Events & Workshops
CEF believes in supporting students in other ways we consider important and beneficial to them.
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Water Safety Day
This day at the beach is a highlight for the children. They have a lot of fun and a chance to meet other children from similar backgrounds. They learn water safety theory, how to float and swim and have a long session of water and beach games. In the afternoon they have a fun activity away from the hot sun, and for three years we went to an air-conditioned cinema to see a humorous and educational movie. In the summers of 2020, 2021 and 2022 this program could not be run due to Covid and Covid Social restrictions. |
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Creative Expression ~ Art and Photography
Art ~ These art sessions take place whenever this is an artist to lead them. The goal is to stimulate the creativity of our students. So far the children have painted and drawn with a variety of materials. They have made cards, bookmarks and decorated gift boxes, have painted on Vietnamese conical hats and colored in beautiful mandalas and made friendship bracelets. Unfortunately this day has not been possible over the last three years due to Covid and Covid restrictions. |
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Creative Expression ~ Art and Photography
Photography ~ A summer program was started to teach photography to local CEF students. Seeing the world and capturing it using this medium stimulates their creativity. Creative thinking can be used to resolve the challenges they face. For our last sessions four volunteer photographers ran sessions in four locations in and around Hoi An for twelve girls. They trained them in the basics, helped them with their skills as well as sharing their knowledge and passion for photography. The sessions ended with an exhibition of the best photographs taken by the girls. This was the first time any of the girls had used a camera and in the next workshop we plan to introduce further skills including simple editing. Unfortunately we have not been able to run this program for the last few years due to Covid and Covid restrictions. |
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therLife Skills Workshops
Tertiary students and high school students attended the 2016 workshop, which concentrated on Career and Interview Skills. They learned about time management, resume writing , job interviews and how to present themselves at interviews , and included were suggestions on what to wear for interviews and in the workplace. The 2017 workshop focused on Communication Skills. Good communication with family, friends, with boys, interviewers and employers was covered. As the girls in our programs are spending more and more time on social media a key component of the workshop covered safe and responsible use of social media such as Facebook, in particular looking at topics such as online grooming and exploitation for sex. Annual Budgeting Workshops have been run since 2018. In 2020 and 2021 due to Covid and Covid restrictions we couldn't run them. In 2022 we successfully ran the workshop online. These important skills help our students to be conscious about how they spend the university funds they have been given and the money they earn. We added menu planning with simple, nutritious meals when discovering some students were living off instant noodles so they could spend their money on non-essentials. Their health and skin had deteriorated, a tell tale sign of poor nutrition. Simple things make a difference. |
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Girls to Women ~ Female Health & Hygiene Workshop
These workshops are for our secondary, high school and tertiary students. The subjects of these workshops includes general hygiene and female health and female hygiene, family planning, relationships and sexual diseases. Some sessions are just for grade 12 and tertiary students (friendships, relationships, STD's and contraception). The goal is to explore this sensitive subject with the girls. We want to ensure they avoid infertility, the need for an abortion, or premature parenthood all of which will affect their studies and their lives. As these girls come from poor commuties we briefly cover human trafficking. |
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Education Against Trafficking and Child Labour
Trafficking, which includes the coercion of girls for sex and forced labour, is a major issue worldwide and in Viet Nam. It happens in the communities CEF works in too. Although this is not a major part of our work, it is an very important aspect and we are developing our education work on trafficking and child labour. Our staff undergo annual training with our sister NGO, Blue Dragon Children's Foundation, which specialises in anti-trafficking in Viet Nam, to stay on top of the latest techniques used by traffickers and to better understand this very real risk. The staff give local presentations to bring greater awareness of this growing threat to girls and young women as well as running workshops in conjunction with Blue Dragon on this topic for girls from grade 9 to 12 and for those in university. We wish to do what we can to help the CEF girls avoid the traumatic experience of being trafficked. With financial support from Go Philanthropic Foundation we have been able to run workshops for one of the schools we work with where there is a high ratio of ethnic students. Three staff took responsiblility for preparing and teaching the sessions over two days. |
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Child Sexual Abuse
It’s a sad fact that child abuse happens within families whose children CEF’s supporters help. Recognising this abuse and knowing what to do about it is essential for our staff. To this end they have training with a specialist social worker so they are better equipped during home visits to spot the signs that abuse may be going on. This topic is also included in workshops for high school and university students and is presented to the parents and carers of our sponsorship students as well. |