer,” Dai says. “I want to learn more about the environment and natural resources management and conservations for Vietnam to improve the living environment for the people. I think environment is very important, especially clean air. It’s difficult to really have a good quality of life [without it], and [we need] sustainable development.”

He’s only 17, but when you hear about Dai’s dreams, it’s easy to believe that this dream is exactly what he’s going to achieve. And now, he can see it too…

Just like his eyesight, Dai’s future used to be a bit blurry. He couldn’t see far ahead. He didn’t know if he would eat breakfast before school the next day. He didn’t even know if he would get to keep going to school.

But now, his future is clear. And thanks to his Holt sponsors, he has the support and resources to achieve whatever he puts his mind to.

Become a Child Sponsor

Connect with a child. Provide for their needs. Share your heart for $43 per month.

sponsor now!

The post His Future Is Clear appeared first on Holt International.

Hai cranes his neck to look through the doorway of his room. His eyes light up and his smile widens when he sees that there are visitors here to see him.

Every day, Hai spends most of his time in his crib. The crib is made of metal, with wooden slats on the bottom covered by a thin woven mat. Caregivers come in to help him eat, get dressed and go to the bathroom. Twice per day, he’s placed in a special chair and wheeled out to the courtyard to sit in the sun.

Hai has severe cerebral palsy, and very limited mobility. He can lay on his back, and turn his head from side to side, but his legs and arms are twisted tightly, and very thin for a 16-year-old boy.

“It breaks my heart,” says Hang Dam, Holt’s U.S.-based director of programs for Vietnam. “When he was in his former room, he used to have a television so he could at least watch cartoons and interact with younger children.”

Now that he’s older, Hai shares a room with a 22-year-old girl with a severe mental disability. This girl has only been here a few months, and before that she spent her whole life locked in her family’s home — because they had no resources to teach her how to function in public. This is heartbreakingly common for children with disabilities who are born into poverty. Now that she’s at the center, she has to be on medication to help her stay calm. She isn’t able to speak, and cannot interact with Hai at all.

Hang pulls stickers out of her bag and puts them on the bars of Hai’s crib. His smile widens, and he can’t take his eyes off them. He asks her to give him the rest of the sheet of stickers. He doesn’t want to use all of them up right away.

Child Welfare Centers in Vietnam

The orphanage where we meet Hai is located in a province several hours south of Ho Chi Min City in Vietnam. In Vietnam, orphanages are called “child welfare centers,” and they are directed and employed by the local government.

This child welfare center is a large, white two-story building centered around an open-air courtyard. The rooms, coming off of the courtyard, have white painted walls and white tiled floors.

From the outside, you wouldn’t immediately know kids live here. Not until you see the small plastic play structure in one corner of the courtyard, or the sports court lines painted on the ground outside.

The facility is clean, orderly and well-run. The caregivers and orphanage directors have strong relationships and bonds with the children, and they work hard every day to make sure the children’s needs are met. With the support of Holt sponsors and donors, Holt’s team in Vietnam helps provide medical care, more nourishing food for the children, nutrition and feeding training for the caregivers, and helps advocate for the children to ultimately join families through reunification or adoption.

But not every child will leave to join a family. And even though Holt has helped improve the quality for care at this orphanage, even a “good” orphanage is no place that a child should grow up.

No Place to Grow Up

The reasons children come to live in child welfare centers in Vietnam are because their families can’t care for them — either because they are truly orphaned, or their parents or extended family are incapable of caring for them due to mental illness, disability or imprisonment. Some infants, and even older children, are left at the gates of the center — and found and brought in by the staff.

This is a safe place for a child to live. But it’s meant to be temporary.

“The government strategy is now to deinstitutionalize,” says Huong Nguyen, Holt’s Vietnam country director. Deinstitutionalization, or transitioning children out of orphanage care, is Holt’s goal in every country where we work. We believe children are meant to grow up in a family, not an institution.

Huong explains that the government has strict criteria for who can and can’t be enrolled into orphanage care. “First [the government] sees if the child has any kind of relatives who can take care of them,” she says. “And even if a child does come to live at the center, they have a plan for reaching out to the family to discuss when they are able to reunite the child and the family.” 

Around the world, Holt advocates for every child to thrive in the love and care of a permanent, loving family. Whenever possible, a child should be reunited with their birth family. But if this isn’t possible, we next pursue domestic and then international adoption. But each of these paths can be complex, and the reality remains that thousands of children around the world live in long-term orphanage care settings.

Holt-Supported Orphan Care

Holt sponsors and donors have supported this particular child welfare center in Vietnam for over ten years. The youngest children in the center, and those with special needs, have Holt sponsors who help provide for their nutrition and educational needs. And over the years, Holt has provided supplemental funding to hire additional caregivers, as well as nutrition and feeding trainings for the staff through our Child Nutrition Program.

One of the caregivers, Le Leiu, has worked here for nine years. Her background was in nursing, which she said has been a perfect fit for taking care of the children, especially those with medical needs. She walks around, holding 22-month-old Vy on her hip, balancing the child around her own pregnant belly. Le Leiu says Vy has bonded especially closely with her. Vy isn’t walking yet, and is small for her age — it’s possible that she has dwarfism, and the caregivers and medical staff are continuing to assess her as she grows. She snuggles into her Le Leiu’s arms, giving a shy and small grin.

“This job is very hard work,” she says, “but seeing the children grow and develop every day gives me motivation.”

In 2019, Le Leiu took part in a training from Holt’s Child Nutrition Program. During the training, she and the other caregivers learned how easily children with disabilities can choke and get injured during meals, how to position them properly, and about the specialized formula or food they need to grow and develop. She says this training made a big difference for the children.

“Phillip,” for example, has cerebral palsy, and has benefitted greatly from the nutrition training.

His caregivers received the training when he was just a baby, so his whole life he’s been fed upright with the proper chair, utensils and technique. He hasn’t experienced as much aspirating, and the lung infections that can follow, like some of the other children have had to suffer.

Philip’s eyes are bright, and he smiles freely as he moves around in his crib, playing with a toy. Properly trained caregivers, and having enough of them employed at the center, have made all the difference for him. But this is a constant struggle for orphanages, which are chronically understaffed. Despite Holt’s efforts to bring in more caregivers, this problem persists due to Vietnam’s complex bureaucracy and strict policies.

Right now, for example, there are six caregivers who take care of the youngest children and those with special needs. But Le Leiu will soon go on maternity leave, and another caregiver recently got injured and is unable to come to work. So for the foreseeable future, there are just four caregivers – split up over three shifts – caring for 14 children with disabilities. The orphanage is doing its best to fill the gap by assigning one or two additional administrative staff to support the caregivers during meals and bath time, and by allowing older children to play and interact with the toddlers after school hours. 

Many of the children here — like Philip, Hai and Vy — have disabilities or special needs. But many others who live here are perfectly healthy, both physically and mentally. Some children live here for a short while, just several months or years until the can be reunified with their birth families. But many others, like Hai, will likely live here for their entire childhood, until they either age out and go out into the world on their own, or are transferred to a center for adults with disabilities sometime in their mid-20s.

Aging Out, or Adoption

What happens when a child moves to an adult facility?

“They stay there forever,” Huong says.

But thankfully, many of these children have another option — international adoption. That is, if a family comes forward before they age out of eligibility at 16.

While Hai is too old to be adopted internationally, there is still hope for 6-year-old Phillip, who has been on Holt’s waiting child photolisting for years.

“They see international adoption as very good for children.” Huong says of how intercountry adoption is perceived in Vietnam. “Because [the child] will have a better life, and they will be cared for better, and they will have more opportunities to develop themselves.”

This is because at even the best orphanages, they rarely have the specialized resources needed to help a child with disabilities and medical needs.

“What I’ve seen, and what makes me so sad,” Huong says, “is that for children with cerebral palsy, or autism or other disabilities, if they have enough therapy, their functions can be improved.”

But while they continue to live in the orphanage, their development is slow. While the resources provided by Holt donors address the most basic needs of the children — nutrition, education, medical care, even some therapy — their psychosocial and emotional needs can never fully be met in an institutional setting.

That’s why international adoption offers so much hope — in the care of a loving family, children can receive the medical care and therapies that are simply inaccessible in an orphanage.

Domestic Adoption in Vietnam

At Holt, our priority is to reunite children with their birth families. If that’s not possible, domestic adoption is explored for a child, and this option is always pursued first before international adoption.

However, domestic adoptions, Huong explains, really only happen for the youngest and healthiest children.

For the children who are eligible for domestic or international adoption, they live each day, month and year in hopeful waiting for a family to adopt them.

The Complexity of Reunification

For some children, it’s a different kind of waiting. These children are waiting for their birth family to become stable enough to bring them back home.

“I felt scared when I first came here to live,” says Thuy. Today she’s 16, but she started living here at just 6 years old. She’s a beautiful young woman, petite with an athletic build. Glasses frame her deep, bright eyes, which fill with tears as she shares her story.

“He can take care of me,” she says about her father, who lives just a couple miles away from the center. But the heartbreaking, unspoken implication is that he’s not truly capable of caring for her…

Thuy says her father used to come and visit her, as well as her older biological sister who lived in the center. But he visited less and less frequently as she grew up. Now, she mostly sees him on holidays.

“I wanted to live with my father, but he often drinks,” she says. “He goes out and gets drunk all the time, and comes back violent… So I feel safer here.” She cries softly as she shares this, and the orphanage staff who sit with her fail to hold back their tears as well.

Thuy says that in the future she wants to graduate and get a good job, so that she can help support her father and biological sister.  

Despite her father’s abuse and unhealthy lifestyle, it’s evident that she still cares for him deeply. It’s a complexity that shows a child’s deepest desire – to be loved and wanted by family. And while the children live here at the center, the caregivers try to operate as close to a family as they can.

Orphanage Family

The children who live here refer to each other as brothers and sisters, and to their caregivers as mothers. Because for the time being, they are each other’s family.

Caregivers will take the older children out for coffee, to talk with them and offer support. And even when children age out of the center, they often come back to help take care of the younger children — or to receive support from the staff as they learn how to find an apartment, apply for a job, budget their money and learn how to cook.

“I’m both happy and sad when I’m living here.”

Thuy walks upstairs, down an open-air hallway to a room that she shares with six other girls. Above the entrance to their room is a brightly colored, handmade sign that reads “Tiem Salon” with drawings of hearts and stars around it.

The room consists of three bunk beds, and in one corner are several clothes racks that hold the girls’ school uniforms and outfits.

Thuy shows us her bunk, but then points to a different bed across the room.

“I sleep here, though, with my sister,” she says.

“They love each other,” her caregiver says smiling. These girls aren’t biological sisters, but have bonded closely as sisters while they’ve lived here.

“I’m both happy and sad when I’m living here,” Thuy says.

This sentiment could describe every child who lives here. Each of them has experienced the heartbreak of illness, poverty, family loss and more. But they live every day with hope.

Here at the center, they are safe, they have enough food, go to school and have their basic needs met. Their caregivers do all they can for them, and are constantly striving to make their lives better.

They hope for a family — whether that means going home to their birth family or joining a family through adoption. And they embrace their “family” in the orphanage as they wait.

Give to the Molly Holt Fund!

Provide urgently needed medical care to a child in an orphanage with special needs.

give now

The post Growing Up in an Orphanage appeared first on Holt International.

If you were here, you’d be smiling. You’d be swaying to the jazzy Christmas music. Giving “oohs and aahs” as little girls twirled around in their frilly red Christmas dresses. And probably holding back tears of happiness as you saw children file in for the party.

I can say this, because it was exactly my experience last week at the Kianh Foundation’s Christmas party. It was possibly the most festive, joyful party I’ve ever attended. And I’m so excited to share about it with you — because it’s your support that made it possible!

The Kianh Foundation is an incredible, one-of-a-kind school for children with disabilities and special needs in Vietnam. Here, they learn life-skills, eat nutritious lunch, have access to occupational and physical therapy — and grow and develop beyond what their families ever dreamed possible.

They call this school “the happy place.” And I can imagine no “happier” time here than at Christmastime. Especially today — Christmas party day!

All around the world children in Holt programs attend Christmas parties because of their Holt sponsors. They get dressed up, receive presents, eat a festive meal, play games and more. It looks a little different in each country. And here at the Kianh Foundation in Vietnam, they really go all-out.

When we arrived at the center mid-morning, the children were already getting ready. Teachers brushed children’s hair, tying it into neat ponytails or braids. Little boys donned sparkly sequin vests and ties. Little girls came out, shyly at first, in their red sparkly dresses. But moments later they twirled and danced around, “look at me!”

Some of the older girls, most of whom have Down syndrome, wore dresses of white tulle, and enjoyed putting on festive red lipstick. They looked beautiful, and you could tell that they knew it!

For over three weeks, the students — of all ages and physical and mental abilities — had been practicing their Christmas performance especially for this party. And their hard work was evident!

The first song started out slow with “Silent Night.” The students danced to it with Christmas wreaths, moving in slow looping circles.

As the music built, so did their choreography – all accumulating to the end where the older children created a tunnel with their wreaths that they younger children walked or were wheeled through to the grand finale.

The second song, “Feliz Navidad” took a more upbeat tone. Children jumped exuberantly to the beat, all the while waving their metallic silver and red pom-poms. The joy in the room was altogether overwhelming!

After the performances were over, children sat back down and another very special guest appeared… Santa! (Their school cook dressed as Santa.. shhhh!) Santa gave each child a special package — a gift from their Holt sponsor. Many children were overjoyed to find a small red firetruck inside!

Next it was time for the meal. But this wasn’t just any meal, it was a feast! There was fruit and sausages and pizza and steamed coconut rice in banana leaves and more. Children went back for seconds… and thirds!

And in the center of the table of food was a beautiful, ornate chocolate Christmas cake!

Throughout the performances, presents and food, the festive happiness in the room felt tangible. Children and their teachers alike laughed and had fun together. And all of this was only possible because of Holt sponsors and donors around the world… who cared enough to give these very special children a very special Christmas party.

The Kianh Foundation is an incredibly special place, where each child receives the life-changing therapy and education they need to overcome their challenges and thrive. Even more, because of this place, they have the opportunity to experience childhood joy. Like the joy of a party. And today, it was the joy of a very special Christmas celebration.

Give the Gift of Joy this Christmas

Provide a child in need with a festive party, a warm holiday meal and a special gift.

give now

The post Christmas at Kianh appeared first on Holt International.

Rohan and Vihaan live in a makeshift tent on the outskirts of a big city in India. Their home is drafty and cold in the winter months. Not only that, but rats can get in. They often find holes bitten into their clothes, including their warm clothes from last year…

Their mom worried about how the boys would stay warm this coming winter.

But then, you gave Rohan and Vihaan — and 132 other children at their Holt-supported early education center — brand-new sweatshirts!

“These gifts came at just the right time,” says Rohan and Vihaan’s mom. She is so grateful that they can wear them to ward off the cold. Especially because warm, clean clothes without holes will help the children stay healthier through the winter.

The children who attend this Holt-supported center come from migrant families, and they live in deep poverty and unhygienic conditions in makeshift camps outside the city. They so rarely receive anything new…

That’s why they are so grateful for the new sweatshirts you gave them. They’ve been wearing them every day!

Thank you for blessing these children with warm and clean sweatshirts. Thanks to you, they’ll stay warm this winter.

Keep a Child Warm

You can help keep a child warm and healthy this winter! Just $52 provides a child with a much-needed warm coat and blanket.

Give now

The post Warm This Winter appeared first on Holt International.

Abebe and his family needed a new house. He and his parents and four siblings lived in a house in rural Uganda made of stacked sticks and mud. It leaked, causing everyone and everything inside to get damp and cold whenever it rained.

But Abebe’s family couldn’t afford a new home. His father worked as a cobbler, and his mother grew a garden to provide extra food for the family. But their family also has some unique challenges…

Abebe’s father is physically disabled, his mother is mentally disabled, and two of Abebe’s siblings are disabled as well. Life was especially difficult for them. A new home would be impossible…

But everything changed when they received your help and were able to join Holt Uganda’s family strengthening program!

Right away, Abebe received two new pairs of shoes, a comfortable mattress to sleep on and even a goat! But the even bigger gift was yet to come… when Holt donors built him and his family a new house!

The house is made of stable bricks and has a strong door, window coverings and a tin roof that won’t leak. There are even four bedrooms —  with enough space for the whole family!

Abebe says he feels so loved, blessed and full of confidence. He has even been bringing his friends by to visit on their walk home from school — he is so proud to show them his new house!

“We feel safer in the new house, have better quality sleep and feel proud of our new home,” Abebe’s family says. “When you trust in God, He chooses for you the right people who will never tire with their generosity.”

Thank you for generously helping to provide safe housing to Abebe and his family — and to many other children and families around the world.

Keep a Child Warm

You can help keep a child warm and healthy this winter! Just $52 provides a child with a much-needed warm coat and blanket.

Give now

The post A Safe New Home appeared first on Holt International.

In Pune, India, lives a family with five daughters.

In generations past, this would have been viewed as a tremendous misfortune — having daughters instead of sons. In this culture, and at that time, daughters were often seen as an expense. A daughter was another mouth to feed until the day she could be married off. And getting a daughter married, and providing a good dowry, was extremely costly as well.

Due to poverty, parents would often marry their daughter off as early as possible — even as a young teenager. She would drop out after just a few years of school. She was lucky if she was literate, and even knew the basics of math.

Culture and poverty determined, there was little use in educating a girl.

The Importance of Educating Girls

But the problem and solution to this issue are one and the same: education. While ending a girl’s education can send her into child marriage, the single best way to prevent child marriage is to keep a girl in school as long as possible.

Thankfully, efforts to educate girls and prevent child marriage have grown in recent decades. And in several communities across India, these efforts are in large part because of the generosity and impact of Holt sponsors and donors.

Once such community is in Pune, a city in western India. This is where the Kumar family lives.

The Kumar Daughters

When the team at Holt’s partner organization in Pune, Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra (BSSK), first met the Kumar family in 2016, the mother and father were already dedicated to their girls’ education.

But living in an impoverished slum community, they struggled to afford it. Paying for school uniforms, fees and supplies — times five — was a small fortune. Each year, they prayed that each of their daughters would be able to continue her education.

Holt Donors Support Girls’ Education in India

That’s why they were so thankful when Holt donors stepped up to provide educational assistance to their daughters.

By providing educational support for each girl, Holt sponsors and donors made sure they had the uniforms and supplies they needed to succeed — as well as the ongoing support of a dedicated teacher and BSSK social worker who ensured the entire family had the resources they needed.

“Both Mr. and Mrs. Kumar balanced their jobs while ensuring their family’s needs were met, including dedicating time to their children’s education,” BSSK says. “Each sister is deeply committed to their studies, with their parents are actively participating in school and BSSK meetings, always encouraging their children’s educational pursuits.”

Each of the Kumar girls had a solid foundation in education, made possible by Holt sponsors and donors, BSSK and their loving parents.

And when tragedy struck, this solid foundation is what helped them get through…

Emergency Help

Earlier this year, the girls’ father passed away from esophageal cancer. The daughters and their mom were filled with grief. They were also afraid, and unsure about how they’d survive as their mom was suddenly the sole provider for the entire family.

“She is a pillar of strength, tirelessly motivating her daughters to pursue further education.”  

Right away, Holt donors helped provide the family with two months of food deliveries, until they could get back up on their feet. BSSK provided support for the mother and the daughters as they navigated their grief and learned to move forward.

Mrs. Kumar got a job as a domestic helper to a wealthy family in the city, and began to earn an income to provide for her daughters.

“She is a pillar of strength,” BSSK says, “tirelessly motivating her daughters to pursue further education.”  

While Mrs. Kumar made enough income to pay for rent and food, she would never have been able to support all of her girls’ educations on her own. And thanks to Holt donors she didn’t have to. With their continued support, all five of the girls have continued in school.

“Despite this loss,” BSSK says, “the family persevered.”

The eldest daughter, Pushpa, is currently in her second year post-graduation, while her four younger sisters — Hema, Aiza, Deepti and Darshana — are diligently pursuing their studies in their respective grades. They’re active in various BSSK activities, and have attended sessions ranging from study skills to karate classes.

“The Kumar family expresses deep gratitude to Holt donors for this invaluable assistance, which has played a pivotal role in shaping their educational journey.”

Prevent Child Marriage This Giving Tuesday

Child marriage rates have increased dramatically since the pandemic. But you can protect a girl by sending her to school.

Give now

The post Five Sisters in School appeared first on Holt International.