HOPE ( Hanoi Operation for Public Education ) is a volunteer organization founded by a group of students from schools and universities in Hanoi along with a team of professionals graduated from Stanford (USA). With the theme “ Vision” and the focus on Phuc Tue Centre for disabled children in Hanoi, HOPE 2014 wants to contribute to the small happiness of children with developmental delay generally and autism particularly.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Hanoi
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
The focus of this project is a group of autistic children in Hanoi, starting with those at Phuc Tue Centre. The Phuc Tue Caring Center is a non-profit, nongovernment day care organization based in Hanoi for the care of mentally and physically impaired children. There are now 2 centers around Hanoi that provide care and education for approx 50 children and young people (aged 2 to 22yrs
old) who are suffering from the effects of agent orange,
autism, down syndrome and Japanese encephalitis.
Our goals are helping these children interact with the world and equipping HOPE members with soft skills (leadership, problem-solving, idea-forming and presentation skills).
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
In addition to the project’s management team, HOPE receives special assistance from the consultant team, including specialists that are Stanford University’s graduates (U.S.A), students from Princeton University and Yale University (U.S.A), as well as other student networks from Singapore and the U.S
Chi Tong (Yale University’s student): https://www.facebook.com/TongChi?fref=ts
Tin Nguyen (Princeton University’s student): https://www.facebook.com/tin.t.tinh
Diep Nguyen (Stanford University’s graduate): https://www.facebook.com/nguyenthibichdiep?fref=ts
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
The project will last 4 weeks in the summer. During this time, the project will be divided into 3 specific periods. In the first period, approach, we are going to design exclusive games for autistic children. In the second period, guidance, games are going to be continued, but requiring higher levels of interaction between the children and the organizers in order to help the children become more familiar with the direct instruction from the the organizers. In the last period, development, we are going to divide our team into 5 groups in charge of 5 suitable aspects (music, math, physical eduction, art and photography) . After the project, there will be a conference held to summarize all the announce the result of the project to the citizens and raise funds by the products of the children.
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established or plan to establish that will contribute to the success of the project.
Regarding funding, these connections are grading our proposal to allocate their funds into HOPE: SEALnet (Non-profitable organization) – Future partnership, Vingroup (Corporation) – Future Partnership, Vietnam’ Ministry of Construction – Future Partnership and Education First (Educational Organization) – Future Partnership.
Regarding human resources, the anticipated connection with Vietnam’ Ministry of Construction – Future Partnership will help coordinate manpower and location.
Regarding information sponsorship, the expected partnership with Vietnam’s Ministry of Resources’ Department of Media – Future Partnership, as well as relations with online journalism, to publish HOPE-related articles will attract positive attention from the government’s circles to HOPE.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
The project has recruited 60 volunteers and 20 official members. To ensure productivity and efficiency, 20 members carefully selected after 2 rounds will take charge of 10 groups consisting of the remaining 60 volunteers. Members will be trained beforehand the skills of leadership, ideas communication, teamwork and after that impart these skills to their respective groups. At general meetings, 10 group-leaders must report the progress to the Executive Board and give a general decision on how to develop the project based on the reports of the subgroups.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
We plan to train our participants in networking and conference working, in communication / organization / improvisation skills and in spreading influence through social media and online journalism.
For our targeted community, the focused technology will be simple “apps and games” development on smartphones and tablets platforms. We can teach them this programming and create both educational and recreational learning sessionsfor autistic children.
HOPE wants to introduce autistic children to this aspect of technology to build them the sense of achievement – that they can actualize their ideas into fun games and activities. Regarding research on how autistics minds work, we also hope to stimulate their creativity through colors and sounds and perhaps, art and music.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
The project is planned to take place at the Long Bien autistic facility where the children are taken care of.
The premise is the size of a small building, with adequate utilities of water, electricity and internet connection, and is furnished to be a school with lighting, tables and chairs. We plan to utilize the setting of a school to theme our program itself – growth aspects will be taught as lessons.
It is our plan to introduce autistic children to smartphones and tablets – we expect donations from our fellow students as well as from the general public the devices that will be used to teach children basic programming. HOPE plans to group children into groups of three and give them a device; we have projected the number of 20 devices to provide to the 60 children.
What is your current relationship with the community with whom you plan to work? What makes you the most appropriate individual or organization to implement this project?
Regarding autistic children, the project has had two field trips to Phuc Tue so that leaders could get into contact with the health situation as well as the abilities of autistic children. At the same time, the organizers also received permission and support of the managers of Phuc Tue village to carry out the project. Regarding members, HOPE’s Executive Committee has carried out interviews through which it selects the best and most suitable members for the project. The logistics manager closely supervises the member list.
. With a team of young, innovative and enthusiastic people, HOPE brings a whole new approach to volunteer projects in Hanoi. The leaders dare to try out new methods and commit to being flexible in unexpected situations.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
Expected challenges of HOPE 2014:
– Unappropriate approach that can not justify the development of autistic children.
– Lack of funding
– Volunteers refuse to work with the organizing team.
– Lack of supports due to sensitive subjects.
HOPE once walked on a tough road when the leaders invite peers to join the organizing team and were bluntly rebutted. Autistic children seem inevitable to change and sometimes reckless to work with. Our leaders then went on field trips, collected materials and opened seminars to recruit volunteers. Within 1 week, the project received 80 forms from volunteers. The organizing team then built up the exclusive system to meet the needs of teamwork,flexible action and leadership thinking of volunteers.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
For children with autism, the organizing committee will fully commit itself to creating interactions with children. The limitations of autistic children are the potentials for development- which is the ultimate idea of HOPE.
For the group leaders, HOPE aims to create stimulating experiences for members and volunteers alike in carrying out a project. Having completed the project, members will become equipped with communications, debating, leadership skills and so on. It is the novelty in HOPE’s approach that will serve as a difficulty as well as a chance for organizers to challenge themselves to the fullest extent.
For the media and the majority of people, the social interaction between HOPE and the Vietnamese public gives people a new perspective on autism and on accepting differences.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
The third week of March:
-Week 3: Complete the sponsorship letter, fund-raising proposal
– Week 4: Go on fact-finding trip
April:
-Week 1: The fourth week of April: Present about the project + interview the members round 1
-Week 2: Interview the members round 2
-Week 3: Offer a training course for the members (2 days/week). Announce the project timeline.
– Week 4: Demo teamwork (10 teams) (under the supervision of the organizers)
-Week 5: Synthesize the ideas, alter the proposals for the last time.
May: Assign the duty for 2 groups (the organizers in charge of the conference; the volunteers in charge at Phuc Tue Centre)
June:
– Week 1+2: Aproach
– Week 3: Guidance
– Week 4: Development
– Week 5: Conference
July: Hold a meeting and confer certificates on members and volunteers.
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
H.O.P.E. 2014’s COST ESTIMATION
(USD)
1 Facilities costs
Venue for main events (including stage) 476$ x 3 (days) = 1428
Projector 10$ x 3 = 30
Projection screen 14$ x 3 = 42
Speakers 95$ x 3 = 285
Organizers’ uniform 10$ x 5 = 50
Volunteers’ uniform 7$ x 60 = 300
Total (USD) 2135$
2 Printing costs Invitation letters 0.25$ x120 = 30
Posters 2$ x 30 = 60
Flyers Piece 0.25$ x 500 = 125
Banners 29$ x 1 = 29
Badges Piece (large) 0.6$ x 100 = 60
Piece (small) 0.4$ x 300 = 120
Organizers’ identity cards Piece 0.25$ x 5 = 1.25
Volunteers’ identity cards Piece 0.25 x 60 = 15
Total (USD) 444
3 Organizing costs Equipment 286$
Total (USD) 286$
4 Catering costs Food 20 people = 429$
Drinks
Farewell event 715$
Total (USD) 1144
5 Additional costs 476
Total (USD) 476
Total Estimated Costs 4485$
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Besides the microgrant funding, HOPE sincerely hope that Rising Voices can bring our project to an international scale. Thanks to this, HOPE will have new participants as well as larger support, thus bringing HOPE closer to the expected social interactions.
Contact name
Chi Linh Tran
Organization
HOPE (Hanoi Operation for Public Educatoin)
