Viro Community Care Fund

By shopping at Viro merchants you support work to help alleviate suffering, empower communities, educate and support those in need.

By caring you can make an impact…

Just like in this following example, your Viro contributions have the power of transforming lives.

We would like to tell you the story of Nguyen Thi Tinh.

Nguyen Tinh is one example of the many children whose lives have been changed through a Child Sponsorship Programme.

Ben Tre is one of the poorest provinces of Vietnam and Giong Trom is one of the poorest districts of this province. Even today, the community still does not have electricity or running water. Everyone gets their drinking water from gathering rain water. The local people work hard every day in the fields, under harsh weather conditions and yet their earnings are barely enough to survive on, especially with rising costs in the country. Many of the children in the community leave school early to help their parents work in the fields to ensure food will make it to their tables each day.  It is in this area that Nguyen Thi Tinh lives.

Tinh become a child sponsor in September 1998. She was living with her older sister and eldest brother and his family. Her mother passed away when she was only a toddler and her father abandoned the children shortly after. Over the year’s Tinh’s brother has done what ever job available to him to provide for his family’s daily needs, from planting sugar cane trees, to working as hired labour in the fields.

From an early age Tinh was aware of her family’s situation. She would monitor the price of rice and calculate whether her family would survive another day. She studied hard so that more doors would open for her future.

Tinh applied herself and worked hard for her future. In Vietnam the importance of family is very much inherent, children often leave school to work and help their family. Tinh was very lucky to have such a supportive brother and to have the help of sponsorship.

For more than 10 years as a sponsored child, Tinh always proved a diligent student and did extremely well in her studies. On 29 August 2008, Tinh graduated from Can Tho University. She is now working as a journalist for The Radio and Television Station of Ben Tre and is self-supporting.

Tinh is a bright young woman who has paved a way out of poverty for her family and who through the help of a child sponsorship programme knows the benefits of an education. In an area where education is secondary and families struggle every day, Tinh’s story not only inspires but allows the community and her family to see that through hard work, perseverance and the invaluable support of sponsorship; poverty does not define potential and one child can become a symbol of a bright future for her and for her community.