User:Anjamerret/Hope Center

Hope Center
The Hope Center, based in Hue Vietnam, focuses its efforts on assisting disabled and disadvantaged people by providing them with vocational training and work opportunities. The Center further works with a Minority Group, the A Luoi, who live in the mountainous region approximately 70 km from Hue near the Lao border.

Since 1999 the Center has provided training in tailoring and industrial sewing. The garment manufacturing side of the business supplies Hue City and surrounds with uniforms for schools and hospitals.

In more recent years a handicraft division has been added. Artisans produce a range of goods from wire products to woven rattan bowls and hand crafted jewellery. The A Luoi weavers contribute their hand woven fabric to scarves and handbag products.

A Brief History
The Hope Center started its first year with a few donated sewing machines and nowhere to go with them! Minimal available budget prevented them from being able to afford premises so they successfully begged to use some vacant rooms at the local radio station.

This solution was short-lived though as after a year’s use of a few rooms they were moved out due to the building needing to be renovated. Where to now? After much searching they managed to secure some rooms in a building that was being used by the Department of Home Affairs. They settled there from 2000 – 2002.

But even the use of this space was to be short-lived. The Department of Home Affairs had settled in a building belonging to a Vietnamese who had left the country with the Americans at the end of the War and was now living in the USA. At the end of 2002 the Vietnam Government decreed that many of these properties should be handed back to their original owners.

Out on the street again the Center was fortunate to find a benefactor once again. The Department of Education took pity on them and offered a derelict building for the Center's use. After much fund raising and hard work the building became habitable and the Hope Center's true home had been found.

The Hope Centre has helped just over 550 people since it’s inception. Trainees may attend courses from 6 months to 1 year. The very first group, all hearing disabled people, are now employed by top tailoring businesses in Huế.

The Founders
The Hope Center was started by two friends, Nguyễn Thị Hồng and Lê Thị Hương who have known each other for many years. They attended college, worked together and even started a general shop which provided a large variety of services such as laundry cleaners, catering and wedding events management.

The two friends made a name for themselves and built up a network of contacts that would become truly important to them in The Hope Center venture later on. As part of this network they also worked with the government’s labour department. During their contact with this department one point that struck them was how inefficient vocational training was being managed during this time.

Government officials noticed their interest and suggested that they might want to give it a try and open a vocational training Center themselves. The two friends rose to the challenge and decided that this new vocational training Center should serve disabled and disadvantaged people.

In 1999 these two dynamic women encouraged an initial group of 18 students to start the Center with. This was not as easy a task as one might imagine. Both Mrs Hồng and Mrs Hương had to spend many days personally visiting families in order to persuade them that offering their disabled family members a chance to learn a skill and become self-sufficient was most definitely within their ability and would enrich their lives.

Many prejudices in local society, as may be found in every other society in the world, created a perception that disabled people should be excluded from mainstream society. The Hope Center certainly proved this wrong with many success stories to their credit of disabled people learning new skills and carving out stable careers for themselves.

Patrons
The Hope Center is fortunate to have the following dignitaries as its patrons:

Lê Viết Xê, Vice President, People’s Committee, Thu Thien Hue province

Nguyễn Văn Anh, President, People’s Committee, Hue City

Nguyễn Văn Chiến, Director, Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (DOLISA), Thua Thien-Hue Province

Nguyễn Cương, President, Association of Victims of Agent Orange

Garment Manufacture
The Hope Center has made a living since 1999 by making uniforms for schools and hospitals. All orders are made according to customer specifications and are priced competitively. The Hope Center prides itself on its excellent quality control and workmanship.

Workers undergo a compulsory six months training course and are then offered full time employment should they require this. Many students have attended the tailoring course at the Hope Center and have obtained gainful employment in this industry.

The Center is open to disabled and disadvantaged people as well as to the Minority Group A Luoi who live in the mountainous region a short distance from Hue City. In many cases students are accommodated on site to assist with the cost of living while they are receiving their new skills.

Handicraft Production
Several years ago the Hope Center added handicraft production to the Center’s activities. This offers a more creative work environment and taps into the exceptional talents of Vietnamese people.

The handicraft production evolves on an ongoing basis and the Center takes care in keeping its designs fresh and modern while at the same time trying to include Vietnamese elements.

Current products include jewellery, hand woven baskets and apparel made from the hand woven A Luoi fabric.