Our Commitment to the Children of Vietnam

While our goal is to find families for orphaned children, we are also committed to caring for the children who will remain in the orphanage indefinitely. In addition, we are working to establish effective community outreach programs to help families who are unable to provide adequate food and shelter for themselves.

Our Focus
Together with Catalyst Foundation, LSS works in the rural villages of Dong Thap and Kien Giang Provinces – areas at great risk for child trafficking because of their proximity to the 33 mile long Cambodian border.

There are over 40,000 families in Dong Thap Province alone, mostly hired laborers living in extreme poverty earning less than $370 per year. These poor families support more than 80,000 children (11,000 of which are poorly fed and nearly 2,500 forced to work to feed themselves or live off the streets. All lack the sufficient means to attend school. Nearly 60% of them are girls – the most at risk for child trafficking. Young girls in Cambodia are enslaved in sex houses because their parents "sold" them to traffickers promising "good jobs” or because they would risk anything to earn $1 a day to feed their starving families. As many as 15% of these girls are younger than 15 years old, but estimates show that many more are even younger still.

To help secure a future for the girls of Dong Thap and Kien Giang Provinces, LSS is working with Catalyst Foundation to support the following projects:

Girls Scholarship Program
Provides security and support to girls growing up in a very uncertain environment.

Micro Loan Program
A poverty-focused project designed to significantly increase the income and economic security of poor women and their households through the purchase of livestock.

"My Vietnam" Art Contest Scholarship
Now in its 7th year, Little Red Fairy’s “My Vietnam” Art Contest and Scholarship Program helps impoverished children in Vietnam to continue their education and build pride in their culture and
individual talents.