Dear donors and friends,

Y Tam recently made a field survey trip to Yang Mao commune, Krông Bông district, Đăk Lắc province. The commune has 3 hamlets (ethnic Kinh) and 8 villages (ethnic minority communities); 70% of households belong to the M’Nông and Ê Đê ethnic minorities. Y Tam visited every hamlet and village to learn about the villagers' daily lives and the children's learning conditions. Below is the information Y Tam gathered.

Program: Lantern Festival 2019 – Yang Mao, Đăk Lăk

I/ SURVEY RESULTS

Yang Mao is a Zone 3 commune (an area of extreme hardship). Although the government has supported it with a great deal of infrastructure and poverty-reduction policies, such as schools, a health station and roads…, the villagers still face many difficulties with housing, clean water, toilets…, and the children still lack school supplies and playgrounds.

Clean water is probably the most pressing problem in Yang Mao. Of the 3 hamlets and 8 villages, only 1 village has clean water (piped in from a stream through a filter tank); none of the others have any. The villagers have to carry stream water home and use it directly for both drinking and daily needs.

When asked about drilling wells for groundwater, the villagers said that drilling here rarely finds water and costs a lot of money, so they cannot drill wells on their own. They know the stream water is now polluted with pesticides, fertilizers… and seriously affects their health, but they still have to use it.

Primary education: Every hamlet and village currently has a school site with fairly adequate facilities. However, even though the new school year is about to begin, 100% of the students lack school supplies such as textbooks, workbooks, blank notebooks, pens…

II/ PROGRAM ACTIVITIES

1/ Clean water project

Based on the survey results above, Y Tam met with local leaders to discuss ways to help the villagers with clean water. Y Tam proposed choosing one village to pilot a clean water project; if it succeeds there, the model will be replicated in the other villages.
We will drill a well at a communal site and pipe the water to each household. For the project to be used for a long time and truly serve its purpose, there should be a village meeting to agree from the start on how the water will be used and to appoint one person responsible for operating the system, with the local authorities responsible for oversight and monitoring.

More specifically, every household using the water will have a meter installed. Each month, the operator will read the meters and collect fees at a rate agreed from the start (so much per m3). This fee will certainly be very low so that every household in the village can use the water and afford it. The money collected will be divided into 3 parts, agreed from the start:

– Paying the electricity bill
– Paying the operator's wages
– The rest goes into an operating fund for repairs to machinery, pipes…

As for funding the project, Y Tam and the villagers will contribute together.

The local leaders have agreed to Y Tam's proposed approach, but the locality needs to hold a meeting with the villagers to gather and agree on their views first, and will then let Y Tam know.

If the villagers agree, Y Tam will carry out measurements and draw up a project budget to start right away. If time allows, Y Tam will include it in this Lantern Festival 2019 program, and above all will update the budget soon and raise funds from donors.

2/ Lantern Festival 2019 program

Besides the pressing lack of clean water, as Y Tam mentioned above, 100% of the primary school students in the commune lack school supplies. This is back-to-school season and also the children's Mid-Autumn season. So Y Tam wants to bring the children joy and lots of fun, help them welcome the new school year ready to study better and, above all, give them beautiful childhood memories this moon season.

The commune has about 1200 children of preschool and primary school age. However, within Y Tam's limited means, we can only organize a lantern night and a Mid-Autumn festival with folk games, gifts of cakes, candy and milk for about 700 children, and give 442 sets of school supplies to the students at the Yang Mao primary school site.

3/ Dates, venue and schedule

– The Lantern Festival 2019 program will be held on 14-15/9/2019
– Venue: the community cultural house of Ta village, Yang Mao commune, Krông Bông district, Đăk Lăk
– Schedule: We plan to leave Saigon on the evening of 13/9 and return on the afternoon of 15/9/2019 (Y Tam will send a detailed schedule to the volunteers who register for the program)

III/ ESTIMATED BUDGET

1/ Give 442 sets of school supplies to 442 Yang Mao primary school students, including:

– 442 sets of textbooks = 29,301,000 VND
– Blank 5-line notebooks, 5 per child, 2210 notebooks in total x 3,500 VND each = 7,735,000 VND
– Ballpoint pens, 5 per child, 2210 pens x 1,200 VND each = 2,652,000 VND

2/ Hold a Mid-Autumn lantern procession night for 700 children.

– Estimated cost of materials for making beer-can lanterns: 1,000,000 VND

3/ Hold a Mid-Autumn festival for 700 children

– Decorating the game booths (backdrop, balloons, colored paper, sound, lighting…): 3,000,000 VND
– Cooking 700 portions of bún or bánh canh noodles for breakfast for the children attending the festival: 5,000,000 VND
– 700 gift packs of cakes, candy and milk as prizes for the children who play the games: 10,000,000 VND

– Unexpected costs (if any): 3,000,000 VND

4/ Transport

– Truck rental to carry secondhand clothes: 4,500,000 VND
– 30-seat coach rental: 10,000,000 VND

TOTAL ESTIMATED BUDGET FOR THE LANTERN FESTIVAL 2019 PROGRAM (NOT INCLUDING THE CLEAN WATER PROJECT): 1+2+3+4 = 76,188,000 VND

IV/ VOLUNTEERING

If you love volunteer work and want to give your time and energy to the community, and above all want to light up shimmering beer-can lanterns and go back to childhood with the ethnic minority children, carrying lanterns around the village on a moonlit night, then don't hesitate to sign up and join Y Tam on this exciting volunteer journey.

Please remember, this time Y Tam has only 30 seats for this trip back to childhood, so please register only if you are sure you can take part and commit to going. Let's avoid what happened in previous programs, when some people registered to hold a seat and then cancelled on the day without notice, taking the chance away from others who wanted to go.

Please fill in your registration details at this link: https://bitly.vn/908f

Or contact Y Tam's HR team, Lâm Viên,
– Phone: 0909018315
– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ngolamvien

V/ SUPPORTING THE PROGRAM

Dear donors!

By the time you read these lines, you will surely understand everything Y Tam plans to do in the upcoming Lantern Festival 2019 program.
Whether the lanterns are lit and whether the children receive school supplies depends on your generosity. If each of us lends just a little help, we will surely be able to help the children. What's more, investing in education is always the top-priority, most practical and most meaningful investment, because it is an investment in human development and the development of society.

So Y Tam hopes to receive the support of donors near and far. You may choose to contribute money or in-kind donations such as books, notebooks, pens, cakes and candy, milk… Every contribution, large or small, is equally treasured.

ALL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LANTERN FESTIVAL 2019 PROGRAM CAN BE SENT TO:

Y Tam Volunteer Organization

Office address: 958/65/24 Lạc Long Quân Street, Ward 8, Tân Bình District, Ho Chi Minh City.
Phone: 098 567 4772

Bank accounts:

1/ Đông Á Bank: Account number: 0101607577 – Account name: Đào Thị Minh Lệ, 343 Lê Văn Sỹ Branch – District 3 – Ho Chi Minh City

2/ Vietcombank: Account number: 0721000640139 – Account name: Đào Thị Minh Lệ, Kỳ Đồng Branch, Lê Văn Sỹ Transaction Office, Tân Bình District.

3/ Vietinbank: Account number: 107001354465 – Account name: Đào Thị Minh Lệ, issuing branch address: 207 Lê Văn Sỹ – District 3 – Ho Chi Minh City

4/ Agribank: Account number: 1606 205 971 141 – Account name: Đào Thị Minh Lệ, An Phú Branch.

Note: When transferring, please clearly state: Donor's name + Ủng hộ TSLĐ 2019 (Support for Lantern Festival 2019)

Sincerely,
Y Tam Volunteer Organization