Long Hải Stage 2 Opening

Way back in 2009 I wrote about the opening of stage 1 of Long Hải Centre for the Social Protection of Children (aka "orphanage"). Since then Long Hải Centre has operated as a school for poor and disadvantaged children in Long Hải town, with enrolments each year generally hovering around 110 children studying across 5 grades of primary school, and aged between 7 and about 14 or 15 years old.

The long-term goal of APER for the centre has always been to include residential care, both for disabled children affected by the residual presence of Agent Orange in the district over 40 years, and for homeless, abandoned or at-risk children. On 17 April 2012 this dream was finally realised with the official opening of stage 2 of the centre.

Here are a few photos from the opening day. Aside from very many, and very long, speeches in Vietnamese and French (which language did I find more informative!?), there were performances of martial arts and dance by some of the students at the school and some of the children from P Centre in Vũng Tàu. I travelled with them and some of the staff by mini-bus - always fun to spend time with the kids!

 
Remember: although it has an official name Trung Tâm Bảo Trợ Trẻ Em, and a formal relationship with the government through the local People's Committee, Long Hải Centre is funded almost entirely through the efforts of APER and donations by corporations and private individuals. The Centre needs your help to continue to provide care, education and social development for the children - you can make a donation (http://www.vungtau-orphanage.com) or support a project (http://titibititiem-projects.blogspot.com/).