On the 15th January 2020, Saigon Children’s Charity (saigonchildren) cooperated with local authorities to organise the opening ceremony of Thanh Hoa 2 primary school in Phung Hiep district, Hau Giang province. This meaningful event marked 200 schools that saigonchildren has fundraised and coordinated to build in Vietnam over 27 years.
Thanh Hoa 2 primary school used to be in serious disrepair and posed a great danger to students and teachers because of its damaged structure and slippery grounds. Thanks to funding from saigonchildren’s generous donors and counterpart-funds from local authorities, a new school with five fully-equipped classrooms, one toilet block, and a playground has been built so that local students can have a safe and interesting environment that will hopefully encourage their learning.


According to Mr. Tran Viet Dung, Headteacher of Thanh Hoa 2 primary school, this school had been dilapidated for a long time and students, as well as teachers and parents, have expressed that they really wanted new classrooms to fulfil the growing need. “We would like to send a heartfelt thank you to all the donors and Saigon Children’s Charity for creating this new learning environment for our students,” he said.



Since the first school ever built with the help of saigonchildren in 1994 in Can Gio district, Ho Chi Minh city with only one classroom, the organisation’s “School Building and Learning Environment Programme” has evolved to build about 10 schools each year, from kindergarten to vocational schools, benefiting over 16,000 children every school year in different remote parts of Vietnam. The programme aims at replacing decaying and unsafe classrooms in existing schools, as well as building new schools that are more conveniently located to the local residencies.
Mr. Alain Cany, Chairman of Saigon Children’s Charity’s Board of Trustees, said at the event: “Saigonchildren has now opened 200 schools for the benefit of children from the south coast of the Mekong Delta to the mountains of northern Tuyen Quang, but our enthusiasm is the same now as it was when we were established in 1992. We continue to work with generous donors and local partners from the People’s Committee, Department of Education & Training, Department of Foreign Affairs and the wonderful Friendship Organisations, and as a result we plan to open ten more schools in 2020.”