WEATHER

Saturday, Dec 03, 2011, Posted at: 14:25(GMT+7)

Northern region reeling under cold spell

The northern region of Vietnam is reeling under extreme cold weather conditions with temperatures dropping to 3 degrees Celsius since Thursday, as a result of the cold front.

Blankets for home, coats, boots and shoes!!!!!!!!

letter to sponsor

OUR SPONSORSHIP PROGRAM:

  For those of you who are thinking about sponsoring a child in Lang Son I've included a copy of one of my most recent sponsor letters. There are pictures that go along with this letter that I am not publishing plus I've changed the names of this family. Still this can help give a good idea of you can do if you are inclined. There are children who need to be sponsored in Lang Son. We are working with the school to gather information and visit the students in their homes. Once that's done if you are ready, we'll be ready.

The student you and your husband are helping is 10 years old. He was born in 2002 ( I am still waiting for his month and day). He attends Tan Lien Primary School, currently in the 4th grade. It takes him 1 hour to walk to school because of the terrain and the distance. This means he's walked this way to and from school for 5 years, counting kindergarten. I can hardly imagine how he did this when we was so young.

  He lives at home with his mother Ba, age 52 and father, Van age 48 plus their blind grandfather. It is unclear to me if both of his older brothers live with them too. His oldest brother Van is 26 years old, married to Bich who is 21. They have a little girl around 2 or 3 years old. Their blind grandfather helps to watch her during the day when everyone else is working in the fields. They are all farmers. His 2nd brother, Son is 18, no longer in school. I don't know yet how many years his older brothers attended school.

  Son and the school reported this family is very poor and hungry throughout the year. The newest poverty levels set by the government agency MOLISA state if a family's income is less than 20usd per person per month they are poor.. They are considered "near poor" if the income per person per month is more than 20usd but less than 25usd.  I think that helps paint a clearer picture of the positive effects your decision to sponsor Khue can have for his whole family.

   Through your caring and actions Khue will have a nutritious lunch 5 days a week. He'll join nearly 60 other children who stay at the school for lunch due to the long distance they walk and the fact there is not enough food available to them at home. Viet Nam is working hard to limit the percent of children who are malnourished. The rural ethnic minority child, like Khue are the last ones  on the list to begin to receive government help. I think over the next few years a lot will change for the better for the children of Lang Son province.  Meanwhile, the children are waiting for some one like you, me and others to reach out now. 

    Son visited this family in October. We were concerned about Khue's welfare since the recent weather changes in Lang Son. For the past 2 years it snowed in Lang Son and stayed so cold. It's so humid there- even in the winter - it snows at 2 degrees F higher than in the states. Can you imagine what a cold one chilling winter it is there?

  When you look at the pictures of Khue's home you'll see there is no glass in his windows. They do have shutters- not ones that close well- though much better than none at all! Khue and his family received a blanket too to help with the coming predicted cold winter. This weather change is making life more difficult for families and for animals. Last year over 7,000 livestock froze to death in Linh's province alone.  

   You provided them with 30 chicks and starter feed! When the chicks grow they will have eggs to eat and the occasional chicken too- plus they can sell some at the market once they get to laying and hatching eggs. To help teach the families better ways to care and raise the chickens we are building a chicken coop for the school. There the students will learn about the care and raising of chickens, how to detect disease, how to prevent or treat it plus have more chickens and eggs to eat. Studies in Viet Nam showed when students where taught how to better care for livestock they passed on the information successfully to their parents. So, Lisa, we are hopeful for their future through your intervention. 

   Son plans on delivering a bike for Khue to make his way to and from school better.. I'll check on this info in the next week. I mentioned to you that when Son steps in like that I know the life is difficult for the student- even beyond what photos can show.

   You also provided food - rice, sauce, oil for cooking. Khue received clothes too. Before Son traveled to see these poor rural families he emailed his friends to collect children's clothes. Son brought them to several students and of course Khue was one of them. 

   We recently had the school give nice jackets and blankets to the 20 poorest/neediest students. All the children at the school are going to receive new boots or good solid sneakers and socks for the winter. As soon as that happens I will send you the photos too. 

 I think that catches you up on Khue for now. Les and I will visit him when we go to Viet Nam this Spring. You can send gifts to him through us- I will save room in one of our suitcases if you like. If you want to help him more we can help you to do that. Please know you have already made a world of difference in his life and his families too. 

Many many thanks

Bonnie

The Children are Cold in Lang Son

I'm worried about the students in Lang Son. We received a beautiful video of the primary school students doing their morning exercises. I watched happy until I noticed how many of them were barefoot. Winter begins in November. Please consider donating to help us purchase more coats, sweaters, scarves and most importantly socks, shoes and boots. A donation of 30usd will provide one child with all of the above. Please give what you can, every bit counts.
http://www.familiesinvietnam.org/love_education_fund.shtml
scroll down to Food for Thought to make a donation now.
Many thanks for your attention and kindness.

The winters are colder in Lang Son. The past 2 years it snowed. It is such a wet cold, in fact it is so wet/cold it snows in Lang Son at 2degrees F warmer there than in the USA.
The follow article reports on the effects of the unusually cold winter in Lang Son.

Updated : 5:15 PM, 02/02/2011

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More than 50,000 heads of cattle died of severe cold weather

(VOV) - As of 4pm on February 2, a total of 50,000 heads of cattle have died because of the recent long cold spell in some northern provinces, according to the Veterinary Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

Son La province suffered the greatest loss of over 9,300 heads of cattle, followed by Lang Son (7,500) and Cao Bang (6,800).

Apart from the buffalos and cows died of the severe cold weather, horses, pigs, goats and giraffes were also lost.

The Veterinary Department appointed delegations to cities and provinces coordinate local animal health departments to fight against the dangers of hunger and cold for cattle during the Lunar New Year (Tet) festival.

http://english.vov.vn/Home/More-than-50000-heads-of-cattle-died-of-severe-cold-weather/20112/123622.vov

1,2,3 there are the old beds at the school for nap time- they were not big enough. then with the help of donors we built new beds and now 3. the children napping.

Nutritional Gifts Given

    After speaking with some friends I saw how our important it is to convey the success we did have with our first round of the Food for Thought Chicken Project. 600 chickens were delivered to families that did not have any. Let me say that again. 600 chickens were delivered to families that did not have any chickens. Maybe I should shout it out- it's such good news- and how often do we get good news???
    Chickens were sent back to the lunch program to share with all the poor children we now feed. So many chickens were sent in and at the same time chicken prices went up we all agreed the families could sell chickens at the higher price and send money to the lunch program. Pork and yogurt were purchased with the extra money. This meant that the 55 children we provide lunch for had wonderful nutritious lunches.
     Food for Thought Chicken Project began in the fall of 2009. We started giving chickens to a few families in the spring of 2010. We started small to monitor the program and see if it would work. It did and we added families. Most of these families gave food back to the lunch program. Through our Food for Thought Lunch Project and our Chicken Project from 2009 we have served over 18,000 lunches to the children of Lang Son!
    We need support for our Chicken Project and for our Food for Thought Lunch Project- there is also a garden project. We are providing cooked lunches and at the same time growing a garden, growing the chicken project one family at a time and looking forward to the sustainability of the these projects! The garden and the chickens can give forward - and the nourished educated students in Lang Son can also give forward for a finer future for all of us.

FYI
The following words are about chickens and the Vietnam people- :I share them so you can appreciate the many many thank yous that are given for your generosity and caring from the students and their families and all of us at the Lelean and Lacey  Love Education Fund.
                                                            lớn tuyệt vời cảm ơn bạn!!!!
                                                                 (a great big thank you!!!)

      Marketing poultry products  

Egg and meat products are used to fill household needs. Some of the products are sold to
markets or neighbours. Poultry is sold live. Poultry products serve as credit for households.
When farmers need cash for medical services, medicine, school fees, and children books,
etc., they sell eggs or chickens. Poultry is slaughtered when guests visit. Frozen chicken
meat is not popular for rural people. It is considered unfresh or less tasty. Other hand,
without the necessary infrastructure and equipment, frozen chicken meat cannot reach the
rural areas

The relationship between poultry and Vietnamese society  

Poultry industry has one of the longest histories of the different animal husbandry systems.
It contributes approximately 30 percent of farmers’ total income. It is a very important
resource for farmers’ living conditions and culture.

The cultural associations of poultry products 

One beautiful Vietnamese tradition is bringing eggs to neighbours, to the sick, or to pregnant
women as a gift.
 If the poultry herd of a farmer dies from disease, their relatives bring him or her some
poultries to replace those lost. Sometimes, children receive poultry as birthday gifts.

According to legend  

Four thousand years ago, My Nuong, the daughter of Hung King, was proposed to by both
Mountain King and River King. Hung King ordered a betrothal gift that included nine elephant
tusks, nine cock spurs and nine horses’ manes.

  Folk paintings and poetry 

Paintings of poultry have been popular for hundreds of years in Viet Nam. The most popular one is of a Ho chicken herd, which includes a hen and an intelligent baby chick setting on her back while looking for food in the garden. In the Tet holiday (the Lunar New Year), people buy this painting to signify a fortunate,
successful and healthy New Year.
 Chicken herds symbolize peacefulness in rural areas, as in a famous poem by Hoang Cam.
From:
FAO. 2008. Poultry production systems in Viet Nam. Prepared by Nguyen Van Duc and T. Long.
GCP/RAS/228/GER Working Paper No. 4. Rome 

      Providing chickens for poor families in Lang Son province touches their lives in practical and emotional ways. This is what you did when you provided hundreds and hundreds of chickens to the families of Lang Son. Your gift touched them in practical and emotional ways. Please help us help them help each other through our give forward shared resources Food for Thought Project. To donate, click the link below:
   http://familiesinvietnam.org/love_education_fund.shtml

   

this is inside one of our families homes that received chickens. if you look closely there is a hose so water can come into the home. this family lives close to the school

the school teachers and administration, Son and all of you have made the food for thought program successful. we delivered 600 chickens. I'l like to deliver another 600 and find a way to add pigs and ducks too. I wrote below about the type of chicken we delivered. it seems it's a chicken used for growing and eating, not the same as the chickens we see running around the country side.

however, people do have chickens and they are all eating better, including our students. I wish we could all go there- once you see the children, the area, meet the school staff it's easy to realize how much $5 or $10 dollars can do and how responsible this school is to see it gets done.

Let's call this "A SHOUT out to my PEEPS"

it's that chicken project. we began this paperwork on this project in 4/ 2009. blahblahbla...paperwork!

Our first chicken delivery was in January 2010.

since then TOGETHER we've delivered 600 chickens plus starter feed to 20 families in this village!

pretty good!

high 5's !!

a SHOUT out to our peeps!!

so there's a catch- yes there's always a catch. and always more to learn. damn it. :-)

the chickens in the project-all 600 of the chickens in the project are "industral chickens"

does this mean they wear a suit when they go to work laying eggs?

no - it means they grow quickly- and before they get to laying eggs or something like that- they are food - food for thought.

this explains why there were mostly chickens sent to the school and very little eggs- I wondered about this- but chickens were good enough so I didn't ask. duh.

This time at our big meeting we carefully introduced the notion of chickens, eggs, more chickens, more eggs, and so on............

I keep hearing the song 'the beat goes on...and the beat goes on.....' so we're going to try again with "home town farmer type chickens" the ones I see running around LS and Hanoi even!

will you try with us again?

I hope you say yes.

. http://familiesinvietnam.org/love_education_fund.shtml

one of our bigger sponsored families that's Son and Lelan passing out clothes and other gifts. they were so appreciative-Lelan said "at our home getting clothes is normal, here it was like we were giving them something beyond normal, something like a gold bar, they were very happy, little kids were jumping up and down"

some of our sponsored students meeting with the local department of education with us too

this family received rice, oil, clothes, and other items packed with love from their sponsor