World University Service of Canada

Diane Fahlman: A Vietnamese experience

I am the person responsible for alumni relations and fundraising for World University Service of Canada (WUSC), and I was thrilled to be offered the opportunity to participate in Leave for Change, in July 2008.

As an employer committed to employee development and international volunteerism WUSC is one of many Canadian employers that offers Leave for Change opportunities to its employees. 

This year, I was selected to work as a Fundraising Advisor for a local NGO in Hanoi. REACH (Ray of Everlasting and Continuous Hope) is a relatively new Vietnamese non-government organization specializing in short term vocational training for Vietnam’s most disadvantaged youth.

REACH offers courses exclusively designed for street and rural migrant youth between the ages of 18-25 who do not have opportunities to access formal training programs in the city.  These youth do not have the social networks developed that are needed to make contacts in Hanoi.  Many also do not have the skills or confidence needed to obtain stable employment opportunities. They, however, are very motivated to change their circumstances and that is where REACH comes in. REACH strives to nurture the development of young people by supporting them to reach their full potential and break the cycle of poverty. REACH recruits migrant youth and offers short term vocational training for free. The Vietnamese staff (Director, an administrator and part-time instructors) at the REACH office work with Hanoi area companies to design courses that meet their needs as employers in the Information Technology, Customer Relations, Sales and Marketing and Hospitality sectors.  REACH students receive practical and theoretical training and are also taught vital life skills such as negotiation, problem solving, decision making, team building and critical thinking.  REACH graduates are highly regarded and over 80% of the 1,000 students that have graduated since 2004 have gained stable employment.

My mandate was to help this NGO design a fundraising plan that would start to help make them self - sustainable financially over the next three years. After much pre-departure preparation and a 22 hour journey, upon arrival in Hanoi, with the temperature over 30 degrees, I was picked up at the airport by a very friendly country host driver who took me some 30 klms into the city centre. I was able to enjoy the view of workers in massive wetland fields planting rice, water buffalo wandering the fields and along the roadside, cyclists balancing massive bundles of various goods, and hundreds of field workers with the traditional nón lá or straw cone hats.  I felt I was transported back in time.

Once in the city of Hanoi I immediately felt a different sense of space and time, of the almost 4 million residents I felt at that everyone must own a motorbike! The city was bustling with the most densely packed motorbike unruly traffic I have ever experienced! Horns were continually beeping non stop and it seems to me traffic chaos was just business as usual here.

In the evening Hanoi was teeming with social activity too, all the streets were buzzing with vendors selling goods, street front open air restaurants selling soup and beer, chess games, chatter, youth, the elderly and babies everywhere and all smiling. The aroma of bubbling soup pots and barbequed food was enticing and filled the air.

To ease my transition, the WUSC office had arranged for volunteer students from the Hanoi College of Tourism to meet me the day after my arrival. This turned out to be a wonderful experience for me and eased the pressure of me trying to manage my own week-end touring agenda. My guides were two delightful 20 year old students who were studying history, tourism and English.  They were happy to show me their city, provide insight into the history of Vietnam and made sure I was able to see all the key sights while making time to take breaks for delicious Vietnamese iced coffee and noodle soups.

The first official day of my volunteer position consisted of an overview and introduction by the WUSC office in Vietnam to ensure I had a full understanding of our relationship with our Vietnamese partner organizations, my role and expectations of all parties and to review cultural protocols. Then I was ready to start and met the staff at REACH, toured the school, and was introduced to the current cohort of 100 students in a variety of classes. I was overwhelmed by how polite and enthusiastic all the students were and how keen they were to learn English and hear about Canada. I was also overwhelmed by the simplicity of the physical state of the school building, peeling paint, bare walls, and wooden benches and tables for the classes of 18-24 year old students and no working fans in the classrooms and to learn they attended classes 6 days a week.

My job for the first week was to review and access how this local NGO should begin to raise money.  After reviewing their situation – I was able to present to the staff a presentation of where they were from a fundraising point of view and where to go from here. From that emerged the need to write a case for support, donation form, website advice and a donor cultivation plan. I was able to accomplish this plus generate an enhanced prospect list for them to begin approaching prospects in Hanoi with new ideas to approach the diaspora of Vietnamese internationally. I also left them with a binder of resources I had from years of working with non profits in Canada to help them with grant writing and ideas for alumni relations and stewardship of donors.  I am happy to report that with such dedicated staff, excellent relations with employers for graduates and sound management I feel there is so much potential for this NGO to attract donors. I also had the opportunity to teach several English classes which totally engaged me with the students and we had many laughs together as we learned each others language.

This whole experience was extremely meaningful for me, having the opportunity to actually live in a developing country, know the people, feel the pulse and pace of daily life, understand to some degree how wars devastate a country for generations and yet be able to help in some small way was so very satisfying.  I know this will change the way I travel in the future, for my self and for my family. I will return to Vietnam but never again only as a tourist but always incorporate volunteering into my future travel plans.

My suggestion for next steps to this NGO was to request an experienced volunteer grant writer via the Leave for Change program to spend two to three weeks in their Hanoi office to start applying for grants on their behalf – REACH could use the support.

I was in Hanoi from July 4 – July 25, 2008.