Vietnam: Volunteering

Obviously the main reason I went to Vietnam was to volunteer so that seems to most obvious place to start with my Vietnam blog posts.

The majority of our time volunteering was spent at the Friendship Village, a village for children age 6-20 who are offspring of former Vietnamese soldiers and affected by Agent Orange. We spent time within the classroom helping with the children, as well as painting and gardening to help renovate the centre. It was a really incredible experience, and taught me so much. We also had the chance to meet with some Vietnam war veterans who shared their experiences with us.

Working in the classrooms was a really fun experience. We started by helping the kids with some basic writing or number work, a lot of them would loose concentration very quickly so it was important to keep them focused on their task. Communication was also tricky at times, but I quickly learnt that whilst they may not understand "try that question again" if I put the rubber on top of their answer it meant they should rub it out and try again. After that we would do a game or something that would get the kids moving. They loved "if you're happy and you know it"! After the kids had had their lunch we would do some arts and crafts or colouring. I have to say my crayoning skills are still on point.

For a couple of days we worked on renovating the dining room, giving it a good clean and a fresh lick of paint in order to make it much brighter and nicer for all the children to work in. It was hot, heavy work but the room looked so much better after our two days of work! We also did some gardening which again was hot work (everywhere in Vietnam is hot!) and the extra team of volunteers really helped make a difference around the centre.

The highlight was definitely just spending time with the kids, whether it was playing in the playground after lessons finished for an extra hour or so, or spending the evening watching a movie with them. They were all so great and we had lots of fun being with them!

Now for some photos...

After painting the dining room 

With the war veterans

With the one of the directors of the centre

Friendship Village

Painting in progress

Arts and crafts 

One of the lovely kids in Skills class 

Selfies with one of our kids

See-saw times 

Being at the Friendship Village not only taught me so much about working with kids and in a team, but also about the Vietnam war and the lasting affects that it had. It was challenging at times but ultimately it was so much fun and I would hundred percent take up an opportunity like that again. 

I hope you've enjoyed learning a bit about The Friendship Village, to find out some more here's some links 

x, x

xxx