Morning Star Centre is a non-profit day care centre which provides early diagnosis, care and rehabilitation to mentally disabled children in Hanoi and surrounding areas. It also aims to help parents have better understanding on how to take care and educate their disabled children and raise awareness among society about the issue.
Morning Star Centre was founded by the Association of Handicapped Children of Vietnam. The Centre has a staff of caretakers, teachers, cooks and doctors. Being a very caring group of people, they work long hours with little pay for the sake of the children.
The Centre is providing early diagnosis, care and clinical intervention, special education and vocational training for children along with counseling service for parents.

Volunteers will help with different work in the centre, mainly as follows:
Assisting local staff in providing rehabilitation exercises and therapist treatments for children.
Playing with children and entertaining/educating them with games, music, arts and other exercises.
Helping on fund raising to support the children.
Collecting useful information and documents from different sources.
Teaching English to the local staff.
Networking with potential donors to support the children in the centre.

Typical working hours will be from 8am–4pm. Lunch along with a short nap will be between 11am–2pm.

Volunteers should like to work with disabled children and show maturity and spirit of initiative.

Volunteers with background or experience in medical work or disability. However, volunteers without experience or background in this fields will still be able to join in different work as children are very excited to meet foreigners. Volunteers should be 18 or over.

This project is open throughout the year. Volunteers can stay for a minimum of 2 weeks and a maximum of one year.

Morning Star Centre is located in Thanh Xuan District in the western part of Hanoi. Located in the north of Vietnam, the capital city has over 3.5 million people and is the second biggest city in the country.

Volunteers will be staying in a dormitory or in a hosted family (at extra cost). Food will be provided in the dormitory or hosted families. Lunch will be arranged at the project site. Volunteers will travel to work every day by public buses.

VPV fees are as follows

200 Euro
- 3 weeks: 300 Euro

400 Euro, each week after: 50 Euro.

200 Euro/month.

Thanh Xuan Peace Village was established in 1991 and provides a home and education for over 100 children and young people aged between 2-22 who are suffering from the effects of Agent Orange, a chemical used by US Military during Vietnam War that made many children born with different types of deformities. The Village serves as partly hospital, partly orphanage and partly nursery and elementary school. The aim of the village is to care for these children & help them integrate into society. They are arranged into 4 special classes where they receive primary lessons as well as other vocational training classes where they can learn craft, tailoring,...guided by the 38 staff.

The Peace Village is a very loving and happy place where children run freely and speak freely and can find a warm meal each day. The children form friendships with one another as healthy children do, and in most cases can respond to teachers and family members with reciprocity. Hugs don’t seem to be forgotten at the Peace Village, and there is always lots of laughter echoing the hallways.

Volunteers will help with different work in the Peace Village, mainly as follows:Organising games and other activities with the children.
Joining daily activities with the pupils including assisting with exercises.
Caring for the children and helping with rehabilitation exercises for them.
Helping the staff to improve their English.
Helping staff with general housework.
Assisting in fundraising activities.
Typical working hours will be from 8am–4pm. Lunch along with a short nap will be between 11am–2pm.

Volunteers should like to work with disabled children and show maturity and spirit of initiative.

Volunteers with background or experience in medical work or disability. However, volunteers without experience or background in these areas will still be able to join in different work as children are very excited to meet foreigners. Volunteers should be 18 or over.

This project is open throughout the whole year. Volunteers can stay for a minimum of 2 weeks and a maximum of one year.

Thanh Xuan Peace Village is located in Thanh Xuan District in the western part of Hanoi. Located in the north of Vietnam, the capital city has over 3.5 million people and is the second biggest city in the country.

Volunteers will be staying in a dormitory or in a hosted family (at extra cost). Food will be provided in the dormitory or hosted families. Lunch will be arranged at the project site. Volunteers will travel to work every day by public buses.

VPV fees are as follows

200 Euro

300 Euro

400 Euro, each week after: 50 Euro.

200 Euro/month.

Vietnam Friendship Village opened its doors in 1998 to treat children and veterans suffering from the effects of Agent Orange. The children, whose fathers or grandfathers were exposed (causing chromosomal damage) or who were contaminated from their mother’s milk, suffer from a range of difficult conditions. While there, children and veterans are nourished and are provided with free medical care; the children - who may be there for a period of years - receive their basic education as well as some vocational training.

The Organic Gardening Project was launched in 2004 with the goal of creating islands of a harmonious approach to agriculture within areas of environmental and human devastation - increasing awareness of the consequences of war and, at the same time, demonstrating positive strategies for healing and living. The farm now is providing about 60% of the vegetable for the Village. It is hoped that it will be able to cover all the local need and to sell out some of the products to get money for the children.

Volunteers will help with different work in the Village, mainly as follows:Organising games and other activities with the children.
Joining daily activities with the children including assisting with exercise.
Caring for the children and helping with rehabilitation exercises for them.
Helping the staff to improve their English.
Helping staff with general housework.
Assisting in networking and fundraising activities.
Helping out with some garden work.
Typical working hours will be from 8am–4pm. Lunch along with a short nap will be between 11am–2pm.

Volunteers should like to work with disabled children, show maturity, have spirit of initiative spirit, and do not mind doing some manual work in the garden.

Volunteers with background or experience in medical work or disability. However, volunteers without experience or background in these fields will still be able to join in different work as children are very excited to meet foreigners. Volunteers should be 18 or over.

This project is open throughout the whole year. Volunteers can stay for a minimum of 2 weeks and a maximum of one year.

Vietnam Friendship Village locates in Van Canh commune, Hoai Duc district, Ha Tay Province. It is about 11kms away from the centre of Hanoi to the west, approximately 35 minutes driving from downtown.

Volunteers will be staying in a dormitory or in a hosted family (at extra cost). Food will be provided in the dormitory or by the hosting families. Lunch will be arranged at the project site. Volunteers will travel to work every day by public buses.

VPV fees are as follows

200 Euro

300 Euro

400 Euro, each week after: 50 Euro.

200 Euro/month.

Founded in 1976, Thuy An Centre for Disabled Children primarily opened its doors to disabled children of Vietnamese veterans, whose disabilities often being the results of the side effects caused by the US military’s spraying of ‘Agent Orange’ during the US-Vietnam war. Over time, however, the Centre has started to render its services to all disabled children. Thuy An Centre is a ‘campus’ housing up to 150 children and 50 staff members. The children, aged 0 to 18, and suffering from mental and/or physical disabilities, are helped in any of three ways, depending on the extent of their disability. They receive either -
(1) Rehabilitation - This consists of physical therapy, orthopaedic surgery (Galvanic electrolysis, ultrasound, laser acupuncture...), and backbone relaxation treatment and in providing for and assisting the children with the use of aid equipment;
(2) Education/Vocational training - This consists of special education, integration education, vocational training, sewing, wool knitting, embroidering and computer teaching;
(3) Upbringing/Looking after - The children are looked after well by staff members. They are disciplined and efficient. Their job requires much responsibility and self discipline.

Volunteers will help with different work in the centre, mainly as follow:Organising games and other activities with the children.
Joining daily activities with the pupils including assisting with exercise.
Caring for the children and helping with rehabilitation exercises for them.
Helping the staff to improve their English.
Helping staff with general housework.
Assisting in fundraising activities.
Typical working hours will be from 8am–4pm. Lunch along with a short nap will be between 11am–2pm.

Volunteers should like to work with disabled children, show maturity and have spirit of initiative.

Volunteers with background or experience in medical work or disability. However, volunteers without experience or background in these fields will still be able to join in different work as children are very excited to meet foreigners. Volunteers should be 18 or over.

This project is open throughout the whole year. Volunteers can stay for a minimum of 2 weeks and a maximum of one year.

Thuy An Centre finds itself at approximately 13 km from Son Tay, a town with a population of 41,000, situated in the Ha Tay province. It is about 1 hour travel by bus from Hanoi.

Volunteers will be staying in the project campus’s guest house which is a few minutes away from the children’s dormitory. Food will be provided in the project.

VPV fees are as follows

200 Euro

300 Euro

400 Euro, each week after: 50 Euro.

200 Euro/month.

Viet Tri Welfare Centre is a government organisation for abandoned, homeless & disabled children. It opened its doors in 1993 and currently houses up to 100 children. The Centre gives three types of teaching and those are - standard education, vocational training (tailoring, hairdressing, learning musical instruments) and finally rehabilitation training. Some of the children are deaf and dumb, others are mentally disabled and a third group is blind. Some 10% of the disabilities are caused from the consequences of Agent Orange, but the vast majority are due to other factors. The children follow classes and also board at the centre.

playing with them, singing with them, teaching them traditions and cultural aspects of the foreigner’s country. The most important factor here is to assist the children’s integration into society and to help them feel less like a stigma to their surroundings. The local staff cannot organise many activities for the children due to the age and time reasons and here again, volunteers could play an important role.

Joining daily activities with the pupils including assisting with exercise.
Caring for the children and helping with rehabilitation exercises for them.
Helping the staff to improve their English.
Helping staff with general housework.
Assisting in fundraising activities.
Sometimes, the work can be combined with another placement, SOS Children’s Village, or a local school in the same region.
Typical working hours will be from 8am–4pm. Lunch along with a short nap will be between 11am–2pm.

Volunteers should like to work with handicapped children, show maturity and spirit of initiative.

Volunteers with background or experience in medical work or disability. However, volunteers without experience or background in these fields will still be able to join in different work as children are very excited to meet foreigners. Volunteers should be 18 or over.

This project is open throughout the year. Volunteers can stay for a minimum of 2 weeks and for a maximum of one year.

Viet Tri Welfare Centre finds itself in the middle of Viet Tri City, a community with a population of 200,000, situated in the Phu Tho province. It is about 2 hours travel by bus from Hanoi.

Volunteers will be staying in the dormitory which is about 15 minutes walk away from the children’s dormitory. Food will be provided at the dormitory.

VPV fees are as follows

200 Euro

300 Euro

400 Euro, each week after: 50 Euro.

200 Euro/month.

SOS Children is the world's largest orphan and abandoned children charity. Supported by sponsors and donors worldwide, the children's charity provides a new family (in amazing Children's Villages) for over 60,000 children in 123 countries and helps almost a million more people through its projects around the world. FSOS provides about 50,000 such children and 15,000 young adults with a permanent new family, with a '24 hours a day' new SOS mother to provide family-based care. Typically (in the developing world) about ten children are grouped into a house with an SOS mother and between ten and forty of such houses are grouped together as a "Village" with shared facilities. Family groups once formed are kept together as a priority.

Viet Tri SOS Children Village has fifteen such family houses and is home to approximately 170 children. The mothers themselves do not have any family but see the orphaned children in their house as their family. Children sharing a house refer to each other as brother or sister. By this way a real family – like bond is created. At the age of fourteen the children move to the ‘youth house’ where they become semi independent. The village also has a kindergarten on the premise while primary and secondary education is provided in local schools outside the village.

There are a fair amount of volunteers at the SOS Children’s Village that generally either teach English or organize social activities for the children. The children, being of all ages, are extremely fond of the volunteers and enjoy playing with them and learning from them. Volunteers will help with different work in the centre, mainly as follow:Organising games and other activities with the children.
Joining daily activities with the pupils including assisting with exercises.
Helping the staff to improve their English.
Helping staff with general housework.
Sometimes, the work can be combined with another placement, Viet Tri Social Welfare Center, or a local school in the same region.
Typical working hours will be from 8am–4pm. Lunch along with a short nap will be between 11am–2pm.

Volunteers should like to work with handicapped children, show maturity and spirit of initiative.

Volunteers with background or experience in medical work or disability. However, volunteers without experience or background in these fields will still be able to join in different work as children are very excited to meet foreigners. Volunteers should be 18 or over.

This project is open throughout the year. Volunteers can stay for a minimum of 2 weeks and a maximum of one year.

SOS Children’s Village finds itself in the middle of Viet Tri City, a community with a population of 200,000, situated in the Phu Tho province. It is about 2 hour travel by bus from Hanoi.

Volunteers will be staying in the dormitory which is about 15 minutes walk away from the children’s dormitory. Food will be provided at the dormitory.

VPV fees are as follows

200 Euro

300 Euro

400 Euro, each week after: 50 Euro.

200 Euro/month.

Hai Duong Orphanage was established in 2002. With about 1,000 disabled and orphan children coming from many parts of Hai Duong province. The orphanage aims to provide basic education and vocational training to create employment opportunities for the teenagers with many different age groups. The orphanage has a wide variety of courses for children ranging from infants to 18 years old. For example, children between the ages of 6 to 12 will be provided with educational courses, and the older children are able to attend vocational training courses at the center. While special education helps to lessen the burden on the childrens families by teaching the disabled to help themselves with personal activities, the vocational training programs enable handicapped children to earn their living and able to live independently in the future.

Volunteers will help organizing games and educational activities for children in the orphanage and exchanging with local volunteers or staff. Sometimes volunteers can help with some renovation work.

Disadvantaged children in Vietnam.

18+

Shared rooms on project site. Showers and toilets available. Food prepared by vols with support from local people.

Hai Duong City.

Hanoi Airport, 2 hour drive to the east.

Interest and motivation working with children in difficult situation

Vietnamese Day, International Day, self-organized city tour and excursions, etc.

170 EURO

Hanoi.

Professional Language Studies.

To provide English native language speaking environment for disabled people and develop their English communicative skills.

Will To Live Centre acts principally as a bridge to connect disabled people with vocational centres for training and employment support, and create clear pathways between skilled, disabled individuals and enterprises or organisations seeking employees. They work to ensure that disabled people benefit from the support offered by charitable organisations, including subsidies and scholarships, and nurture feelings of affection and care in order to create a welcoming community in which people with disabilities can live.

It is located in Hoang Mai district of Hanoi, in the outskirt of Hanoi, which is about 15km from city centre. One of the increasing labour market requirements is the English language skills and usually this sector of the population have a very little chance to learn foreign languages or to meet foreigners to practice English and exchange communication skills.

Volunteers should like to work with disabled people, to show maturity and initiative spirit. Volunteers should be able to work independently in the classroom. English native speakers preferred.

preferred 22 or over.

Minimum stay preferred 3 weeks.

Improving listening/speaking/reading/writing skills for students.
Improving competency in communication.
Organizing games and other activities in classrooms.
Volunteers can attend as well a Community English Class in VPV office; it takes place in the afternoon, for children living in the neighbourhood. Volunteers can join this class one or two days per week, depending on their schedule.

Volunteers will stay in a dormitory with rooms shared with other volunteers. Living conditions will be Vietnamese standard with separate bathroom, single bed with mattress. The Will To Live Centre offers accommodation in the same placement if the volunteer prefers it.
Food will be provided at the accommodation. Meals will be mostly local food, which vary from the daily cooking schedule. Volunteers, especially those who are vegetarian may be required to do some cooking. During working-days food is provided by the host placement.

VPV fees are as follows

200 Euro.

300 Euro.

400 Euro, each week after: 50 Euro.

200 Euro/month.