Hue is now turning to rainy season and the Vietnamese New Year vibe is all around. People are now busy celebrating year-end parties and giving gifts to each other. It’s also the time to review what we have done throughout the year. The year 2022 has been a great year for Hue Help (HH). We have had many great achievements on our two main programs: Swimming For Safety (SFS) and Hue Children’s Shelter (HCS). Let’s have a look back on some of our 2022’s highlights:
Let’s start with January! HH celebrated the new year 2022 with good news from Tu whom we had been supporting university education for 10 years. After he graduated from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, he got a job at Phu Vang Medical Center. We are really happy for him!
In February, under the sponsorship of Decathlon Vietnam, we worked with Swim and Friends to organize a Swimming Teacher Training Course in Ho Chi Minh City. We aimed to teach about 450 disadvantaged children from some of the shelters in Ho Chi Minh.
In March, Hue Help team had a Water Safety Education session for students and parents in Phu Vang district, Thua Thien Hue province. Our main points on this session are drowning prevention and flood safety. All the students and parents excitedly engaged in the education session and got a lot of vital skills and knowledge.
Run to April! The kids from HCS got a chance to be in a big marathon event. It was the VNExpress Marathon Imperial Hue 2022. There were 11 children participating in this marathon with a distance of 5 km and 10 km. They all finished their run greatly and had a lot of fun.
Summer is coming and it’s a busy time for our program “Swimming For Safety”. Under the sponsorship with The Global Health Advocacy and Incubators (GHAI), we organized a Refresher Training for 14 schoolteachers from Phu Loc, Huong Tra, Nam Dong districts, Thua Thien Hue province. We had a 2-day training with the aim of reviewing and updating the knowledge, skills and teaching methods for the swimming teachers. We aimed to teach 510 students in Thua Thien Hue about survival swimming. We had lessons in both open water and swimming pools.
In the middle of June, our swimming program started in Thanh Hoa province with our former sponsor, Topas Explorer Group. We already trained 10 teachers the year before and we aimed to teach swimming for 200 students in Ba Thuoc district, Thanh Hoa province.
Summertime was also a time for HCS. The kids had a lot of outdoor activities this summer. They had swimming lessons with Katie, who is a qualified swimming teacher as well as our former program officer and Mr. Son who is our former swimming teacher in the program. Besides, they joined some music lessons and baking workshops. On top of that, Hue Help and the kids had a memorable summer trip with lots of fun in the 3D Museum and on the beach. Da Nang and Hoi An were the two destinations for the trip. We would like to thank Mr. Kees Smit for making the trip happen.
July was also one of the busiest months of the year because July 25th is The World Drowning Prevention Day (WDPD). This year, we hosted a Water Safety Education Session event on Facebook and called out students aged 6-12 in Hue City to participate in this session. There were over 30 children who joined the training and they felt so good about this public event. We also made a video to join The WHO WDPD 2022 Conference. Besides, we joined an exhibition in Hanoi on Child Drowning Prevention by having a corner displaying rescue skills and swimming equipment. We also got people engaged in practicing how to wear life jackets properly.
August was here, time for a new school year. The kids and Hue Help decided to have a day trip to Bach Ma Village to refresh and get close to nature. The kids had a quality time together and had a lot of fun taking photos and swimming. They definitely had more positive energy for the school work ahead.
Autumn was also a busy time for SFS when we provided technical support for 4 trainings which were hosted by GHAI and The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. We trained instructors, teachers and workers around the country on teaching children survival swimming and water safety skills. Hue Help was very honored to be one of the main trainers of the program.
At the end of August, we had a closing workshop on our program under the sponsorship of Luxembourg Development. We trained 48 teachers in Thua Thien Hue province and taught 1,890 students on survival swimming. We were so proud of our team and our swimming teachers.
September in Tanzania! It was special when we got a chance to take part in a 4-day Survival Swimming Lesson Sharing workshop in Zanzibar, Tanzania. This was an excellent opportunity for organisations working in low resource settings to share experiences and best practices for survival swimming – an important intervention to help prevent drowning.
In October, we worked with Swim For Life to provide Water Safety Education Training in Trieu Phong district, Quang Tri province. Hue Help was one of the main trainers for the course. We trained 30 instructors on how to teach children water safety skills.
October was special when SFS “brought” a very first swimming pool to a mountainous area in Hoa Binh province under the sponsorship of United Nations International School of Hanoi (UNIS). We wanted to build a standard swimming pool for the area with the aim of equipping local children with safe swimming and water safety skills. After that, we conducted a 5-day training for 9 teachers there. We hope we could help decrease the drowning rate in this mountainous area.
To end 2022, HH and HCS had a trip back in time at Hue Lotus. During the trip, the kids got the chance to travel back to many years ago to learn more about Vietnamese history and especially they could experience various traditional crafts. They made their own traditional products such as making chicken from eggshells and making toys from foam. Everyone was very satisfied with their creative products.
2022 has been a memorable year for us – but there is a huge amount of work to be done ahead. Drowning is still the leading cause of child death in Vietnam. Hue Help will keep working on it to address this issue, along with our partners, sponsors and donors. Seeing the joy it brings the children at HCS when they go on recreational outings and participate in the activities that we organise brings us just as much joy as the children! But we cannot make it happen for the children without the support of our donors.
Let’s make a difference together!
Your support helps prevent child drowning and provides vital education services to give children bright futures.
To keep updated from us, please visit on:
- Website: https://huehelp.org/
- Facebook :https://www.facebook.com/huehelp
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hue-help
Thank you!
