The Director of Hoa Sua Restaurant- Hotel - Tourism, Vietnam.
Speech for the Street Children workshop.
1. The real situation of street children in Vietnam in the current period.
According to the statistics of The Ministry of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs, The current number of street children in the whole country is about 20,000 children, with the largest concentration in Ho Chi Minh City, which has a population of 8.500 street children.
Description of street children in Vietnam.
Most are children from complicated and difficult family situations (poor family, divorced parents, orphaned children,?.
- Low level of education.
- Street life without stability (eating, living, health care, education,?.
- Earning their living from small occupations : selling newspapers, polishing shoes, selling souvenirs, hired labour, begging for food, ?/SPAN>
- In general these are children from small and poor provinces coming to the city to earn their living.
- Seasonal street children.
Programmes, projects having an effect on the street situation :
- The Offices of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs of provinces / cities organize social welfare centres, care homes, open houses ?to receive and provide a living, sustenance for street children.
- International and country projects, programmes : Far Away from Mother, KoTo (Hanoi) ;Triangle, Enfants de la rue (Ho Chi Minh City) ; Plan Internation (Hue, Da Nang) ; Terre des hommes (Can Tho) ?I>Assistant content : assisting with capital for financial aid, supplying vocational training and educational services.
In recent times, The EU has given assistance to a project in Vietnam worth 6.8 million euros over a period of 3 years (2005 - 2007), with the target of reducing the number of street children in big cities by 40% to 50%. In addition, the project helps about 4,000 street children to integrate into society through services such as : Education, medicine, lived in sponsor families.
Appearance of Hoa Sua School.
Perceiving the needs of disadvantaged young people, 6 Vietnamese women decided to open a charitable vocational training school aiming to participate in the alleviation of hunger and poverty launched by the Vietnamese Government.
Before expanding their activities, the founding members of the school implemented studies of real situations of disadvantaged young people and their specific needs.
o The categories of disadvantaged young people : children of war invalids, children without parents, children from poor families, street children.
o The urgent requirements of this young people are vocational training and introduction to jobs without having to pay a fee.
o The real economic situation in Vietnam : The tourism sector has seen good development and needs human resources with high professional skill.
2. Some specifics of Hoa Sua Tourism ?Economic School.
- Foundation : 11/1994.
- Targets : Free vocational training and finding employment for disadvantaged and disabled young people in Vietnam.
- Active field : Restaurant, hotel and embroidery outlets (the training of European cooking, Asian cooking, Table service, Bakery and Pastry, housekeeping).
- Recipients: young people from the age of 16.5 to 25 (children of war invalids, children without parents, children of poor families, street children, ethnic minority youth?.
- Area of influence: People抯 Committee, Offices of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs of provinces, cities, social welfare centres, Children ?Family ?Population Committee ?/SPAN>
- Active Form : Self-regulation of finances.
2.1. The special training programme detailed below aims to address two real situations : the low education level of students before they enter the school and the requirements of employers are becoming higher.
- Combining the programme frame of the Vietnamese vocational training system and French techniques.
- Establishing an effective, active and specific professional training programme suitable for each kind :
o Short term training programme for pupils who did not graduate from secondary schools.
o Long term training programme for pupils who graduated from secondary schools.
o High vocational training programme for pupils who graduated from high schools.
o Pre-vocational training programme for street children and ethnic minority youth ?(teaching cultural knowledge, vocational orienting, health care and psychological consultation).
- Confirming clear knowledge requirements which must be met for each training period.
o Basic techniques during the first 3 months at school.
o Professional skills from practical experience at the training restaurant.
o Management skills and professional experiences from practices in other enterprises.
- The training programme focuses on practice through organizing the training restaurant and shops.
- Practising experience for students in other enterprises aims at :
a. Allowing students to experience the conditions of a real working environment.
b. Assessing the ability and suitability of students.
c. Finding out the real needs of the labour market to implement improvements to the training programme if necessary.
2.2. Social targets of businesses :
The training restaurant and shops have 3 aims :
a. To introduce practical production and appreciation of quality to each student in the training process.
b. To introduce the school training quality (quality of students) to employers.
c. To pay for chariable training activities.
2.3. The relation between School ?Enterprise: For the benefit of both sides.
- The benefits to both sides in this relationship :
o For the school : introducing students to jobs, grasping the needs of the labour market, improving the programme with the aim of supplying the requirements of professions.
o For the employers : recruiting employees with good professional skills, participating in human resource training activities?/SPAN>
o For the students : having the chance to acquaint themselves with a professional working environment, learning new professional techniques.
- Corporation Activities :
o The school provides students to prastice in enterprises.
o Professionals participate as jury to assess the students in their graduating exams.
o Employers recruit the students after graduation.
o Exchanging feedback on training quality through assessment of quality of students?work in enterprises, and on this basic making improvements in the training programme.
2.4. Certificates and training qualifications are carefully paid attention to meet with expectations and competition of training quality.
- Along with Vietnamese professional certificates, 3 kinds of training are reconized by French Partners (CCIV) by awarding French-Vietnamese Certificates on European cooking, Pastry, Bakery and Restaurant Service training
- Evaluation of training quality of students during their study at the school is given by French professors and professionals from hotels and restaurants in Hanoi
- 100% of graduate students find a stable job and provide for themselves.
3. Training programme for street children
Since the day of its foundation, street children have been chosen as one of the main recipients of training of the school.
In the first period, the school抯 main enrolled partner for street children was Far Away From the Home Programme (Hanoi). Up to now, 61 street children from this programme have received professional training at Hoa Sua School.
During the last 10 years, the training programme has upgraded and updated to suit the disadvantaged target youth and meet the increasing needs and requirements of employers in the labour market.
- Expanding enrollment : A pre-vocational class for children from the age of 16.5 with the following background :
a. Children reaching the age of 16 have to leave the childrens villages and social welfare centres.
b. Without necessary professional knowledge to earn a living.
c. Young people not of working age, coming back to the cities to work on the streets.
- Expanding coopeeration with local partners with the aim of :
- Cooperation in recruitment and finding jobs.
- Returning the graduate students to their countries to participate in their local economy.
- Limiting the labour flow to big cities.
- The policy of returning students to their families after training and assistance with stability and activity.
?SPAN style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> Improvements in training policy of school with the aim of :
- Preparing children to participate in regular professional training programmes.
- Limiting the number of children coming back to the streets after they leave children抯 village and social welfare centres.
- Limiting the flow of people to the big cities
- Strengthening cooperation with international and country organizations working together for disadvantaged youth.
- In 1999, Hoa Sua started to expand the community classes featuring :
o Partners : Hanoi Childcare Committee.
o Object : Street children in the Hanoi area.
o Enrollment numbers : 20 students/course x 2 courses.
o Place : local, aiming to involve the participation of the community in professional training work for street children.
o Training content : supplementary education and professional training.
o Training time : 6 months of preparation before the pupils officially enter the professional classes.
o Difficulties : The class far away from the school, so there were difficulties in class management and training activities, pupils not able to participate in general activities at school ?/SPAN>
- In 2000, from experience of the first experimental class, Hoa Sua cooperated with UNICEF and Hanoi Childcare Committee continuing to implement the community (pre-vocational training) classes given to street children in the Hanoi area.
- Due to shortages of basic materials (classrooms and living rooms for pupils), the project had to stop for a period of time.
- In 2003, Hoa Sua School continued to implement the pre-vocational class as a community class model but reorganized with some changes as follows :
o Partner : Plan International and Social welfare centre.
o Enrollments : 20 students/course x 2 courses/year.
o Place : the main base of the school, using the general room for the professional class but having a separate training programme.
o Difficulties : Lack of basic materials to give adequete attention to each student.
- Currently, in the project frame of cooperation with The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the French partners, the school is building a house area to provide a separate space for the pre-vocational class with rooms and bedrooms, to create a suitable environment for organizing practical and theory teaching times.
v Achived effects of the street children training programme.
?SPAN style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> The total number of street children who have finished the training and have been introduced to work : 200 pupils
?SPAN style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> Places of work : hotels, private restaurants, private houses?
?SPAN style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> The number of street children who have been trained: 78 pupils.
?SPAN style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> Some illustrative examples : Hai is a restaurant manager, Linh is an European cooking teacher, some pupils have become the heads of small enterprises...)
v Focussing on problems in the education programmes for street youth
- a programme is set up according to the speciality of each group of street youth :
o A short term vocational training programe which provides students with basic techniques is set up for poor and street youth who have to leave their homes to earn their living (e.g LAB programe carried out by Plan International). These young people will have a chance to come back to the school to upgrade their professional vocational education.
o A long term vocational training programme with some supporting education subjects are reserved for those who come from more complicated family situations such as divorce, lack of education....). This kind of youth is not in great need of money. However, they want to be independent and earn money.
- It is necessary, there is a need of a cooperation between different organizations and authorities who get involved in the education of street children in order to:
o Make sure there are close relations to educate them during their stay at the school
o Guarantee their background, origins on the basis of which the school will cooperate with local authorities to arrange jobs for them after graduation
o Cooperate to improve their basic educational background before they enter the school
- Look for different programmes for street children to share experiences and activities in all over Vietnam.
- Call for fund necessary for education programmes from different international organizations related to street children.
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