SJU Students Visit Daughters of Charity’s School of Love in Viet Nam

May 17, 2007 HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam – Vietnamese street children receive far more benefits from the Daughters of Charity’s Cho Quan (Schools of Love) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam than simply an education — they receive what the school’s name speaks — love. Street children, whose families are well below the poverty level, are forced to work from a very early age selling anything they can on the streets. However, they find a haven in these schools, where they learn that there can be more to their lives.

“We look for any possible way to convince children that school and an education is important, and our role in the community saves so many children from the hardships of the street and an uneducated fate,” expressed Sr. Tuyet Lien, D.O.C., Cho Quan Director in Ho Chi Minh City. Of the nine schools in the city the Daughters of Charity maintain, she runs two. “We prepare meals for both of my schools here, to save time and money. That benefits us, but the meals themselves benefit the children, helping them be healthy and giving them a reason to come to school. Food here in Vietnam is the best reason to come to school for these extremely needy children.”