A New Way to Support Street Children in Can Tho

VNHELP collaborated with the Can Tho Charitable Institute to start the Can Tho Street Children Program in 1995. The program provided intervention services to homeless and semi-homeless children between The ages of 6 and 15. These children were forced to live on city streets in order to provide supplemental income for their families. Many of the street children came from a poor fishing village on an island right across the river from the Can Tho's main market. The street children sold lottery tickets or candies, scavenged for recyclables, and sometimes engaged in petty crimes, such as purse snatching and pick pocketing.

With VNHELP's support in the past 10 years, the Can Tho Street Children Center has helped over 400 children by providing nutritional meals, teaching them how to read and write and good manner, giving them basic health care, training them a vocational skill, and best of all...creating for them a safe and nurturing place like home.

In May 2004, due to a major change in the local government structure and policy, the Can Tho Street Children Center was closed down. But the children continue to receive VNHELP support in a whole new way - they are placed in foster families. With the tireless effort from the local volunteers in selecting qualified foster parents, in June we were able to place 15 homeless children in loving foster families. VNHELP provides funds to these families who help raise the poor and deserving children. We received good progress reports. We are monitoring the program closely to ensure the best for the children. We hope to expand the program in the near future to support more street children in this new project model.