School for the Handicapped
(Completed Project - 2002)
We were involved in giving poor and handicapped Vietnamese young people a future by helping to provide them with computer skills. In partnership with the Abbotsford Rotary Club and the Nhan Hoa Computer School, some 40 students are receiving training in basic computer skills, graphics, web design and programming at any one time. Over 1000 students have been able to go through this program between 2002 and 2007.
Many of these students who have been handicapped from diseases such as polio are being given a second chance from a life destined tobegging on the streets. Each person is gifted and capable of learning computer skills and being employed to use those skill to provide a future for themselves and their families.
One example of a life changed is Pham Diem Phuc, who was diagnosed with polio at 9 months age and was sent by his parents to grow up in an orphanage. At the age of 18, the orphanage sent him out to fend for himself and he survived by working odd jobs.
In 2002, he met Ms. Kim Cuc (Leader of the Nhan Hoa School for the poor and handicapped) and was invited to study and learn computer programs. There he studied graphic design besides other computer programs, finishing with a full-time job. He continued to visit the school and was thankful for the training he received there and the opportunity to support himself and become a contributor to the society that he lived in.
The school was closed in 2007.
