Port of Call LAST UPDATE July 12, 2005
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April 11 - 12, 2004 Da Nang, Viet Nam – Da Nang Street Children Project - Study and Exchange Programme
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Embroidery class at the Da Nang Street Children Project vocational training center
Since its foundation in 1997, the Da Nang Street Children Project has fed, clothed, housed, educated, taught job skills, and most importantly, created loving family environments for hundreds of displaced street children. Five large dormitory homes, staffed with volunteer "fathers" and "mothers," give shelter to 150 children, many of whom had been formerly sleeping and earning a living on the street by begging, selling stolen goods or collecting trash.
Before visiting the family homes, over 40 Peace Boat participants stopped at the vocational training centre in Da Nang, meeting with the children aged from 14 years up who are learning job skills that will empower them with the means to be financially independent. Director of the programme, Nguyen Ran, introduced Peace Boat participants to the sewing class first, explaining that once a child has graduated with the necessary skills, the training center can then assist them with a job placement.

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Peace Boat participants sharing the finer skills of origami with children at one of the five residential homes
The tapping of students typing away in a computer class followed the whirr of the sewing machines, donated from charitable foundations in Japan and throughout the world. Vital to the advance of technology in the developing economy of Viet Nam, computer literacy is also important if students wish to continue their schooling and go on to study at university. In the three years the vocational center has been open, more than 300 children have graduated with sewing, computer, plumbing, electrical and mechanical engineering training that has enabled them to find jobs or continue with their education.
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Fun and games with a water-squirting bamboo toy
Though many children are brought in off the streets as orphans, many are also from broken homes or from families too poor to support them. But once graduated, many find paying jobs and then return to their homes as contributors. Although space is limited in the residential programme, the training center accepts several hundred children each year, enrolling them in evening primary school or job training classes, and also giving them free clothes, sandals and basic health care at its clinic.

Before saying goodbye to the hardworking students at the vocational training center, Peace Boat participants thanked director, Nguyen Ran, and handed over a delivery of donated books and musical instruments that had been collected in Japan before the visit. The center survives on donations from overseas foundations and the hard work of its volunteer staff.
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Peace Boat participants and the smiling faces of children in the Da Nang Street Children Project
After a short bus ride to one of the five "families," participants split into smaller groups and visited the children's dormitories for lunch. Despite having a family of nearly thirty members, nearly all the children call each other brother and sister, supporting each other and their foster parents with the sharing of the household chores in their homes. Excited to host guests from another country, the children played games, danced, sang, and even learnt some new origami skills and Japanese words with the Peace Boat participants, before a farewell song and promises to see each other again soon were made.