Mrs. Phat, the manager of Green Bamboo Warm Shelter (GBWS) has had 8 good years. The GBWS is a shelter for male street children from about 8 year and up to 18 years, and from 2005 to 2012 the Danish embassy supported the GBWS. The shelter has been a showcase for the embassy when VIP's have visited HCMC over the years.
Not that everything was all good. The support from the Danish embassys fund did not cover salaries for the staff. The shelter and the umbrella organisation Ho Chi Minh City Child Welfare Association (HCWA) has fund raised the missing money over the years. The Shelter Collection has with the help of especially Scancom helped some of the years, and all in all Mrs. Phat were able to house 20 - 25 residents all the time.
But the Danish government changed the policy on the embassy fund for the local NGO's. Now you can only obtain money for higher and more important purposes then helping disadvantaged street children. Now local organisations can apply for money when they involve in policy and legal issues on national level from the one fund, and they can apply to the other embassy fund, if they want to "promote public participation and accountability in law-making and policy development processes by strengthening engagement of non-governmental organizations in these processes at national and sub-national levels as well as in monitoring the implementation of these."
As the reader can imagine, both funds does not suite a shelter like GBWS that has enough work to do, just surviving and taking care of the basic needs for street children. Why is it that all support has to be big intellectual exercises for the big NGOs and high ranking authority persons. Danish development aid, and UVM Christian Friis Bach: YOU CAN DO BETTER! The small NGO's are doing a fantastic basic grass root work that all the others work are depended on. So dont let us and down.
Even though boys daily come to the shelter, it can only house 10 children at the moment due to the tense economy. The number of street children is increasing and the abuse rate for children living on the street is on the wrong site of 50%.
Apropos "surviving": This year, having almost no money, Mrs. Phat and a former resident who have become a chef came up with an idea. They started a street lunch restaurant at the shelter. Volunteers (a special thanks to Brad from Canada and Quinn from the US) are helping and the boys are also helping, but in a way that it does not conflict with their school and rehabilitation. Mrs. Phat was allowed by the Danish embassy to use the surplus from the project period to buy kitchen equipment and tables etc..
Daniel and I have visited the GBWS shelter twice to have lunch. It is fantastic food, for almost no money, VND 25.000 (too little to my liking - must talk with Mrs.Phat about that) because the profit should be higher.
Imagine if we could extend this restaurant model to more of HCWA's projects in order to help with fund raising to a certain extend, and if I could get more Danish companies to participate and by lunch for their staff. At the moment the sell between 100 and 150 meals per day. They have bigger capacity and we have more volunteers who wants to help preparing, serving and bring out the meals in nice plastic bags. All fully professional.
So reader, tourist, Danish expat and anyone if you are near Ben Thanh Market please go the extra about 300 meters to (10 meter inside a little alley. Mrs. Phat deserves our support in the same way as girls at LRWS. See our donation procedures here and mark you transfer LRWS or GBWS or SPI. Address 40/34 Calmette Street, Nguyen Thai Binh Ward, District 1, HCMC.
The SPI project will be described separately later.
Not that everything was all good. The support from the Danish embassys fund did not cover salaries for the staff. The shelter and the umbrella organisation Ho Chi Minh City Child Welfare Association (HCWA) has fund raised the missing money over the years. The Shelter Collection has with the help of especially Scancom helped some of the years, and all in all Mrs. Phat were able to house 20 - 25 residents all the time.
But the Danish government changed the policy on the embassy fund for the local NGO's. Now you can only obtain money for higher and more important purposes then helping disadvantaged street children. Now local organisations can apply for money when they involve in policy and legal issues on national level from the one fund, and they can apply to the other embassy fund, if they want to "promote public participation and accountability in law-making and policy development processes by strengthening engagement of non-governmental organizations in these processes at national and sub-national levels as well as in monitoring the implementation of these."
As the reader can imagine, both funds does not suite a shelter like GBWS that has enough work to do, just surviving and taking care of the basic needs for street children. Why is it that all support has to be big intellectual exercises for the big NGOs and high ranking authority persons. Danish development aid, and UVM Christian Friis Bach: YOU CAN DO BETTER! The small NGO's are doing a fantastic basic grass root work that all the others work are depended on. So dont let us and down.
Even though boys daily come to the shelter, it can only house 10 children at the moment due to the tense economy. The number of street children is increasing and the abuse rate for children living on the street is on the wrong site of 50%.
Apropos "surviving": This year, having almost no money, Mrs. Phat and a former resident who have become a chef came up with an idea. They started a street lunch restaurant at the shelter. Volunteers (a special thanks to Brad from Canada and Quinn from the US) are helping and the boys are also helping, but in a way that it does not conflict with their school and rehabilitation. Mrs. Phat was allowed by the Danish embassy to use the surplus from the project period to buy kitchen equipment and tables etc..
Daniel and I have visited the GBWS shelter twice to have lunch. It is fantastic food, for almost no money, VND 25.000 (too little to my liking - must talk with Mrs.Phat about that) because the profit should be higher.
Imagine if we could extend this restaurant model to more of HCWA's projects in order to help with fund raising to a certain extend, and if I could get more Danish companies to participate and by lunch for their staff. At the moment the sell between 100 and 150 meals per day. They have bigger capacity and we have more volunteers who wants to help preparing, serving and bring out the meals in nice plastic bags. All fully professional.
So reader, tourist, Danish expat and anyone if you are near Ben Thanh Market please go the extra about 300 meters to (10 meter inside a little alley. Mrs. Phat deserves our support in the same way as girls at LRWS. See our donation procedures here and mark you transfer LRWS or GBWS or SPI. Address 40/34 Calmette Street, Nguyen Thai Binh Ward, District 1, HCMC.
The SPI project will be described separately later.
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