Our Partners: The Sisters of CND-VN
CND-VN consists of one hundred sixteen Catholic nuns who live and work together in small communities throughout Vietnam. They currently operate over a dozen schools and boarding houses, and provide instruction and a safe environment for K through 9 children and young women away from home.
Wherever there is a need, CND-VN’s modus operandi is to identify the need, come up with a proposal for a grant, and find a way to execute the project. In their own words, “We do as much as our benefactors allow us to.” ( Soeur Thanh Nga in a letter to an alumna).
Some projects have humble beginnings. Anh Linh I and II are two tuition-free elementary and middle schools that started out in a rundown but busy neighborhood of Ho Chi Minh City on the site of an old abandoned pigsty in 1991. After two decades of hard work and persistence, these schools have become a well-recognized model establishment in Southeast Asia. The sisters of CND-VN credit this success in part to the generosity of their donors.
Before 1991 there was a pigsty.
From that, a one-room school was built.
(This is the first class in 1991)
Anh Linh I and II nowadays have over 200 students and graduate 30-40 students per year.
Another example is a boarding house in the coastal area of the Mekong Delta where monsoon rains cause flooding every year. Children there have to go to school by boat. Many families can only afford boat fare for their male children. The high waters used to keep school age girls from going to school until CND-VN opened the boarding house for them near the village school. Nowadays, parents can afford to send their daughters to school too. They pay what they can, sometimes in rice or vegetables from their gardens, for their daughters’ room and board as well as after-school tutoring and classes in sewing or home economics.
TA Boarding School for Girls
in the Mekong Delta
These projects are two instances of what keeps CND-VN busy and thriving. They address problems like adult illiteracy, child labor, endemic poverty and ignorance. Through sheer hard work, patience, and a healthy dose of faith, our partners forge on to provide care and hope to those that have little of either or both.