Oelkes in VietNam: The School Team . . .

This year the school team was divided into 3 groups, the painters, the market, and the food distributors. Brianna was glad to be on the painting team. Little did she know, however, that the team was to paint the entire school!

The market team sorted out the many donated items and had to sort them out and create a market for the local community. Throughout the school year, the students earned vouchers that they could use to shop at the market that our kids put together! For many local families, this may be the only shopping they do all year.

The food distribution team did just that. My friend Martha is on the school team and here is what she wrote. "Today we had food distribution. Each month Catalyst distributes food to people in their community. The food consists of rice, beans, oil, noodles, milk and formula. The amount given will last a family of 4 for one month. Many people from surronding areas arrived, thinking they would also be receiving food. We said we could give them all but rice and oil, they were not happy about that. One mother with a 9 month old and a 6-7 year old was in tears, she just wanted to feed her children. It's hard to watch. If we give food away for everyone, the program doesn't work. The idea is to educate the children and teach the parents, for that they earn vochures for food and other items. If a child scores well on tests and gets good grades, they get vochures. If parents attend special trainings on the weekend, participate in community events, they get vochures. If they don't do any of the above, no vouchers. It's the give a man a fish, eats for a day, give a man a fishing pole he eats everyday philosophy. Even knowing all of that it's hard to watch a mom have nothing to feed her children."

The school team also had a lot of fun! Since we were in Rach Gia for the entire trip, the kids got to play with the kids at the school and they seemed to really appreciate each other!