Newsletter

February 6, 2023

Dear friends,
Finally, we have done with all projects in 2022.   
All reports and pictures have been posted to our website.
Below are the links to the Elderly and the Rice projects that were just completed:
Thank you very much for lending a hand to make these projects possible.  Last year was a very tough year for the villagers due to the lack of work. They are deeply grateful for our help.
Next projects in 2023:
Notebook/Bicycle projects:  We are collecting for these 2 projects now until 4/15/23.  Distribution will begin on the first week of May before the end of the school year.
Bridge project:  We are planning to build a bridge, we have not decided on which one yet.  We are reviewing the bridges that the villagers requested now. Once done, we will proceed with making a plot plan and will keep you posted. We are collecting for the bridge project now until we have enough.
Estimated amount needed is around 12K for 20-meter long bridge.  The bridges that we have been reviewing are around 20 to 25 meters long.  If you donate for this project, please also let us know the name you want to be on the name plaque. As we have previously shared, the name plaque is fixed size, we can only guarantee a name for donations $300 or more.  Thank you in advance for your understanding.
We are doing year-end closing now and will send out a Summary Report for 2022 when done.

April 23, 2022

Dear friends / Các bạn thân mến:

This is a general update of the current and the next projects:
1.  Notebook/Bicycle projects:  They are all done.  Pictures and reports have been posted to our website:
2. Bridges An Hoa Bridge:  will be completed very soon, perhaps next week.  We have new pictures of the handrails:
Cau Mieu bridge:  we have progress' pictures loaded and have updated the thank-you list:
We are looking for sponsors for the tips to workers. They are working very hard, and don't make much due to the rising costs in materials.  We are done with making the name plaque, so donation for the tips will be documented on the sponsors' list on the website only.
3. Current project - Scholarship project:  We are collecting for this project until 
August 1st, 2022.  If you would like to help out, please send in your check before closing date.
4. Letters from Students:
Attached please find the letters from the students, some needs extra help. 
If you would like to help them, please let us know.  We will have a link to all letters on our scholarship webpage.
5. Special Projects:  All special projects requested have been completed:

March 8, 2022

Dear friends / Các bạn thân mến:

Due to the rising cases in Covid19 in VN, the schools might close early this year, so we decide to do bicycle/notebook distributions at the beginning of April instead of May. Thus, the closing date for this project will be March 31st instead of April 15th.  If you would like to participate in this project for this year, please send your donation prior to this date. 
If sending check to our mailbox, please put on the check at the top and on the back (where you usually sign your name): "For Deposit Only to NewHope2008 Account
This is to prevent thieves from cashing the check because there were multiple attempts from thieves to open our mailbox at the post office. We are in the process of opening a new mailbox in a different post office.  We will notify you when done.
The funding to-date financial update of this project is $2500.

**Other news: You probably have heard about the situations in Ukraine.  Our hearts go out to the people of Ukraine and pray to God to help end this war.  Some of you asked where to help, we found this link on CBS news, listing the organizations that are currently helping them.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/want-to-help-people-in-ukraine-here-are-ways-to-donate/ar-AAUvtVX

  
When open the link, please click "continue reading" to see the full list of organizations.  
Please do your research before choosing one.

February 27, 2022

Dear friends / Các bạn thân mến:

Our next group project will be Distributing Notebooks and Bicycles for the needy students.
This project will be carried out on May 1st, 2022.  We are collecting for this project now until April 15th, 2022.   We are also collecting for the Scholarship project which will be carried out in late August.   When making donations, please specify the project for which the fund should be used for.

January 8, 2022

Dear friends / Các bạn thân mến:

Below is the year-end summary report for 2021.   It is listed by projects.  As you can see, the only 2 projects that have balance carried forward to 2022 are the Bridge and scholarship projects.   We will send out another email with details of the balance carried forward for these 2 projects and also the status of each project.  Please note that the balance is computed up to 12/31/21 only.  All donations received in 2022 are not included in here, but will be detailed in our next email.

Thank you very much for your loyal support.  Our accomplishment below speaks for itself.  Hope it warms your heart. Yes, our hearts feel warm because we have warmed many hearts!

2021 - Revenue and Expense Report  Received Spent Forward to 2022
Bridge Muong Duoc (done) 10900 10900 0
Bridge An Hoa 4800 0 4800
Well Project 8850 8850 0
Housing Project 34240 34240 0
College Scholarship Project + 3 laptops (1 from VN Grads) 18700 15450 3250
Hardship Assistance for students during Covid19 6600 6600 0
Notebook and Bicycle 315 315 0
Food Assistance for the Elderly + 145 medicated oil bottles 8206 8206 0
Rice Project + 1182 medicated oil bottles /dầu xanh 24125 24125 0
Special Projects  2525 2525 0
Helping 163 blind families + 163 medicated oil bottles 11450 11450 0
PayPal fee 270 270 0
Admin costs (web hosting, PO box's rent, tax filing, stamps) 419 419 0
Total received plus balance forwarded from prior year 131400 0 0
Total spent for all projects 123350 0
Total balance to be forwarded to 2022 8050
** Balance forwarded from prior year: 5580
**Total donations received in 2021 125820

2021- Accomplishments 
Built Muong Duoc bridge, L:30m, W: 2.5m, capacity:1.5 tons
Built 18 houses for the homeless/needy families
Built 25 wells for the poverty-stricken families
Distributed 32.6 tons of rice to 1630 needy families 
Food+cash for 145 elderly/sickly families ($50 each family)
Food+cash for 163 Blind families ($50 each family)
Distributed 1490 bottles of menthol oil (dầu xanh) to the needy
Awarded 26 college scholarships to 26 needy students
($1000/ea to 3 Med students, $600/ea for 3 incoming freshmen
$500 each for the rest. VN grads sponsored 1 freshman)
Distributed 4 laptops to 3 freshmen students ( 1 from VN Grads)
and 1 to a senior in Hardship Assistance during COVID program

November 30, 2021

Dear friends / Các bạn thân mến:

Our last annual project of the year is Food Assistance for the Elderly/Sickly/Disabled.
We are collecting for this project until December 15th. If you would like to partake in this project, please send in your donation as soon as possible. The reason is we are afraid that once Omicron (the new Covid19 variant) hits Vietnam, our staff will not be able to carried out this project.

For this year, we will ask the village's volunteers to bring most elderly/sickly/disabled recipients to a common location in groups, and will hand out the food there. Afterwards, the volunteers will help take them home.For those who are physically not able to come, we will go to their house like usual.This will help make the distribution less time-consuming for our staff and will allow us to help more families.


September 23, 2021

Dear friends / Các bạn thân mến:
We have completed the scholarship project yesterday.  More than ever, the students were deeply grateful because this was the time when they needed it the most.  They and their parents have not been able to work in the last 2 months due to the lockdown.  You can feel how much this scholarship really meant to them and their appreciation through their letters (will post to our website with the report of this project).
We will have the report of the awards ceremony, video clip, thank-you letters, and pictures of each student receiving scholarship loaded to our website soon (hopefully next week).  This year we were able to pickup only 1 new freshman.  Please scroll down to view the detailed financial update of this project.   We also attached a thank-you letter from Hoang Van Nguyen on the bottom of this email. This was the high school student we met on our 2016-Vietnam-Road-Trip that said getting a scholarship from NewHope2008 was his biggest dream.     We were deeply moved to hear that and have been trying to keep this project alive.   This is his last year in college. He will soon reach his dream to be a Civil Engineer.   We are sorry it's too much to translate.  We also want to thank you for supporting this project so kids like him can still dream big who would otherwise have ended up with odd jobs and an uncertain future.


July 22, 2021

This is an update to all of our projects:

1. Bridge:   We are done building the deck.  What’s left are the handrails and connecting both ends of the road to the bridge.  We had stopped since Saturday due to the lockdown, and won’t be able to continue until the lockdown is lifted.   Below is the link to the bridge project.  Please scroll down to the bottom to view the latest updates.
  Special Projects - 2021 (newhope2008.org)

2. Notebook and Bicycle:  We skipped this project this year due to Covid19.   However, we did buy 3 bicycles for 3 needy students from the remaining budget we have in the account.  A report and pictures of the distribution of these 3 bicycles will be posted once our staff gets the computer back from service.

3. House: The house of Mr. Dang Thanh Tuan’s family just got sponsored (by the Trần Đỗ family).   We won’t be able to start building until the lockdown is lifted.  The following houses have been completed. 

Lê Văn Lộc Ông Nguyễn Văn Bảy và Bà Hồng Thị Nhơn
Võ Thị Hằng Đoàn Nguyễn and ThuThu Trương
Nguyễn Văn Gắng The Cone Families
Nguyễn Văn Thông The Baker and the Chu/Tran family
Nguyễn Hoàng Hà Christopher Nguyen Huy and Catherine Nguyen Huy

4. Well:  We got donation for a new well from Hồi Hướng Công Đức cho bà Ngô Ngọc Anh. We have just completed building this well for the family of Mr. Huynh Văn Kha.   Beside this family, we also have completed  the wells for the families below. 

Cao Thị Cúc Ông, Bà Chương Lụa
Nguyễn Thị Sáu Ông, Bà Chương Lụa
Võ văn Thống Anonymous Donor

Special Projects: 

The following projects have been completed.  Report and pictures will be uploaded to our website after our staff get the computer back from service:

Helping a sick child, Nguyen Van Khanh, $100, sponsored by Heather Huong Lam.

Helping needy student, Cao Van Vinh, $100, sponsored by Suong Pham and family.

Helping 12 blind families, sponsored by Mme Hong Tran and family.   

Helping Vo Thi Hang's family, $200, to have additional fund to build her home, sponsored by Mme Hong Tran and family.

Helping Nguyen Van Gắng’s family, $200, to have additional fund to build his home, sponsored by The Cone Families.

The project below will be carried out next week:
Helping Foods for Khu Chợ Không Đồng to help Covid19 victims in Gò Vấp and Đa Kao, $1000, sponsored by Hồi Hướng Công Đức cho Sư Cô Thiền Tạng

We are currently holding the following donations, waiting for donors’ instructions:
$500 from Jennifer Chau’s group

6. Emergency Rice Project:  **Current Project --we are fundraising now**

This project will be carried out as soon as the lock down is lifted.  Donations are being collected from now until 8/5/21.  Since we are collecting for the Rice and Scholarship projects at the same time, please let us know which one you are donating for. 

7. Scholarship Project:  **Current Project --we are fundraising now**

This project will be carried out at the end of August when most students have report cards and incoming freshmen have proof of college acceptance.  We are currently collecting for this project.  Estimated amount needed is $20,000 to cover for 6 new freshmen and existing students in the program.  Since we are collecting for the Rice and Scholarship projects at the same time, please let us know which one you are donating for.  Most students lost part-time jobs due to the pandemic and are struggling to make ends meet because their parents lost jobs, too.   They really need help with their tuition payment this year.  Please scroll to the bottom to read letters from students sharing their experience during this tough time.


July 21, 2021

Dear Friends / Các bạn thân mến,
We will be doing our Rice project now instead of at year-end because Vietnam is having a lock-down for 3 weeks now in many counties due to Covid19.  Many families are on the verge of going hungry.   We are collecting for this project now, and planning to distribute as soon as the lock down is lifted.   
If you would like to participate in this project, please send your donation by 8/5/21.  
A ton of rice (1000 kg) costs about $600 now; it has been increase a bit due to the pandemic.  
We will give each family 20 kilos of rice (about 44 lbs), so each  ton can help 50 families.   

We hope to have your support to help these poor families get through this toughest time.


April 3rd, 2021

Dear Friends / Các bạn thân mến,

This is an update to our Elderly/Sickly/Disabled project. We started this project at the end of 2020, but were just done loading all pictures last week. There is still one more thing that we still have not finished, and that is translating the recipients' background to English. We are just half done, and will load the rest of the translation when it becomes available. Hopefully it will be ready soon.
Please click on the following link to view the distribution:
Food Assistance for the Elderly Projects - 2020 (newhope2008.org)

Also, attached is a heartfelt letter from Cao Van Vinh that we received today. He's a college student in his third year, majoring in Medicine. In VN, it takes 7 years to complete the medical doctor degree, so he has 4 more years to go. Students like him is the reason we still have the Scholarship project going. Our Scholarship for this year will be carried out in late August. We are collecting for it now. We hope to get your support.

Last but not least is an update to our Bridge project. The village's leaders have started widening the road on both ends leading to the Muong Duoc/Xeo Duoc bridge, making it ready for our project to begin.
We have done posting clearer pictures of the Plot Plan (taken by camera instead of phone). We will continue to keep you posted on the progress when it is available.

About emailing: When you make a donation to our charity, we will add you to our mailing list. The reason is we want to keep you posted on what we did with the money you donated, so you can see where it went and what it has accomplished. If you don't want your email on the mailing list, please let us know and we will remove it.


Descember 1st, 2020

Dear Friends / Các bạn thân mến,

Hope you all had a safe and peaceful Thanksgiving!
This is an update to our last annual project of the year--Food Assistance for the Elderly/Sickly/Disabled.
Every year, we'd like to do this project once to help bring a little joy to the lives that almost have been forgotten by society.  And it has been many years that our gifts have warm their hearts and brighten their days.  As usual, our gift to each family will be $50, which consists of 50% in food and 50% in cash.  We will carry food to each recipient's doorstep because they have difficulty in mobility and very hard for them to carry the food home.  We are accepting donations until December 15th.   If want to partake in this project, please send donation before this date.   

 

October 23, 2020

Dear Friends,

We have finally completed the Scholarship project for this year.
It took more efforts than previous years because we had to do it multiple times in order to accommodate all students.  To-date, we have awarded all. There is one award picked up by a student's parent because he (Nguyen Thanh Truyen) had a car accident.  We don't have the picture of the parent picking up the award yet.  It should be posted in a few days.
Below is the link to the report and pictures of our Scholarship awards:
http://newhope2008.org/Scholarships/2020/scholarships2020.html
Attached please also find a thank-you letter from senior student Truong Tung Vuong. This is just a representation of many letters we got.  You can view them all in the link above.  Also, this year, we  have given the students some old but still very good condition clothes, ties, bags, etc., and had a raffle for them. You can view these gifts on the bottom of the report. The raffle went very well.  We might do it again. Thank you very much for helping us making the scholarship project possible again. 

Next projects:
The next project we will be doing is  Food for the Elderly/Sickly/Disabled.  We will be collecting for this project starting now until December 1st. Each family will get $50 (1/2 cash, 1/2 foods).  And because these are the elderly/sickly/disabled families, we will deliver the goods to their doorsteps.
We will update the donations received for this project in the next email.

New Project:  Building a bridge
We will be building the bridge below:
http://newhope2008.org/Special/2020/BridgeXeoDuoc.html
We will be collecting donation for this project from now until we have enough to build.  If you want to donate for this project, please also let us know the name to appear on the name plaque.  We will have many names, please keep it short.  If you don't want your name on it, please let us know, too.  Just like the House of Humanity and  Well of Humanity, the name plaque for the Bridge will have the same format:
Bridge of Humanity / Cầu Tình Thương
Sponsored by / Bảo trợ bởi:
< all the names go here >
Carried out by / Thực hiện bởi NewHope2008.org
Built in / Xây năm <year of completion>

Because we are collecting for the Elderly/Sickly/Disabled and the Bridge projects at the same time, when sending donations, please let us know which one you are giving for.

June 1st,, 2020

Dear friends / Các bạn thân mến:
We have completed distributing the last 2 tons of rice.  This was supposed be given to Son Dinh's church.  However, we were informed by the church that everyone in the church just got help from another group with 15 kilos (33 lbs) of rice and a box of noodle.   Not only that, every family in Son Dinh village got help the same, too.  We checked other villages and decided to send these 2 tons to village Hung Khanh Trung B in Cho Lach instead.  This village has also been badly hurt by the salt water and has not been helped by any group.   We have updated the report to include the rice distribution in this village and the sponsors for it:

Our next annual project is the Scholarship project.   We will be collecting for this project from now until August 1st.  This is the only project where we need to raise enough fund to keep all the students in the program.  In order to support all 35 students including incoming freshmen we need about 20,000.  We hope to have your support.   Below the to-date financial update of this project. 


Funding To Date

 

$3420

 


March 10,, 2020

Dear Friends,
As of now we have completed all projects in 2019. All houses and wells in 2019 have been posted to our website.  If you have donated for a house/well and don't see it there, please let us know.  All projects have been posted to our website except the Elderly and the Special projects. We should get everything done this week.
This year, we skipped the Notebook/Bicycle project.  The first annual group's project of the year will be the Scholarship project,  which will be carried out in August.  The house and well are individual projects and anyone can sponsor for a house/well and it will be carried out right away.

The 2019 Year-End Summary Report is posted on our website under the tab "Financial Statement" for 2019.  Our web also has a Comprehensive Financial statement report which has details from 2008 to 2019.  I hope you will feel warm reading these reports knowing your gift has made a big difference in many lives. Thank you for your loyal support through out the  years. Your loyal support has been fueling our energy to this day.


October 7th, 2019

Dear Friends,
First of all, we would like to apologize for the delay in carrying out this project.  The reason being was by closing time, we did not raise enough to award all students in our program.  We were short of 5 students, so we had to start the selection process to see which 5 will be removed.  This was a challenging process as almost all of them have the same hardship and it's difficult to choose.  Then, miracle happened when two sponsors came to the rescue and offered to cover for all of them.  So now we have enough for all existing students and began the distribution.  There were no new freshmen, at this time, only students from Sophomore to Senior.  Then, a week later, we got a call from another sponsor who offered to cover for 6 new students, and the grads students from VN also chipped in for 2 more new students.  So we organized another award day to hand out scholarships for these new freshmen.

We are finally done awarding all students.  All the pictures and thank-you letters from the students are in.  We will load them up soon and will keep you posted when done.  Thank you very much for lending a hand to keep this project alive.  This has been a tough year and we have made it!  Thank you so much for your generosity.  As always, this is the toughest project to raise fund for and we are very appreciative of your generosity and understanding.  Attached to the bottom of this email is the financial update of this project.

June 7th, 2019

Dear friends
This is an update to our Bicycle and Notebook projects.  We are done distributing and have posted the report and pictures to our website:
There is a minor change to the total funds reported in the last email for these projects because we had received a few more donations at closing.   The new total is $8760.   Attached please find the updated financial report at the end of this email. Our next  project is the Scholarship project.  This project will be carried out in mid August.   We are collecting now and hoping to raise 20,000 to cover for both current and incoming students.  
We also have one more news to announce.  We are planning to gradually scale down our organization.  Our volunteers in Vietnam are getting tired and so are our staff here.  We will have to discontinue some projects or to do them in alternating years in order to keep the workload manageable.   We cannot keep up with our current 5 annual projects (Rice, Notebook, Bicycle, Scholarship, Elderly/Sickly/Disabled) and 3 year-round projects (Buiding houses, wells, special projects).
The two remaining projects for this year, Elderly, and Rice will be carried out as usual.  The people from Daklak have requested for help with Rice this year.  They said due to bad weather,  their rice's harvest will be way below expectation.   We will be collecting for the Elderly and Rice projects beginning September 1st.

April 22, 2019

Dear friends:
This is an update to our Notebook and Bicycle projects. We are closing the book today and below are the details of the donations received. We are currently working with the schools to decide on the amount of notebooks and bicycles needed for each and will keep you posted when the information is available.

We will start distributing next week and are expecting to be done around mid May. We will keep you posted when the distribution is done and pictures are available. Thank you very much for lending a hand to make this possible this year.

2019 - Notebook and Bicycle Projects

Funding To Date: $8015


January 27, 2019

Dear friends,
This is an update to our projects:.
Rice Distribution:
The Rice project has been completed.  Please click on the following link to view when you have a chance:  
Next project - Notebook/Bicycle Drive:
Our next project is the Notebook/Bicycle drive for elementary to high school students.   Many students are still struggling to have the basic necessities for school.   Besides a pen to write with, the other two most basic needs are notebooks to write on and a bicycle to commute as for many of them it takes a couple hours to walk to school.
It's our hope to help them to complete at least elementary school so they can read and write.   If you would like to participate in this project, please send your donation before April 15th, 2019.  
Facebook/Giving Tuesday Fund Raising:  
We have received a check for $16,449 from FaceBook (check's receipt attached).   All of this fund was donated by our donors below.  None of which was matched as F/B told us that our donations were received after the match ran out.  Per their disclosure, the match ran out in just a few seconds after 5am on 11/27/18.  

Amount received from FaceBook: $16,449
Details of how this fund has been spent in 2018 (funds were directed per donors' request):
Total applied for Rice project:  $1750
Total applied for Well project: 350
Total applied for Special Project to help 3 needy college students: 500

These projects have been completed and the links are below:

Remaining funds carried over to 2019: 
 (Funds were directed per donors' request.  If donor did not specified any project, by default, donation will go to the Scholarship project):
Laptop for college students: 3005 
Special project to help orphanage children with cancer: 5000
Special projects (to be decided): 2500
College scholarship: 3344
----------
We will have our Financial Statement for 2018 ready in the next email. 

October 23, 2018

Dear Friends/Các bạn thân mến:
This is an update to our Rice project.  This is the last annual project of the year.
We will continue to collect for this project until December 15th, 2018.   Our staff will be on vation in the next two weeks, so receipts for any donations received during this period will sent out later.    We have quite a few houses and wells done in the past few weeks.  There were some special projects, too.   Please check them out when you have a chance.  Please scroll down to view our to-date financial report on the Rice project.

Funding to Date: $1450

September 11th, 2018

Dear Friends,

Our scholarship project for this year has been completed.  We have distributed 36 scholarships on Sept 2nd.  There are 11 incoming freshmen (3 of which are from technical school), 10 sophomores, 9 juniors, 6 seniors.  Out of these 36, there are 3 medical students and 1 pharmaceutical student.  Each of these 4 got $1000 and the rest of the students got $500 each.  The reason for the difference was because tuition for the medical and pharmaceutical majors are higher. Please scroll down to view our to-date financial update of this project. We should have pictures of the distribution and  a report  posted on our website in a few week. Thank you very much for lending a hand to give these poor students a chance to change their future.  Attached please find a file that has thank-you letters from the students. These letter will be posted on our website along with the distribution pictures. 


September 4th, 2018

Dear friends,
We have posted pictures of the food distribution and a report of the Elderly project to our website.  Please click on the following link to view:
We have 99 of 102 familes, still missing 3.  We are working on locating the missing ones.  One of the 3 missing is a known case---from a recipient whose leg was amputated.  He applied for help from the government to get a man-made leg.  He finally got the help and been out of town getting this leg installed.   His neighbors and relative begged us to wait for him.  We will keep you posted when all missing ones are posted.  Thank you very much for your patience.  
Our scholarship project for 2018 has been completed.  We distributed the awards on Sept 2nd.   We will send out an email in a few days with a detailed financial update.    Distribution pictures and a report of this project will be posted to our website in a few weeks.  We also have  videos of students giving thanks.  They are deeply grateful for your scholarships.  And we are, too, for your support of this project.  This is the only project where we need to raise a certain amount of money each year to keep it going.  Because of your generosity, we were able take in 6 new freshmen, 3 technical students, and  award almost full tuition to medical and pharmaceutical students.   Last but not least,  we were able to raise each scholarship to $500 (from 400).   This amount would be enough to pay tuition for most majors.  Please accept our heartfelt thanks for helping us not only making this project possible this year again but also reaching a new milestone.

Our next project is the Rice project, which will be carried out in the last week of December.   Closing date for this project is December 15th.     Any donations received within this period without a request to be put in a specific project will be used to fund this Rice project.

August 20th, 2018

Dear friends
This is an update to the Elderly and Scholarship projects.
Elderly:  This project has been completed.  We are working on translating the economic background of the families receiving help.   We should be done next week.  We will notify you when they are available to be viewed on our website.
Scholarship:  We have collected $14843.   We need $15,700 to fund 31 students (25 existing and 6 new freshmen).
Each will get $500.  We have decided to increase to $500 from $400 because the tuition has increased since we set on this number 10 years ago and $400 can no longer cover a scholarship.  $200 to cover transporation cost  for our staff to travel to each student's house to cross qualify them,  take pictures, get grade reports, communication/phone cost, and also to arrange for the awards distribution.  So we are still short of $857.  (Our apology, last time we made a mistake in typing a number.  Last time,we meant to type 5000 in the amount we still need instead of 500.)
Our awards date has been changed to Sept 1st because we still have not received college acceptance documents from the new freshmen.
Also, we currently have 2 students in Medical school: Tran Van Lieu (2nd year) and Ho Hoang Binh (7th year) and Tran Thao Vy (2nd year) in Pharmacy field.   The tuition for these students are higher.  If you want to give them extra, please let us know.  And there are 6 new freshmen, we are still waiting for their college acceptance papers to identify their major.

And last but not least, there are many students who wanted to go to Technical college and asked for our help.  These are the students who either not make it to the traditional 4-yr college due to lower test scores or whose families are too poor and cannot support them for that long time.  Our scholarship is just barely enough for tuition cost, there are other costs like food, transportation, etc. that they have to worry about on their own.  If you would like to support these students, please let us know, too.  The cost is still the same $500 each.  Technical college (đai học Cao Đẳng) is usually takes 3 years to complete.   The cost is the same because although tuition is lower, technical school usually requires them to buy materials and they are very costly.

Funding to-date
 
14843

June 15th, 2018

Dear friends /Các bạn thân mến:
This is an update to our projects:
Scholarship:  We are currently collecting for this project--closing date is July 31st.    Including donations received and all pledges, we have $9025.  We are still needing $6000 more to fund this project.  
House and well buiding:  We try our best to notify you by mail when your sponsored house or well is completed, but just in case you have not been notified, you can check our website anytime for status:

Food Assistance for the Elderly/Sickly/Disabled:  We will be carrying out this project in the beginning of July.  Below is the to-date donations received for this project:

Funding To-Date:

 

3450


May 8th, 2018

Dear friends,
This is an update to our projects.

We have completed the Notebook and Bicycle projects for this year.  Report and pictures have been loaded to our website.  Please take a look when you have a chance.  Seeing the happy children enjoying these gifts of love will warm your hearts:
http://newhope2008.org/Notebooks/2018/notebooks2018.html
Our next two projects are:
Food Assistance for the Elderly, Sickly, and Disabled:  This project will be carried out in the first  week of July.  We are collecting for this project from now until June 30th, 2018.
College Scholarship:   This project  will be carried out around mid August after the students get the result from their college entrance exams.  We are collecting for this project starting now until August 15th, 2018.   It is our hope to bring our budget up to 15,000 in order to help existing students in our program (level sophomore to senior) and 6 more new freshmen.   Currently we have $5175.  Of  the 6 annual projects that we have, this is the one that could open the horizon to one's life, change one's future for good and eventually the society around him/her.   As you have seen in the past 10 years, we've got more than 30 graduates, and they have escaped poverty.  We hope to have your support for these struggling college students.

March 10th, 2018

Dear friends,
This is an update to our projects:
Houses and Wells:  We have just loaded more families on the waiting list for 2018
Special projects: The following projects have been done and will be posted shortly:
- New clothes for needy students:
- Help for 2 students to continue school Phan Huynh Nhu and Phan Ngoc Han 
- Help for a sickly youngster Phan Van Khanh
Notebook and Bicycle:  These projects will be carried out in April as scheduled. We have started our verifying process for the students needing a bicycle.  We took a proposed list from each school and go to each student's house to take picture and check out their family's status. This year, besides Ben Tre, we have received calls from schools in districts Tay Ninh, Tra Vinh, and Vinh Long asking for help especially with bicycles.  We are hoping to have enough to give each area 20 bicycles. If you would like to help, please send your donation by March 31st, 2018 so we can carry out these project before the school year ends so the needy students know that they have the bicycles/notebooks for next year. It is our hope that each student has a chance to complete elementary school so they can at least read and write.

Below is our to-date financial update of these project:

Funding To Date
 
4188

February 1st, 2018

Dear friends / Các bạn thân mến,

Our rice distribution has been completed.  All pictures and report have been posted to our website:

http://newhope2008.org/Rices/2018/rice2017.html
We are done for all projects in 2017 except for the house of Mr. Tran Minh Hai.  It will be completed in the next two weeks. The reason being was the road leading to his house has been under repair and we had not been able carry building materials into his house.

Our first project of 2018 is the Notebook and Bicycle drive.  We are planning to carry out this project in mid April before the exam season.  Most students end the school year after the exam.  Thus, we want them to know that they have the notebook/bicycle needed for next year so they don't quit school for the reason of lacking these necessities.  Most elementary schools in these deep country regions only have classes up to 2nd or 3rd grade.  To go to a higher grade, the students must go to another school in a different village, and for these, walking to school would take a few hours each way.  We hope to get these youngsters to finish elementary.

If you would like to participate in the Notebook and Bicycle projects, please send your donation before March 31st, 2018.


November 26th, 2017

Dear friends / Các bạn thân mến,
We have signed up with Amazon.
When you shop at Amazon, please use the link below so our charity can benefit from it.
http://smile.amazon.com is a generic link for all charities.
http://smile.amazon.com/ch/26-3551044
is the link to setup for our charity so you don't have to type our charity name again. You don't pay any extra, Amazon will automatically takes a small percentage of your purchase and donates to NewHope2008.
This year we have received 2 payments from Amazion: $22.97 dollars on 8/22/17 and $5.57 on 11/16/17.
Total: $28.44 year-to-date.


November 22nd, 2017

Dear Friends:
This is an update to our Rice project.
Our staff in Vietnam have informed us last night that the flood victims in central Vietnam have been helped with a lot of food from variety of charity groups
and abundance just came from foreign governments. Thus, we will not be delivering rice to those areas anymore.
We will still be doing our annual rice project in the south as previously planned, in the counties of Vinh Long, Tra Vinh, Họ Đạo Tú San in Mõ Cày, and if we have extra, we will include An Giang county, and our closing date will be December 22nd, 2017.

We understand some of you donated or donated more than usual because you wanted to give to the flood victims. Now that the flood victims are no longer in need of our rice, please let us know if you are okay with donating in the proposed areas above or if you want your donation be returned. We will proceed with the return immediately upon request.
Below is our financial update of the Rice drive (please scroll down).

Funding To Date: $5040


November 5th, 2017

Dear friends,
There is a change in our rice distributing locations. Due to the recent storms in Vietnam, the counties of Phú Yên, Khánh Hòa, and Đắc Lắc have been hit hard. Many residents have lost their farms/houses due to extended flooding, and thus have no means to support their families. Unlike in the US, where a location is
declared in a state of emergency, the residents will getbsubstantial help from FEMA to rebuild, the help from government is Vietnam is very little---mostly just a bag of rice (10 kilos/22lbs) or in some locations none at all.

In order to help these families in a timely manner, we would like to carry out this project in the beginning of December. Thus, we will cut short our collecting period to November 30th, 2017. If you would like to participate in this project, please let us know early so we can plan ahead for the number of recipients, putting deposit for the rice, get the correct truck size, etc.

Below is our funding-to-date of the Rice project.

Funding To Date: $ 2030


Oct 6th, 2017

Dear friend / Các bạn thân mến:
We will proceed with our annual Rice project as per the result of the survey. Those who responded would like us to keep this project so anyone who wants to donate to the Rice project can still do.
Thus we are collecting for this project from now until December 31st, 2017. This is also our last annual project of the year. Our staff who handles mail will be on vacation until Oct 25th. Thus, receipts for
donations during this period will be mailed after 10/25.

Scholarship project: We have uploaded the students' grade reports and they are available for viewing now. Also, we have just received a thank-you letter from a student who just graduated this year. It is a very moving letter. We would like to share it with you. We know you would be very happy to know that your scholarship donations have changed the lives of students like this.
Tran Van Tuan's parents could not find enough work in their home town. They left for the central part of VN to pick peppers for a living. They left Tuan and his brother at home, and for years they were not able to come back to visit them for lack of money to buy a ticket home.
Once a while they sent a bag of rice home for the two brothers. The two brothers survived with the help of their grandma, goodness of neighbors, and their own survival skills. Tuan has a passion for education. He got admitted to all unniversities that he applied for, but had no money to pay for tuition at any of them. At the moment when he was ready to surrender to fate, our scholarships came as miracle from above. Please read his letter to see how much he has treasured our scholarship,
how grateful he is for the opportunity, and how our scholarship has helped transform a youngster into a good human being. This is a sweet fruit that yields from our seed of love. Please sit back and enjoy together the sweetness of this fruit through every word in Tran Van Tuan's letter:

 

2017-10-03 8:24 GMT-07:00 Tuấn Trần:

Kính gửi quý cô chú hội Newhope, con là Trần Văn Tuấn, sinh viên trường Đại Học Xây Dựng Miền Tây. Hôm nay con viết thư này kính gửi quý cô chú lời chúc sức khỏe và thành công trong cuộc sống. Và sau đó là con có tin vui muốn chia sẻ cùng quý cô chú.
Vậy là sau hơn 1 tháng kể từ khi báo cáo đồ án tốt nghiệp thành công, cũng là thời điểm mừng vì 1 tháng làm việc đúng như chuyên ngành con mong muốn, cũng là thời điểm đã diễn ra lễ nhận bằng tốt nghiệp của con. Những niềm vui như vồ vã kéo đến, con ngộp đến nỗi không khóc mà nước mắt cứ lã chã.
Những giây phút mừng vui trôi qua, trôi qua - đồng thời cũng là những giây phút hồi tưởng trong con.Mãi nhớ!. một thời chạy vạy, cuốn cuồn để có một khoảng tiền để dự thi vào trường đại học, rồi nỗi lo lắng nhân đôi khi biết tin mình đậu vào tất cả những trường dự thi. Làm sao được khi bản thân còn quá nhỏ để có thể tự nuôi lấy thân, khi gia đình đang trong cảnh túng thiếu, khi ba, mẹ phải lúc nào cũng đi ở một tỉnh xa để có thể có công việc - nhưng công việc quá nặng nhọc mà tiền thì quá ít để có thể lo cho con có lộ phí để đến nhập học, nói chi là có thể nuôi lấy con trong 1 thời gian dài, nào tiền học phí, tiền trọ..v.v. Con còn nhớ rõ lắm khi biết tin con trai đậu tất cả trường thì bên kia điện thoại lặng đi, con biết trước giờ hai vai cha mẹ đã nặng nề khi phải vác trên vai nợ cơm áo và gánh trên vai anh chị em con. " Không nuôi nỗi đâu con...".. Giọng nhỏ dần. Và nhịp tim con đập cũng lớn dần, lẳng lặng mấy đêm liền con ngồi bên bàn học của mình nghĩ ngợi mọi hướng - " thật không cam tâm khi phải đầu hàng với số phận sớm như vậy.!".. Sau một tuần nữa, từ trên ngoại về gần tới nhà con đã nghe hàng xóm hỏi " Ai mà ở nhà mày nhiều vây?... Con cứ nghĩ sẽ có chuyện gì đây?.. Thật con không ngờ có chuyện thật,_ Buổi chiều dưới quê hẻo lánh yên bình và đợm buồn, nhưng nhà con thật vui, Cô chú bên phụ nữ huyện và anh Phong đã đến, những giây phút đầu bỡ ngỡ, rồi nghe cô nói về suất học bổng cho con được đi học đại học, niềm vui quá bất ngờ, con ngẹn ngào đến nỗi tai lùng bùng không còn nghe ai nói gì nữa. Ngồi cầm viết viết lá thư đầu tiên cho quý _ nghẹn ngào _ hồi hộp_rối bời, đó là những từ con có thể diễn tả được, sau khi a Phong chụp hình 2 anh em con thì tròi cũng chập tối, mọi người về , để lại cho con một niềm hy vọng tràn trề. Ngồi vẫn vơ nhìn ra hiên lá, cảnh thật tĩnh lặng, có trời tối mịt, râm rang tiếng ếch nhái, ễnh ương. Đêm đó con cũng thức thật khuya nhưng không phải ngồi nhìn ra hiên nhà ngắm từng đợt của những cơn mưa đầu mùa rồi buồn nữa - con ngồi với niềm hy vọng tràn trề. Ngày nhận được thư mời nhận học bổng con cứ như hảy bổng lên khỏi mặt đất, gọi cho cha mẹ thì họ toàn cười với cười - Chắc là họ vui sướng đến không biết nói gì rồi..
.. Thời gian trôi qua, cũng gần 5 năm con học tại trường luôn hằng mong muốn một lần gia đình đến thăm, nhưng con không buồn, vì cứ mãi tha phương cầu thực thì đến nhà còn không thể về thường xuyên đến con cái - cha mẹ đã quá khổ rồi, con tự an ủi mình thế. Bảo vệ xong tốt nghiệp, con nói chắc với cha me " Chuyến này cha mẹ phải qua nhận bằng với con một chuyến nha..!"... Rồi đến ngày nhận bằng mẹ gọi lên 4h sáng vừa khóc sụt sùi - ba mẹ không có tiền rồi sao lên con, không lên con có buồn không?.. miệng thì trả lời "không sao đâu mẹ, dù gì xong rồi con cũng phải đi làm ngay".. nhưng lòng thì cứ nghèn ngẹn," thôi vậy, bây giờ thiếu thì chịu, mai mốt làm cao hơn thì tự do chở cha mẹ đi".. Rồi cha mẹ con cũng lên tới, bất ngờ đến nỗi con phải chạy ngay tới ôm lấy mẹ. Ngày hôm đó con quá hạnh phúc, nhìn thứ gì cũng đẹp, đến đưa cả nhà đi ăn quán lề đường cũng trở nên sang trọng và ngon lành hơn những nhà hàng. Cha mẹ, trên khuôn mặt khắc khổ , chân chất của họ cứ mỗi lần nhìn lại làm con tự hào, họ thật vĩ đại. Tuy họ không nói một lời nào, nhưng nhìn từng nụ cười , từng ánh mắt của họ, con biết họ vui sướng lắm, tự hào lắm - và con , con là gnười thật may mắn và hạnh phúc..!
Hạnh phúc của con là do một phần cô chú đã ban cho...
Thực sự, thời gian thì cứ trôi, và mọi thứ cứ đến một cách lặng lẽ , tích góp. Một tháng đầu tiên đi làm việc tại sài gòn, nơi mà con đã từng mong muốn mình sẽ bám rễ vươn cành và.. tạo ra những quả ngọt, nơi đây đã cho con thấm thía rất nhiều điều. Quá khó cho một người có thể chen chân giữa chốn phồn hoa, quá khó để có thể làm ra những đồng tiền khi không phải dẹp đi cái lòng tự trọng của bản thân, quá khó để có thể lo cho bản thân, càng quá khó để có thể giúp đỡ những người khó khăn trước mắt mình,... Con càng cảm thấy quý trọng hơn từng đồng tiền mà cô chú đã gửi về bảo trợ cho con trong suốt những năm qua. Đồng tiền con có thể xài hết rồi, nhưng tấm lòng của quý cô chú con không thể nào dùng hết được, nó vẫn ở ngay đây , và trở thành một động lực để con phấn đấu nhiều hơn nữa. Có lẽ con phải cố gắng thật nhiều hơn nữa. Con thời gian không xa con có đủ bản lĩnh, đủ khả năng, và cũng là người noi gương quý cô chú , chia sẻ những trái ngot cho những người khó khăn đang cố gắng như chính bản thân con sẽ, đang , và đã từng.
Nhân lễ tốt nghiệp con có chụp vài tấm hình con gửi quý cô chú chung vui với con nhé..^^. Ước mơ cũng là mục tiêu tiếp theo của con là sẽ tích góp đến sáng năm sau con có thể sang nhật để làm việc. Còn bây giờ con sẽ làm tốt công việc hiện tại của mình. Cô chú sẽ luôn cỗ vũ con nhé ^^..!
Chúc quý cô chú luôn vui, khỏe, luôn hạnh phúc và gặp nhiều thành công trong cuộc sống..!. Con luôn mong một ngày không xa được gặp quý cô chú, những người đã giúp đỡ con rất nhiều để con có thể nâng từng bước chân đầu tiên của mình ra xa hội, bắt đầu một hành trình khẳng định mình.....
..kính thư..
Tuấn,


--------------------------------------
Thơ trả lời:
10/06/2017
Tuấn thân mến,
Cô chú đã nhận được lá thơ báo tin vui của con. Lá thơ báo tin vui mà sao các cô chú đọc
ai cũng sụt sùi rưng rưng dòng lệ. Cô chú thấy thương cho đời con, thương cho đời của bao nhiêu em học trò nghèo hiếu học. Cô chú ước gì mình có thể tham dự ngày ra trường của con, ôm con vào lòng, và vỗ lên vai con nói rằng "Con đã làm giỏi lắm, cô chú rất hãnh diện vì con." Cô chú cũng ước gì mình có thể giúp được các con nhiều hơn số tiền nhỏ nhoi $400/năm mà cô chú biết có lẽ bây giờ cũng không đủ để trả tiền học phí của nguyên năm học. Điều mà cô chú tự an ủi và thấy vui mừng nhất là đã có thể giúp được cho các con mỗi người 1 cái máy vi tính. Đó là niềm mơ ước của cô chú đã từ lâu và năm qua đã được đến như một phép lạ. Con là đứa bé vừa giỏi vừa lành, cô chú mong rằng dòng đời sẽ không làm con thay đổi, mong rằng con mãi mãi là đứa bé lành của hôm nay.  Sự thành công nào cũng cần có may mắn. Và may mắn đến từ phước đức. Cô chú chúc con có cả hai. Cô chú biết đi tạo sự nghiệp ở thời đại này đều không phải chuyện dể dàng cho bất cứ thanh niên trẻ nào, và lại càng khó khăn hơn cho những thanh niên trẻ như con, khi trong tay ngoài mảnh bằng ra không có một người thân để nương tựa nơi thành phố lạ. Những câu "quá khó ..." của con, cô chú đọc thấy vừa thương, vừa thông cảm, và cũng vừa vui vì ngay những lúc thấy "quá khó" đến nản lòng này, con đã nghĩ đến cô chú để cố gắng hơn, để hiểu, để thương những người đã giúp con. Bao nhiêu đó thôi, cô chú đã thấy đáng cái công mình đã bỏ ra cho các con.  Những người như con là niềm tự hào của cô chú, là lý do chương trình học bổng của NewHope2008 vẫn tồn tại.  Trên con đường đời sắp tới chắc là không dể đi, cô chú chúc con đủ nghị lực để vượt qua khó khăn, đủ niềm tin để còn hy vọng, và đủ tình thương để mãi mãi là một đứa bé lành như Tuấn hôm nay trong lòng cô chú nhé.
Chúc con luôn vui mạnh,
Cô chú hội NewHope2008


Oct 3rd, 2017

Dear Friends:
This is an update to our projects:
Scholarship project:
This project has been completed. Please click on the link below to view the pictures of the awards' distribution. This year we also have some videos of students sending thank-you messages.
We have loaded everything except for grade reports of students from sophomore to seniors. We will be done loading these in the next few days:
http://newhope2008.org/Scholarships/2017/scholarships2017.html

Housing and well projects:
We are currently building 12 houses. Except for the house of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Nga in Tien Giang county, the rest should be completed by the end of the year. Any house sponsored after today will be completed early next year.
All wells have been completed.
Please click on this link to view the status of any house/well you sponsored:
http://newhope2008.org/Houses.html
http://newhope2008.org/Wells/2017/Wells2017.html

Special projects:
Please click on the link below to view the special projects were done in this period.
For Phan Van Khanh's project, If you would like to fund for the transportation cost to send Phan Van Khanh to a hospital in the city, please let us know. His family is on the village's poverty list so medical cost is free, he just needs funding for lodging and transportation.
http://newhope2008.org/Special/2017/PhamVanKhanh/PhamVanKhanh.html
http://newhope2008.org/Special/2017/Moped/Moped.html


August 12th, 2017

Dear Friends,
This is an update to our current projects:
Food Assistance for the Elderly/Sickly/Disabled: This project has completed. Please click on the
following link to view pictures and report:
http://newhope2008.org/Elderly/2017/Elderly2017.html
We received donation for 10 more gift packages at the last minute, so we ended up distributing
to 108 families instead of 98 as initially reported.

Special College Scholarship for Đặng Thanh Tuấn (Master Program): This project has completed.
Distribution pictures and Thanh Tuan's letters have been posted in the link below:
http://newhope2008.org/Special/2017/Scholarship/Scholarship.html

House and Well Projects:
We have completed 29 wells and 5 are being built. For houses, we have completed 8 and 9
are being built. Sometimes don't have time to contact each donor when a well or a house is done,
so please check on the link below for the status of your house/well donated in 2017:
http://newhope2008.org/Wells/2017/Wells2017.html
http://newhope2008.org/Houses/2017/houses2017.html
On the average, it takes 2 to 3 weeks to complete a well and 2 to 3 months to complete a house.
Please feel free to contact us any time for the status of the house or well you sponsored.

Our current project:
College Scholarship for school year 2017-2018

We are currently collecting donations for this program and will be awarding scholarships in the next few weeks. This year we will pass out 31 scholarships (22 will be for 2nd to 5th year students and 9 for incoming freshmen). One of those scholarships is sponsored by the alumni students from Vietnam who have benefited from our programs and are now giving back. In previous years, we passed out a total of six scholarships to six freshman from three high schools in Giao Thanh, Tan Phong, and Thanh Phu, two students from each school.

This year we have selected two additonal students from other high schools in Mo Cay and Ben Tre. The first student is from Mo Cay. His mother passed away; his father is blind and he has two siblings. His older brother was accepted to the university last year. Unfortunately, he was not able to attend due to financial hardship and was forced to return home, and now working as a brick carrier. Like his brother, the current recipient of this scholarship was also accepted to the university and would have also been unable to attend due to financial hardship. During our trip passing out gifts to the elders, we met our recipient and learned about his situation and decided to give him a scholarship. Our $400 scholarship is only enough to pay for his tuition. He will need money to live and eat during his freshman year. Most students’ parents will find ways to provide money for their children to live and eat. In this case, our recipient has no one else but us to help him survive his freshman year.

The second student is a girl. Her mother works as a park trash picker; her father is a coconut juice presser. This season has not been very good for her family. The family makes $6 per day, barely enough to survive on in Ben Tre providence. Living in the Island Villages, people can scavenge for additional food by going to the rice fields and picking the leftover rice or going to the ocean to try and catch fish. Those options are not available for this family. With an income of $6 a day, a family of four sending one of their kids to college is a near impossibility. Our second recipient has been accepted to a pharmacy program in Saigon. We have known her family since last new year. We had a sponsor that gave every working family (with low paying jobs) a pot of cooked pork with duck eggs ($15) to enjoy with the new year. Because her mother works as park trash picker, she was qualified to receive the food. Our second recipient has a very strong will and determination in her passion for education; her dream was to become a pharmacist. Even when her mother discouraged her from applying to college, our recipient still went and took the entrance exam for pharmacy. She does not want to continue the cycle of poverty and be a trash picker like her mom. When she found out that she passed the exam, her mother begged her to give up the college dream and look for work instead. Our second recipient kneeled down and begged her mom to let her go to college. She promised her mom she would take on any job to support herself during school. After we heard about her hardship, we sent a staff member to verify her situation and grade reports and we have now agreed to help her.

These are the two students that we added to our list of incoming freshmen scholarships this year. In total, we will need to raise $13,350 ($12,000 for 30 recipients, $600 for pharmacy student, $400 for student from Mo Cay, $200 for VN staff and $150 transfer fees). Up to now, we have raised $9,660 and have $3,690 to go. If you would like to particpate in this project, please send in your donation before August 26. On behalf of these needy students, thank you for lending a hand to help them pursue their college dream.


July 7th, 2017 


Dear Friends,
This is an update to our Food Assistance for the Elderly/Sickly/Disabled project.
This project is now being carried out.   Because the recipients are not able to carry the food package on their own, we will deliver them to their door steps.  Most of these families ive in places where there are no driveable roads, so for these, we have to park on the main road and go on foot and hand carry the goods  to their home.  Sometimes it takes an hour to go in and out. 

Thus, it will take us about 3 weeks to make the round.  We will notify once the distribution is done and pictures have been posted.  Below is the to-date financial update of this project.

Thank you very much for your help to make this project possible.

 


June 10th, 2017

Dear friends,
We are currently raising fund for two projects: Food for the Elderly and Scholarship.
The Food for the Elderly/Sickly/Disabled project will be carried out in July while the Scholarship Project will be carried out in September. The closing date for the Elderly project is July 1st and for the Scholarship is September 1st.
Below are the to-date donations' update of these two projects:

Food Assistance for the Elderly/Sickly/Disabled - 2017
Funding To-Date: $2525

College Scholarship - school year 2017-2018
Funding To-Date: $6510

Also, below is the update of student Dang Thanh Tuan's scholarship. We have raised $800 for him to complete his master in Thailand. He will be back in Vietnam on 6/15. We will hand him this award then and will have pictures of the distribution and his thank-you letter posted on our website after that. We will send out an email when they become available.
Special Scholarship for Dang Thanh Tuan -master prog
Funding to Date: $808
Details of money Transfer:
05/06/17 $707
06/01/17 $101
Total spent:$808

Housing Project update:
As you might have heard, the cost of sand in Vietnam has increased 4 times over the past few weeks, and it is still on the rise. This increase was due to the shortage of sand overall.
According to our staff, the shortage began since the government forbade private companies exploiting sands from the rivers. The cost of sand affects the cost of building a house. Currently it costs $1500 to build a basic house of humanity. If it is to be increased, it is very hard for one individual to donate for the whole house. To keep this project alive, we might need to raise fund for this project just like other projects. For the time being, we will wait for a few months to see if the sand price will be back to normal. For any house donated in this period, we will ask the receiving family if they can borrow from other sources for the above-budget cost.


May 12th, 2017 

Dear friends:
This is a general update to our programs:
Bicycle/Notebook projects:  These projects have been completed.  All reports and pictures have been posted to our website:


Food Assistance for the Elderly/Sickly/Disabled:  
This project will be carried out the first week of July.  We are currently collecting for this project until July 1st, 2017.  

College Scholarship:   This is the only project where we must have a definite amount in order to cover all students currently in the program.  The scholarship project will be carried out in the first week of September.  Because we are still short by a lot,  we will be collecting now until September 1st, 2017.
 
This year we will have 6 more students graduating with bachelor degrees.  This brings the total students completed college from our program to-date to 35.
.
Thank you all very much for lending a hand in helping these youngster with a future.

April 4, 2017

Dear Friends,

This is an update to our Notebook and Bicycle projects.
This year there were many new schools asked for our help, and some of them were from distance counties. We have picked up 2 new schools in Tra Vinh county. This is as farther as we can go given the limit of our transportation budget. With the money we have raised, we can fund for 50 bicycles and 14,280 notebooks. We will be distributing to 14 schools ranging from kindergarten to high school. As last year, each student in kindergarten and elementary school will get 10 notebooks (5-line type); and each student in grade above that will get 20 notebooks (4-line type). This is the amount needed for use in the whole school year. We will start distributing in a week and will be posting the distribution pictures to our website as soon as they become available. Thank you very much for helping us making these projects possible for the 10th time. Yay...it's our 10th year anniversary!!!
In these 10 years, you have touched thousands of youngsters' lives making them happier, and for many, you have allowed them the opportunity to stay longer in school to be able to read and write. Hopefully we will be able to continue this mission for many more years.
Below is the list of schools that will be receiving our gifts:
Bicycles (50 total):
Cầu Ngang Elementary, Trà Vinh district: 8
An Trường Elementary, Trà Vinh district: 10
Mỹ Hưng Elementary, Thạnh Phú district: 10
Mỹ Hưng Junior High, Thạnh Phú district: 10
Thạnh Ngai Junior High: Mỏ Cày Bắc district: 12

Notebooks: 14,280 total (7880 5-line, 6400 4-line)
An Trường Elementary, Trà Vinh district: 1400
Cầu Ngang Elementary, Trà Vinh district: 1200
Thành Thới Elementary, Mỏ Cày Nam district: 1200
Thanh Tân Elementary, Mỏ Cày Bắc district: 1100
Thạnh Ngai Elementary, Mõ Cày Bắc district: 1100
Đại Điền Kindergarten, Thạnh Phú district: 700
Đại Điền Elementary, Thạnh Phú district: 1180
Giồng Trôm Junior High, Thanh Phu district: 800 quyển
Cẩm Sơn Junior High, Mỏ Cày Nam district: 800
Đại Điền Junior High, Thạnh Phú district: 800
Giao Thạnh High School, Thạnh Phú district: 800

And below is our to-date financial update of this project:

Funding To Date

 

5910

 

 

 

 

 

Details of money Transfer:

 

 

03/21/17

Sent $5050, OC Services Receipt 03-21-17

5050

 

04/03/17

Sent $860, OC Services Receipt 04-03-17

860

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summary of Expense:

 

 

 

Cost for 50 bicycles:  $60 each * 50 = 3000

 

 

 

Cost of 7880 5-line notebooks:  .20 ea * 7880 = 1576

 

 

 

Cost of 6400 4-line notebooks: .16 ea * 6400 = 1024

 

 

 

Transportation/Delivery cost: 250

 

 

 

Cost to transfer money to Vietnam: 60

 

 

 

Total expense: 3000+1576+1024+250+60 = $5910

 

 

 

Project Balance: 0

 

 
 

 

Funding To Date

 

5910

 

 

 

 

 

Details of money Transfer:

 

 

03/21/17

Sent $5050, OC Services Receipt 03-21-17

5050

 

04/03/17

Sent $860, OC Services Receipt 04-03-17

860

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summary of Expense:

 

 

 

Cost for 50 bicycles:  $60 each * 50 = 3000

 

 

 

Cost of 7880 5-line notebooks:  .20 ea * 7880 = 1576

 

 

 

Cost of 6400 4-line notebooks: .16 ea * 6400 = 1024

 

 

 

Transportation/Delivery cost: 250

 

 

 

Cost to transfer money to Vietnam: 60

 

 

 

Total expense: 3000+1576+1024+250+60 = $5910

 

 

 

Project Balance: 0

 


February 21, 2017

Dear Friends,

This is the last report of all remaining projects in 2016.
All these projects are done and have been posted to our website:
Toys for Elementary schools project:
http://newhope2008.org/Special/2016/Toys/Toys.html

Christmas Wish for College Students:
http://newhope2008.org/Special/2016/Christmas/ChirstmasWish.html

Special Project in Vinh Long and Soc Trang Counties:
http://newhope2008.org/Special/2016/VinhLong.html

We also made updates to these web pages:
Laptop Project: (Added a page that details sponsors' name and recipients)
http://newhope2008.org/Scholarships/LaptopDrive/LaptopDrive.html

Scholarship Project: (An update was made because 1 student dropped out and a new student was picked up)
http://newhope2008.org/Scholarships/2016/scholarships2016.html

This update wraps up the year of 2016. Our first project in 2017 is the Notebook and Bicycle project, and it will be carried out in April. If you would like to participate in this project, please send in donation before March 31st, 2017.


February 13, 2017

Dear Friends:

This is an update of our projects:
Laptop Drive:
The laptop distribution for the school year 2016-2017 has been completed. 

The report and pictures have been posted to our website:

http://newhope2008.org/Scholarships/LaptopDrive/2016/LaptopDrive2016.html

In this report, we also have posted thank-you letters and videos from the students.

Housing / Well / Special Projects:
Since these projects are individually sponsored, we will send an email and a link to the report of that project to the sponsor upon completion. We will not have group update on these projects.

Toys Project and Christmas Gifts for 3 college students from December 2016:

We are working on these reports. They should be done this week.

Current Project:

Notebook and Bicycle: These projects will be carried out in April, 2017.
We are collecting for this project from now until March 31st, 2017.

Below are the to-date financial update of this project:

Funding To Date $2460


January 7, 2017

Dear Friends,
This is an update to our projects:
2016 Elderly/Sickly/Disabled: This project has been completed. All pictures have been loaded. We got extra funding for 2 more families at the end, so we were able to help 134 families in total.
Below is the link to the report and pictures:
http://newhope2008.org/Elderly/2016/Elderly2016.html

2016 Laptop: Most of the laptop have been distributed. There are 7 more to be distributed next Saturday.
We will have a complete report and pictures loaded in the next few weeks
2016 Toys for Elementary Students: The toys have been distributed two days ago. The entire school was filled with joy. We will have a report and pictures ready in a few weeks.
2016 Christmas Wishes for College Students: This project has been completed. Three students got their wishes . Will post the pictures when they become available.

Current projects:
2017 - Notebook/Bicycle Drive: This is our first annual project of the year.
We are collecting for this project now until April 1st.
Special Projects:
1. While distributing for the Elderly/Sickly/Disabled families, we noticed a family that is badly in need
of further help. The family #86 -Thai Van Tan Minh. Please let us know if you would like to help this family.
2. Additional tuition help for medical student Ho Hoang Binh. The tuition of med student is around $1000/year.
He will need more than our regular $400/year scholarship to go to the end. He got a total of $600 from us this year and will need 400 more. If you would like to help, please help before the end of the Lunar New Year (Jan 28) because he will be coming home for the holidays and it is easier for us to meet up with him.

Wells of Humanity: Vietnam is in the sunny season now. It is getting hot and will be very hot very soon. Many families are in dire need of a well. This is the time where building a well means a lot for the needy families even more than building a house because they are running out of drinking water. People need a house more in the rainy season. For those families that don't have a well, the money they will be spending to buy drinking water for the whole year is almost the same as the cost of building a well. The cost of building a well is $355. If paid by PayPal, please add 3% more.
Year-End Report /Tax Return: We are working on a year-end report and our tax return. The expected completion date for this project is the end of February.

We got a lot of things done this year, more than any other year in our history span.


December 9, 2016

Dear friends:
Once again Christmas is coming. There are many children anxiously waiting for the gifts they know they will have. There are many chidren who have too many toys that getting one more will not make any difference. And yet there are many children born in povery never get to experience Christmas. Santa Claus and the presents are only fairy tales in books and dreams. This year, for once, let's make their dreams come true. Let's give them a chance to indulge in childhood's fun. Please join us to give them the Christmas that they will remember for the rest of their lives.

We will be distributing toys to 120 students in two elementary schools and more than 20 students in a kindergarten. Each of the 120 students in elementary school will have a toy to bring home. The children in kindergarten will have toys to play in class. To be able to buy this many toys, we have to spend a lot of time and efforts camping for sales in many stores during the Black Friday week. There are many toys that we had to returned and buy back 3 times in order to get the cheapest price.
The elementary school we chose is Thanh Phong Elementary in Con Lon-- the school farthest away from the village. It is close to the forest and houses students from the following islands: Cồn Lớn, Cồn Mít, Cồn Đâm, Cồn Cao, and Cồn Dài. It has just been rebuit due to old age. It is also served as a refuge center for the villages' storms' victims. Besides this school, we also chose Thanh Phong Elementary in Bon Bon. For the school in Bon Bon, we only have enough toys for 1 class. Attached to the bottom of this email is the detail of costs of the Toys project.
Below is the summary:
Total Toys cost + shipping fee: $2305.81
Donations received to-date: $1220
Still needing: $1085.81

We'd like to share with you a conversion from our staff and a 4th grader afer we were done distributing toys to a Third grade class in his school. You can see how precious these toys are to the children here.
- Mister, when will you be distributing to 4th-grade class?
- No, we only give to 3rd grade this year
- Mister, may I know why you won't give to 4th grade ?
-Oh, I don't know. I just followed order from the charity group
-Had I known this, I would have chosen to stay back in 3rd grade and not advancing to 4th.

Besides the Toys program for elementary students, we also have a make-a-wish program for the College students. They will write letters expressing their wish for the holidays. We don't have a budget, so we will just grant a wish to just one student. Attached to the bottom of this email are their letters. Please read when you have some free time.

MÓN QUÀ NOEL MƠ ƯỚC
Kính gửi: ông Santa.
Con tên Nguyễn Thị Kim Hậu, sinh viên năm 4 trường Đại học Công nghiệp Thực Phẩm TPHCM
Thời tiết bên đó lúc này có lạnh lắm không ạ? Các cô chú và ông có khỏe không? Mọi người ra đường nhớ giữ ấm nhé.
Bên Việt Nam trời bắt đầu se lạnh, những cơn gió lùa qua cũng làm con rùng mình. Con nhận ra là sắp đến Noel, sắp đến tết rồi. Những cơn gió lạnh càng làm con thao thức, lo lắng không yên. Bởi nơi quê nhà có một người mẹ đã vì lo cho con ăn học mà tiết kiệm từng đồng, không dám mua một chiếc áo ấm mới, không mua một cái mềnh đủ dày để đắp, đừng nói đến là một chiếc nệm. Rồi khi ra đường vào sáng sớm mẹ phải chịu lạnh, tối đến giấc ngủ cũng không yên vì lạnh. Con nghĩ đến đây trong lòng xót xa. Con thì bản thân còn phải để cho mẹ lo, không thể làm gì được cho mẹ.
Trước đây con không biết Noel là gì, không có quà, không đi chơi. Năm nay thì con được có cơ hội nhận được món quà từ ông già Noel Santa, con vui lắm, lần đầu nghe đến quà Noel mà. Con cũng không mong muốn gì cho con, chỉ mong sao mẹ có chiếc áo ấm, tấm chăn mới hay một chiếc nệm để giảm đi cái giá lạnh trong mùa đông này.
Dù mong muốn của con có thành sự thật hay không con cũng cảm ơn cô, chú và ông Santa cho con cơ hội để mơ ước về món quà Noel này.
Con xin cảm ơn và gửi lời chúc sức khỏe đến các cô chú và ông Santa!


Thơ của em Hồ Thị Ngọc Hân:
Cô Chú kính mến!
Chắc suốt những ngày vừa qua cô cùng các cô chú rất bận và mệt lắm đúng không ạ. Vì không phải lo cho tụi em nhỏ trường tiểu học mà còn lo quà giáng sinh cho tụi con nữa. Con thương cô chú và cảm kích tấm lòng của cô chú rất nhiều.
Cô chú biết không, ở Việt Nam đang bão và mưa suốt mấy ngày qua, trời lạnh lắm cô ạ. Qua lá thư lần này, con muốn xin ông già noel 2 món quà ạ, con tham lam quá cô chú há, con xin lỗi. Phần quà thứ nhất, con muốn xin ông già noel một phần quà nhỏ là 1 cái cravat cho thầy Út, người thầy đã dạy con 3 năm cấp 3 và cũng là người giới thiệu gia đình con với chú Phong để giúp đỡ con biết tới Hội Newhope2008. Phần quà thứ 2 con muốn xin ông già noel là 1 chiếc áo ấm cho mẹ con, trời đã lạnh vì gần tết, mẹ con lại nhỏ người và ốm yếu, con đi làm thêm chỉ đủ con trang trải cho cuộc sống và việc học nên chưa đủ tiền mua tặng mẹ một món quà nào nhân ngày đặc biệt.
Nếu 2 điều ước này nhân mùa giáng sinh năm 18 tuổi của con thành sự thật, con sẽ cảm thấy hạnh phúc và vui lắm.
Con cảm ơn ông già noel thật nhiều và đặc biệt là cảm ơn cô chú đã giúp đỡ yêu thương tụi con.
Con chúc cô chú có ngày mới thật an lành hạnh phúc và vui vẻ!


Thơ của em Huỳnh Như Nguyễn:
Dear Santa:
Con rất vui khi được viết thư cho ông. Từ nhỏ đến bây giờ, đây là lần đầu tiên con viết thư cho ông đó.
Mùa Gíang Sinh lại đến, không khí ở đây lúc này cũng đã bắt đầu lạnh. Lại 1 mùa Gia'ng sinh nữa con không ở bên gia đình. Không giống như các bạn cùng tuổi, mỗi khi đến Gia'ng Sinh các bạn muốn được cha mẹ tặng quà và chở đi chơi. Nhưng đối với con những điều đó không cần, con chỉ muốn được vui vẻ bên cha mẹ. 2 năm rồi con không cùng cha mẹ hưởng 1 mùa Gia'ng Sinh trọn vẹn. vì con đi học xa nhà, không thể về được. Lần đầu tiên con viết thư cho ông già Noel, con chưa lần nào được nhận món quà từ tay của ông già Noel cả. Hôm nay, con viết thư để kể cho ông nghe về món quà mà con mong ước muốn được trong mùa Noel này. Khi đi học, con rất thích mặc Aó dài đi học. Vì con học trong ngành Sư phạm phải mặc Aó dài, mà vì con chưa có điều kiện để sắm cho mình được. Khi nhìn các chị và các em mặc Aó dài đến trường thước tha rất đẹp, con rất thích. Nhân dịp Gi'ang Sinh đến, con kể cho ông nghe món quà con thích là chiếc Aó dài. Con rất mong ông sẽ hiểu được tấm lòng của con. Con rất mong sẽ nhận được món quà Noel của ông.
Con chào ông.

Thơ của em Nguyễn Thị Phương Nguyên:
Dear SANTA:
Con chào ông già noel Santa. Con là Nguyễn Thị Phương Nguyên là một trong những sinh viên rất may mắn nhận được sự giúp đở của các cô chú các mạnh thường quân trong hội newhope2008. Con rất vui và rất biết ơn với những món quà mà các cô chú đã tặng cho chúng con.Những món quà ấy rất có ý nghĩa với chúng con nó giúp chúng con có thêm nghị lực và niềm tin để bước tiếp con đường học vấn và con đường đi đến tương lai sao này.
Ông già noel ơi! Còn không bao lâu nửa là chúng ta lại đón một mùa giáng sinh mới rồi. Con biết là ông già noel rất bận rộn với việc chuẩn bị những món quà xinh xắn đáng yêu để mang đến cho các bạn nhỏ dể thương đúng không ông? Con cũng có một ước mơ vào dịp giáng sinh này và con hi vọng là nó có thể thực hiện được đó ông. Ước mơ của con là vào ngày giáng sinh khi ông cưởi những chú tuần lộc đi phát quà cho những em nhỏ. Ông có thể giúp con gửi những lời chúc giáng sinh cho các cô chú các mạnh thường quân trong hội newhope. Lời chúc của con là. “ Merry Christmas. Con chúc các cô chú có một mùa giáng sinh vui vẻ hạnh phúc bên gia đình ấm áp và an lành. Đặc biệt con muốn gởi lời chúc đó và lời cảm ơn với Cô Thy. Cô đã dốc hết tâm trí và sức lực của mình để vận động các mạnh thường quân tặng máy vi tính cho tụi con hổ trợ tụi con trong học tập. Con cũng cảm ơn Cô Nghĩa Phạm và Hãng Health Essentials đã tặng máy vi tính cho con con rất vui và rất trân trọng món quà của cô. Con rất muốn nói lời cảm ơn trực tiếp với các cô chú nhưng con nghĩ các cô chú có nhiều việc bận nên không thể về Việt Nam được nên con nhờ ông già noel gửi lời chúc mừng giáng sinh và lời cảm ơn của con đến các cô chú các mạnh thường quân trong hội newhope”.
Cuối cùng con chúc ông già noel đón một mùa giáng sinh thật vui vẻ.


Thơ của em NGUYỄN THỊ NGỌC:
Ông Noel mến,

Con là Nguyễn Thị Ngọc, sinh viên năm nhất, Khoa Tâm Lý Học, Trường Đh Khoa học xã hội và nhân văn-Đh Quốc gia TP.HCM.
Ông biết không, đây là lần đầu tiên con viết thư cho ông đấy.
Trước đây, mặc dù đã biết đến câu chuyện viết thư gửi cho ông già Noel trong dịp lễ Giáng sinh nhưng con chưa từng nghĩ rằng chính mình sẽ làm điều đó. Bởi vì con quá nhút nhát, con luôn nghĩ rằng mình viết thì cũng chẳng có ai thèm đọc mà mong cho điều ước thành hiện thực.
Cho đến khi, con bước vào giảng đường đại học, mọi suy nghĩ của con lúc trước hầu như hoàn toàn thay đổi. Con bắt đầu sống tự lập từ đó con tự tin hơn về bản thân mình hơn. Why not ? Why not me ? Why not now ? Đây là 3 câu hỏi mà con luôn tự đặt ra cho mình trước mọi tình huống.
Để bước vào đại học, con đã gặp rất nhiều khó khăn nhưng nhờ sự giúp đỡ kịp thời của các cô chú trong hội từ thiện NewHope2008 mà ước mơ của con mới được tiếp tục. Con thật sự rất biết ơn và trân quý tấm lòng của cô chú. Vì vậy, món quà mà còn muốn ước trong mùa Giáng sinh năm nay là con sẽ có được một buổi gặp mặt với các cô chú trong hội, con muốn tự mình sẽ nói lời cảm ơn với các cô chú, sẽ kể cho cô chú nghe về con đường chinh phục ước mơ của mình.
Con mong là điều ước của mình sẽ thành hiện thực.
Cuối thư, con chúc ông luôn vui khỏe để tíêp tục mang đến niềm vui cho nhiều bạn trên thế giới.


Thơ của em Phan Thị Thùy Dung
:
Kính gởi ông già Noel "Dear Santa"
Noel sắp đến rồi, khi con nghe cô chú Hội NewHope nói ông sẽ tặng cho chúng con món quà mà con mơ ước trong dịp Giáng sinh này, con rất vui mừng mà gửi đến ông thư này, mong ông có thể giúp con thực hiện được ước mơ của mình. Con suy nghĩ rất nhiều không biết có nên nói ra ước mong của mình không nữa bởi vì con sợ món quà mình mong ước sẽ làm ông khó thực hiện, con biết việc tăng quà cho chúng con như vậy là rất khó khăn nhưng ông vẫn muốn giúp chúng con. Con thật sự rất cảm động, dù có nhận được quà hay không thì con cũng rất vui vì nhận được sự quan tâm đặc biệt của mọi người. Mòn quà con mong ước có được trong dịp Noel này là con mong nhận được một cái máy ảnh hiệu SONY KTS DSC-W800/SC E32. Theo như con tìm hiểu trên mạng thì đây là loại máy ít tiền nhất so với những loại máy khác. Sở dĩ, con muốn nhận được máy ảnh bởi vì từ nhỏ con rất thích chụp ảnh, ghi lại những khoảnh khắc đáng nhớ với ba mẹ, bạn bè, chụp ảnh phong cảnh... Mong sao Giáng sinh năm nay con sẽ nhận món quà từ ông già noel . Xin chào ông ạ. Chúc ông luôn vui vẻ và mang lại niềm vui cho mọi người trong lễ Giáng sinh.

Thơ của em Đặng Hoàng Vinh:
Kính gửi Cô chú hội NewHope2008
Con là Hoàng Vinh , sinh viên năm hai !!!
Con đã nhận và đọc mail của cô Thảo về món quà giáng sinh!!! Trước hết con rất cảm kích , rất vui vì được cô chú quan tâm nhiều đến như vậy. Một điều vô cùng ý nghĩa và hạnh phúc vì được nghe tin về món quà giáng sinh này !!! Con xim chân thành cám ơn cô Thảo và các cô chú trong hội nhiều lắm.
Con xin bày tỏ một chút về tâm tư! Từ nhỏ con được sinh ra ở vùng quê , ở đó ngày lễ Giáng sinh không được quan tâm nhiều , thậm chí ngày ấy vẫn như mọi ngày thường cô chú ạ , lúc cô chú ở Việt Nam chắc hẳn cũng đã biết đến điều này phải không ? Thời của ba mẹ ông bà con thì là thời buổi còn trong giai đoạn giải phóng đất nước , nghèo khổ, cơ cực , nên đối với họ Giáng sinh là điều xa xỉ , còn khi chúng con sinh ra thì xã hội đã ổn hơn , nhưng không được phổ biến về lễ Giáng sinh từ ông bà cha mẹ !!! Đến thời gian gần đây , tuổi trẻ chúng con mới hưởng ứng ngày lễ này, cũng chỉ là trao nhau một vài món quà nho nhỏ , rồi xuống đường , rồi đến Nhà thờ ( ở tận huyện ) , chỉ là xem , ham vui chứ con không phải là người trong Đạo nên cũng chỉ chưa hiểu gì về ý nghĩa của ngày lễ này. Còn nói đến ông già Noel là con nghĩ ngay đến lúc nhỏ , xem tivi mà ước ao được gặp ông ấy , ước ao nhận được món quà , Hihi , mà ở quê như chúng con lạc hậu so với các bạn ở thành thị lắm , làm sao mà có dịch vụ giả ông già Noel mà tặng quà này nọ !!! ^^ !!!
Nên hôm nay được nghe về món quà của cô chú thì con rất bất ngờ , rất vui cô chú ạ !!!
Theo con được biết thì Hoa Kỳ xem Giáng Sinh là một ngày lễ rất đặc biệt , rất quan trọng và được trông chờ nhất phải không cô chú? Giáng sinh xong là vài ngày sau đến đón năm mới luôn , nên đây là thời điểm rất vui vẻ , hạnh phúc bên gia đình , giống như tết Nguyên đán ở Việt Nam vậy phải không ạ ?
Thật sự không khí bên ấy chắc chắn là rất đặc biệt , khắc hẳn ở Việt Nam !!! Được hoà mình vào không khí ấy con nghĩ điều đó xa vời với con thậy đấy !!! Hihi
Nhân dịp , con chúc cô chú có một thời gian chuẩn bị đón giáng sinh , cũng như năm mới , thật ấm áp , thật hạnh phúc bên gia đình !!! Những điều đến với cô chú đều là những điều tốt đẹp nhất !!! Con thân kính chúc ạ !!!
Còn về quà giáng sinh ,con cũng muốn được một lần thấy quà Giáng sinh của bên ấy!!! Hihi !!! Nhưng mà cái Laptop , là món quà rất lớn , là rất đủ đối với con rồi , con không giám mong hỏi gì thêm cả !!! Con xin nhượng lại 1chút phần trăm trúng giải của mình cho các bạn khác , biết đâu sẽ có người có ước muốn, có khát khao rất lớn về một món quà nào đấy !! Điều con mơ ước bây giờ , là làm sao phải dẹp đi mọi suy nghĩ , mọi việc làm để không ảnh hưởng đến việc học tập , con muốn cố gắng học tốt, cho bản thân , cho gia đình , cho xã hội , và cho sự mong muốn của hội NewHope2008, điều đó không có ông già Noel nào trao tặng được đúng không cô chú , mà là do bản thân con phải thật nổ lực mà ra !!!
Một lần nữa con xin cám ơn cô Thảo , cô Sương , và các cô chú trong hội NewHope2008 , đã nghĩ đến món quà Giáng sinh cho chúng con !!! Con xin cám ơn ạ !!!

Thơ của em Phạm Thị Thu Vàng:
Dear Santa,
Con tên là Phạm Thị Thu Vàng, hiện con là sinh viên năm 4 ngành công nghệ chế biến thủy sản của trường Đại Học Nông Lâm TP.HCM.
Lời đầu tiên cho con gửi lời chúc sức khỏe đến ông già Noel ạ.Cũng sắp đến một mùa giáng sinh nữa rồi phải không ông? Và đây cũng là mùa giáng sinh thứ 4 con xa nhà rồi ông ạ! Bốn năm xa nhà là bốn năm con phải tự tập thích nghi dần với lối sống, với con người nơi đây, tập thích nghi kiềm bớt nỗi nhớ nhà và tập kiếm sống bằng chính sức lực của con mà không phải trông cậy vào gia đình.
Gia đình con hiện tại vô cùng khó khăn.Mẹ con đã ngoài sáu mươi rồi nên không làm được việc gì nặng nhọc, chị con bị bệnh tâm thần lúc tỉnh lúc không. Ba con thì đã qua đời hơn 2 năm rồi do bệnh tai biến. Mọi chi phí trong gia đình đều phải nhờ vào vài chục dừa và tiền trợ cấp xã hội hàng tháng. Chi phí con học trên thành phố thì vô cùng nhiều, gia đình con không đủ khả năng để lo cho con. Trong cảnh khó khăn tưởng chừng không thể vượt qua đó lại lóe lên một nguồn sáng cho con, cô chú trong hội thiện nguyện NewHope2008 đã mang đến cho con niềm hi vọng mới, truyền cho con động lực tiếp tục bước về phía trước. Con cảm thấy vô cùng may mắn và hạnh phúc. Nếu như cô chú không có tấm lòng yêu thương tụi con thì sẽ không duy trì được hội đến ngày hôm nay. Vừa rồi con đã nhận được một máy vi tính của cô Nghĩa trong hội thiện nguyện Newhope2008 cho con. Con biết cô Nghĩa cũng như cô chú trong hội thiện nguyện NewHope2008 vui còn hơn tụi con nữa ông già noel ạ và con cũng tự nhủ với lòng rằng sẽ cố gắng học thật tốt để sau này có một công việc ổn định để giúp ít cho gia đình và giúp một phần nào đó dù là nhỏ thôi để cho Hội ngày càng giúp đỡ được nhiều bạn có hoàn cảnh khó khăn như tụi con.
Nhân mùa giáng sinh này con có một mong muốn, ông có thể giúp con được không ạ? Con là sinh viên năm cuối chuẩn bị ra trường, trong thời buổi như bây giờ để thuận tiện cho việc đi làm sắp tới con rất cần có một chiếc xe máy, con không cần xe máy mới gì đâu ạ, chỉ là một chiếc xe máy cũ có thể đi lại thôi ạ. Hoàn cảnh gia đình con rất khó khăn nên không thể lo cho con tiền để mua được. Con rất mong mùa giáng sinh năm nay ông già noel có thể giành cho con cũng như các bạn một món quà ạ. Nếu không nhận được quà từ ông thì con cũng cảm thấy vui và hạnh phúc bởi năm nay con đã nhận được quá nhiều sự may mắn và lời động viên, khích lệ từ cô chú trong hội thiện nguyện Newhope2008 rồi ạ.
Cuối cùng con xin gửi lời cảm ơn chân thành và lời chúc sức khỏe đến cô chú trong hội thiện nguyện NewHope2008 và ông già Noel ạ!
Con Thu Vàng!

Thơ của em Nguyễn Thị Thúy An:
Kính gửi các cô chú thương mến ! Chúng con luôn ghi nhớ những công ơn mà các cô chú đã dành cho chúng con. Chúng con biết trách nhiệm mà tụi con phải có đó là cố gắng học thật giỏi và nhớ ơn những người đã giúp đỡ mình cũng như đền đáp lại công ơn bằng cách giúp đỡ lại cho người khác bằng khả năng mà mình có. Sau này dù có thành danh, thành tài hay không chăng nữa thì sứ mệnh đó tụi con cũng sẽ ấp ủ và hoàn thành nó để cố gắng giúp đỡ những hoàn cảnh khác như tụi con lúc bấy giờ có thể hoàn thành ước mơ, hoài bảo và bước tiếp trên con đường học vần.
Noel năm nay không biết đối với những anh chị và các bạn khác ở Việt Nam thì sao, riêng đối với con thì nó cũng như những năm khác, nó như là một ngày bình thường thôi ạ ! (smile). Không biết tại vì con không theo đạo hay là do ở Việt Nam người ta ít để tâm đến việc tổ chức lễ Giáng Sinh. Chỉ có vài năm trở lại đây Việt Nam mới hòa nhập với thế giới và những ngày Giáng Sinh mới được tổ chức có qui mô hơn. Nhưng chủ yếu cũng chỉ là dành cho những người theo đạo Thiên Chúa thôi ạ. Vì vậy con không đòi hỏi gì quà cáp vào ngày Giáng Sinh đâu ạ. Các cô chú cứ để dành những phần quà đó cho những bạn khác cần hơn con. Nếu như tặng quà cho ba mẹ hay người thân thì con đã tặng vào ngày lễ Vu Lan, ngày Quốc Tế phụ nữ, ngày của Cha... rồi ạ. Cho nên dịp Giáng Sinh này con thấy không nhất thiết phải quà cáp gì nữa. Các cô chú cứ xem như tụi con tặng quà ngược lại cho các cô chú đi ạ, Noel đến là đông cũng đến, mọi người hãy dành chút thời gian sắm sửa thêm cho mình vài chiếc áo len, vài chiếc khăn choàng cổ hay một đôi giày kín để có thể ấm áp hơn và vui vẻ tận hưởng bầu không khí Giáng Sinh sắp đến đi ạ.Các cô chú vui thì tụi con cũng vui. Con biết các cô chú rất là bận rộn, vậy mà cứ lo nghĩ cho tụi con hoài, lo máy tính, lo quà hết dịp này đến dịp khác. tụi con cảm thấy rất áy náy. Không biết các cô chú mỗi sáng có ăn sáng được đầy đủ không hay chỉ vội vã ăn qua loa rồi lại lao vào công việc. Cuối ngày không biết cô chú có ngủ đủ giấc hay không mà lại thường xuyên gửi mail cho tụi con. Thực sự tụi con vô cùng cảm động và rất lấy làm biết ơn ạ.
Vì thế con rất mang ơn các cô chú, nếu hỏi dành phần quà đó cho ai thì con xin kính gửi tặng các cô chú trong hội New Hope ( các cô chú phải hứa là mua quà cho mình đấy nhé ! smlie ). Cuối lời con xin kính chúc các cô chú sẽ đón một mùa Giáng Sinh an lành và tràn đầy hạnh phúc ! Chúc công việc của cô chú nói riêng và Hội New Hope nói chung luôn suôn sẻ và thành công. Các cô chú nhớ giữ gìn sức khỏe thật tốt ạ !

Thơ của em Tống Thị Lil:
Con chào ông già Noel “ Dear Santa” thân mến!
Con tên là Tống Thị Lil sinh viên năm 3 của trường Học Viện Hành Chính Quốc Gia.
Lễ giáng sinh là một trong những khoảnh khắc mà các con rất háo hức chờ đợi. Đây là dịp các con sẽ được đi chơi và được ông già Noel ban tặng cho những món quà đáng yêu.
Lễ giáng sinh đã gieo vào lòng con một niềm rạo rực, cảm giác ấm áp hạnh phúc.
Những món quà biểu lộ tình yêu của mọi người với gia đình và bạn bè. Con hay nghe người ta nói ông già noel thường cưỡi xe tuần lộc trên trời, đến nhà có cây thông giáng sinh và leo qua ống khối để đem đến những món quà cho các em nhỏ đang ngủ và thường để quà trong những chiếc tấc. Riêng bản thân con rất mong mình nhận được một món quà từ ông già noel- món quà con thích nhất là điện thoại di động thông minh. Đây là món đồ con mong muốn bấy lâu nay nhưng vì không có tiền để mua nổi chiếc điện thoại đắt tiền này. Nhà nghèo lo tiền cho con đi học còn thiếu trước hụt sau, thì ước mơ để mua một chiếc điện thoại thông minh là một điều xa xỉ với con và cả gia đình con. Con luôn ước mơ là một ngày nào đó mình có được điện thoại thông minh để tự tay chụp ảnh cho các thành viên trong gia đình. Chiếc điện thoại thông minh này có thể giúp con dể di chuyển trong việc đi lại đặc biệt là trong việc học dể kiếm tài liệu. Con rất thích món quà này lắm, mong sao sẽ có nó. Vì từ đó tới giờ cả nhà con chưa bao giờ có được một điện thoại thông minh.
Ông già noel ơi! Con rất muốn thấy một lần được ôm cổ, chạm vào chòm râu trắng như tuyết của ông mà nói rằng: “ Ông ơi, cháu yêu ông rất nhiều. Cháu mong ước mơ của cháu sẽ trở thành hiện thực ạ”.
Cuối lời con chúc ông già noel nói riêng và hội newHope nói chung thật nhiều sức khỏe và luôn luôn vui cười hạnh phúc trong dịp giáng sinh này ạ.
Con chào ông già Noel!
Cháu yêu của ông
Tống Thị Lil.


December 2, 2016

Dear friends,

This is an update to our Elderly project. We have closed the book yesterday for the Elderly project this year and below is the result of our fund raising activities for this project. Any donations received for this project after the closing date will be carried over to next year.
This year, we are able to help 132 families.
We have started distributing the gift packages to these families a few weeks ago and about half way done. We should have the rest completed in 3 weeks. We will notify you when the pictures and report have been posted to our website.
Thank you very much for your support. Because of your generosity, we have been able to bring some happiness and hope to these elderly, sickly, and disabled families. We are also doing a Toys project--distributing toys to 115+ elementary students. We asked a staff who involved in both the Elderly and the Toys project to give his thoughts. He said the Toys project is very fun, seeing the ecstatic joy in kids as if they hit the lotto for the first time in their lives; however, the Elderly project is more fulfilling--even though very tiring from carrying all those food and rice bags. He said helping the elderly gives him the feeling of helping a dying person--seeing them out there in small huts all alone in the woods--his presence and the gifts mean the whole world to them. He thought of himself and envisioned when he's old, he might be one of them, so he even wants to do more for them with the hope that when he's old, others will do the same for him.
We just want to share with you because this Elderly/Sickly/Disabled project is very hard to do.
If it had not been for staff with the thinking like above, we would not be able to keep this project.
It would be so costly that it would not be implementable. If you just imagine carrying a rice bag of 55 lbs along with bottles of soy sauce, fish sauce, detergent, sugar bags, salt bags, noodle, etc, to the door steps of 132 houses on a motocycle and on foot when there is no drive-able road, then you can feel the efforts our staff put in to do this project every year.
Let's hope together we can keep this project for many more years.

  Funding To-Date: 7001  
  Details of costs:    
  Total families got help:  132    
  Cost for each family: $50 (half food / half cash)    
  Cost for 132 families:  $50 * 132 = $6600    
  Transporation cost for Team 1: $100 (40 families)    
  Transporation cost for Team 2 & 3: $200 (92 families)    
  Money transfer cost to Hoa Phat: $101    
  Total Project's expense: 6600+100+200+101= $7001    
       
  Total Sent: 7001  
  Project Balance: 0  
       

 


September 27, 2016

Dear Friends,

Our scholarship program has been completed. We have posted awards distribution's pictures to our website, please click on the link below to view:
http://newhope2008.org/Scholarships/2016/scholarships2016.html
Realizing the needs of the students for laptops, we have started a Laptop Drive for them.
We have posted letters from the students needing laptop on this page:
http://newhope2008.org/Scholarships/LaptopDrive/LaptopDrive.html
If you want to sponsor any, please let us know. For electronic merchandise, besides the shipping fee, there is an importing tax. They might be different for each item.
Please check with us first for pricing.
Our next project is Food for The Elderly/Sickly/Disabled. This project will be carried out in December (supposed to be in July, but we switched with the Rice project this year so we
can do a Special Project for the people suffering from the dead sea/dead fish in Quang Binh).
We are collecting for the Elderly/Sickly/Disabled project from now until December 1st.
Any donations received during this period will be used for this project unless otherwise specified.
Please join us in bringing happiness to these elderly. Our little sharing means the wolrd for them---for they have nothing else to look forward to besides the good of mankind.
Please scroll down to view our to-date financial update of the Elderly project.

Project's Balance: $3050

September Newsletter 2016 - Laptop Drive

Dear Friends and Sponsors:
As technology takes a turn worldwide, even the most primitive universities are starting to require students to work online. This presents a big challenge for many poor students because they cannot afford a computer and most schools have very few or none at all for them to use. The problem is even bigger for those students who major in computer science or engineering; or those who are reaching the last year of their degree which requires a lot of online research for their thesis.

For most students, the scholarships that we gave them was just barely enough to cover their tuition, so they ended up working multiple part-time jobs to pay for living expenses. Most of the jobs pay just fifty cents an hour for students, so they have to work many hours a day to make ends meet. On top of that, they have to pay a computer rental expense. While some are lucky to have rich friends to borrow from, most have to go to a public computer lab and rent by the hour. It is not only costly, it is also time consuming because most public computer labs are not within walking distance from the universities.

Transitioning from a countryside in the deep South where life is very primitive, to the city where everything is high-tech and much more expensive, is already a big obstacle to overcome for these young adults. We believe a laptop is a necessity for all college students in this era, and it is especially important for the poorer ones. Besides doing school work on the laptop, they can use it as an additional means to make money to support themselves. It is our hope that this laptop drive will make the dreams come true for them--for the freshmen who just entered college and are bogged down with the burdens of change, for the seniors who are trying to complete their last thesis paper, for the students who have keen goals in high-tech careers, and most of all for those kind hearts that wanted to use this opportunity to be successful so that they can give back to society.


September 11, 2016

Dear friends,
This is to report the funds collected from last night--our fund raising night--organized by Nhóm Bạn Yêu Nhạc. We have raised a total of $3100 and a laptop computer. As per requested by Nhóm Bạn Yêu Nhạc, this fund will be used to build 1 House of Humanity ($1500), and $1600 will be used to fund the Food for the Elderly/Sickly/Disabled program. The laptop will be sent to Vietnam and be used in our College Scholarships project.
Please scroll down to view the financial details. Also attached to the bottom is our speech introducing NewHope2008 to the audience last night. This speech will be translated to English (when time allows) and will be posted to our website as a memory of this night.

Having seen their work and dedication through out the night, we saw that Nhóm Bạn Yêu Nhạc is where the kind hearts meet the kind hearts. We are grateful, and honored by their help. They are also exceptional singers. We were asked by our colleagues "Do you know who these singers are? I have never heard of their names before, but they sing even better than well-known singers!" Yes, very real, and truly honest. We share the same view.

If you see Nhóm Bạn Yêu Nhạc raising funds around your area, please come to support them--a humble group of singers who share with us the same dream and the same love---the dream of doing something to make the world better and the love of mankind.

And last but not least, we owe it to our friends for helping us making these delicious food
Đòan Ngọc Hương (cream puffs, gelatin, xôi dứa, xôi gấc)
Hiếu Phạm (Thai pudding - chè Thái)
Mỹ Hạnh Phạm (Korean salad - mì xào đại hàn)
Trần Thị Thu Vân (Papaya salad - gỏi đu đủ)
Annie Nguyệt Võ (Veggie soup / Cháo chay)
Bichly Nguyen/Xuan Hoa Trần/Hạnh Phạm/Trinh Thy (Veggie sandwiches, bánh mì chay)

And we can't think of a better way to thank them than to give them a chance to do it all over again.

 

Xin kính chào quy' cô bác và các anh chị em,

Trước hết chúng tôi xin đại diện các bạn trong hội NewHope2008 cám ơn các huynh tỷ đệ muội của Trung Tâm Cao Đài và Nhóm Bạn Yêu Nhạc đã cho cơ hội để chúng tôi được giới thiệu hội từ thiện NewHope2008 ở đây . Và kế đó xin cám ơn tất cả cô bác, và anh chị em đã nhìn thời giờ qu‎y báu đến đây đêm nay. Sau đây chúng tôi xin có đôi dòng giới thiệu về hội NewHope2008.

Hội NewHope2008 được thành lập năm 2008 nhằm mục đích giúp những gia đình có hòan cảnh khó khăn ở Việt Nam. Hội đã bắt đầu với chương trình đầu tiên là Phát Gạo Tết, và cho đến bây giờ đã có thêm các chương trình Phát Tập, Phát Xe Đạp, Phát Học Bổng, Phát Thực Phẩm cho người già, người bệnh, người tàn tật, và xây nhà, xây giếng . Chương trình Xây Nhà, Xây Giếng thì được làm quanh năm khi có người tặng . Còn tất cả các chương trình khác thì mỗi năm được thực hiện 1 lần.

Thưa qu‎y' cô bác và các anh chị em,

Những vùng mà hội NewHope2008 đang giúp được gọi là vùng sâu vùng xa, là những vùng không có nhà vệ sinh công cộng và trong nhà dân thường cũng không có, cho nên cũng ít có hội nào tới giúp. Những chương trình mà chúng tôi đã bắt đầu đều là do cơ duyên đưa đẩy để chúng tôi nhìn thấy nhu cầu của những người dân nghèo ở đây. Chương trình phát gạo được bắt đầu sau khi chúng tôi vô tình nhìn thấy cuộn phim phát gạo tết của ông Bà Năm đã làm cho người thân và chòm xóm. Hình ảnh một cụ bà lưng còng , còng tới nổi đầu bà gần chạm mặt đất, bà mặc chiếu áo mưa màu vàng đã cũ, tới nơi ngồi co ro chờ được lảnh chỉ có mỗi 5 k‎y gạo, bà nói đã đi bộ 2 tiếng trong mưa để đến đây. Lãnh gạo xong, bà lại lầm lủi trên con đường đất trũng đầy nước mà về .... Cái hình ảnh đó đã để lại trong lòng chúng tôi những bùi ngùi và chợt muốn làm một chút gì cho họ, và từ đó chương trình phát gạo hàng năm đã chinh thức bắt đầu cho tất cả dân nghèo ở Xứ Cồn và mỗi gia đình không chỉ được 5 mà là 20 k‎y' gạo cho đến bây giờ.

Rồi trong một lần phát gạo, sau khi mọi người đã ra về, chúng tôi thấy một người đàn bà trẻ vẫn còn ngồi mãi nơi phát gao. Chị nhìn rất ốm yếu, như người đang bênh. Chúng tôi hỏi thăm được biết chồng chị đã chết, để lại 3 đứa con nhỏ. Chị làm nghề bắt ba khía mướn cho người ta, 3 giờ sáng đã xuống sông rồi mà nhiều lúc vẫn không kiếm đủ miếng ăn để nuôi 3 con. Chị ngồi đó chờ bạn đi làm về để mượn chiếc xe đạp chở gạo, nhưng bạn tới chiều sau giờ làm mới đến được . Thế là chúng tôi giúp chị mang gạo về . Nhà chị ở Giồng Dài, cũng khá xa nơi phát gạo . Đến nơi chúng tôi không thấy căn nhà nào hết mà chỉ thấy một khung cảnh điêu tàn với hình ảnh ba đứa bé ngồi chờ mẹ chơ vơ trong túp lều mục nát. Và trong ngày hôm đó chương trình Xây Nhà tình thương đã bắt đầu .....

Rồi một lần khác, trong chuyến đi phát quần áo cũ và thuốc nhức đầu cho dân nghèo, bao nhiêu anh chị em chúng tôi đã thức suốt đêm để chia thuốc ra từng bao, từng bao một, và trên mỗi bao đã nắn nót từng dòng, dịch ra cách dùng thuốc bằng tiếng Việt. Có nhiều bạn mắt đã sụp xuống nhưng tay vẫn làm đều .Kỷ niệm này chắc có nhiều anh chị em đang có mặt ở đây cũng chưa quên, nhưng sáng hôm sau, khi đi phát, chúng tôi đã đi, đi mãi qua bao nhiêu nhà, bao nhiêu làng mà cũng không tìm ra người một biết đọc chữ, dù có những em trẻ, rất trẻ ở độ tuổi 13 hay 15 cũng không biết đọc .
Chúng tôi thấy có một nổi xót xa vô bờ, một cái buồn thăm thẳm, một sự chán chường đến tột độ, nhưng trong những chua xót này có một tình thương chợt dâng cao và lòng nhân ái này đã khởi nguồn cho chương trình phát Tập và Xe đạp của hôm nay ....
Chúng tôi chỉ ước mong chương trình này sẽ giúp cho các em có phương tiện để học và ít nhất sẽ học hết tiểu học để biết đọc và biết viết . Mỗi năm chúng tôi phát tập cho khỏang 1500 em, cho đến nay đã phát ra 159,630 cuốn tập và 539 chiếc xe đạp.

Thưa qu‎y cô bác và anh chị em,
Chúng tôi kể ra vài mẫu chuyện nhỏ như một chút tâm tình, một chút chia xẻ về sự bắt đầu của vài
chương trình của hội để q‎uy' cô bác và các anh chị em thấy sự bắt đầu nào cũng từ một tình thương . Chúng tôi ước mong qu‎y' cô bác và các anh chị em đọc được tình thương này trong từng trang, từng dòng ở NewHope2008 và trong góc nào đó của trái tim, chúng ta sẽ gặp nhau để cùng góp bàn tay đem lại chút hạnh phúc cho những mảnh đời bất hạnh này.


September 4, 2016

Dear friends:

This is an update on our scholarship project.

On Sept 3rd, 2016, we have awarded 27 scholarships to 8 freshmen, 5 sophomores, 6 juniors, 8 seniors ( three of which are going on 5th year). Some majors require 5 years to complete. We will have a full report and pictures of loaded in 2 weeks. Also one of our seniors is a medical student. His name is Ho Hoang Binh. It is our understanding that it is extremely difficult to get into a medical school. He has gone half way and probably needs a little more help from us to complete it. Attached is a picture of his house that we took 3 years ago and a self-introduction letter that he sent to us in 2013 when applying for our scholarship. His full data can be found in our scholarship link below:http://newhope2008.org/Scholarships/2013/1/class2017.html
Besides the scholarship awards, this year we also received 4 computers to be given to 4 lucky students. As requested by the sponsors, the students will have to write an essay. The winners will be announced on 9/25/16. All essays will be posted on our website as we receive them.

Project Balance: $2500


August 2, 2016

Dear friends,

This is an update on our current activities.
We are currently collecting for the Scholarship project and this project will be carried out in early September. Last year we awarded 25 and a half scholarships. Each scholarship is $400. This is about enough to pay for tuition for a whole year.
Once a student is selected for our scholarship program, it is our hope to help him/her finish the degree. Most degrees can be completed in 4 years; however there are
some that needs 4.5 years . Each year we need about $10,000 to fund for 6 to 7 incoming freshmen and 18 to 19 existing sophomores to seniors.
So far our program has produced 23 graduated students, and we will have about 8 more this September. These students have pledged to help us with one scholarship this year. Hopefully as time passes we will have more graduated students and we can get more help from them. And it is very possible in the future, this program can be entirely funded by the students who we are helping now. But for now, they still need our help.
It is our hope to hit the 10K mark so we can help both existing and new students. When we met with the students in our Vietnam Road trip this year--all 49 of them--graduated and undergrads , we told them it was not easy for us to send them to college while some of us don't even have a college degree ourselves. It took a big heart and a dream---a dream of a better future for them for good and the only way to show their appreciation for our help is to pay it forward.
We understood they have not had their jobs for too long so we can't ask for much. Together they will give us one scholarship this year, and we believe this is a good beginning, at least we can see the trees we have been planning are bearing fruits. Thank you all for your big hearts and special thanks to Kim Lam and Dr. Lam Thuan Huong for starting this project.
Below is the to-date financial update of this project:
Funding to-date $6340


July 21, 2016

Dear friends,

The rice distribution in Quang Binh has been completed.
All pictures/videos and report have been loaded to our website.
Please click on the following link to view when you have a chance:
http://newhope2008.org/Rices/2017/rice2017.html
Thank you very much for giving hope to the fishermen in Quang Binh.  
The rice meant a lot to them and it was received with deep appreciation.

June 8, 2016

Dear friends,

This is to report the progress of our rice drive for Hà Tỉnh and Quãng Bình.
So far we have a total pledge of $8701. This is enough to buy rice and noodle for 550 familes. (11 tons of rice and 550 boxes of noodles). The rice distributor said this order is not enough for them do deliver to 2 counties, but they can do 1 county for us. 
We have chosen to deliver in Quang Binh because we see Ha Tinh has been helped by a few groups in our community. At least 2 singers' groups that we know of are going to Ha Tinh in June.

Also, after researching into the regions, we have found out the number of people needing help are overwhelming even for just Quang Binh; thus, even if the rice distributor agreed to go, it does not make sense to divide into 2 areas because we have so littlẹ. Just in Quang Binh district alone, in Dong Hoi province, there are already 5 fishing villages averaging 150 to 200 families in each village. 
And there are many provinces in a district.

So this is to inform that this project is now officially starts and we will be collecting for Quang Binh until June 26th. For those of you that have pledged, we hope for your understanding of our reasoning for choosing Quang Binh and hope to receive your donation soon so we can carry out this project on time.
We rarely do projects in the midde/north (miền trung/bắc) due long distance and high expense.
We really hope to have a chance to help them especially now when they need it the most.
We have a donor that pledged to pay for staff air/room expense and transfer fee to Hoa Phat so 100 % of your donation will be going to the poor people. $12 will help 1 family to get 20 kilos of rice (45 lbs) and $3.40 will help 1 family to get 1 box of noodle. Please help to spread the words.


June 3rd, 2016

Dear friends / Các bạn thân mến: (Please scroll down for Vietnamese)
Below are the updates to our projects:
Bicycles and Notebooks:
We have done loading the pictures of the bicycles and notebooks distribution.
Please click on the following links to view when you have a chance:

Rice Drive for Quãng Bình , Hà Tỉnh:
We are in the beginning stage of getting pledges for this program.  If there are enough support, we will start this project in 3 weeks.   We should have the result by next Friday at the latest.

Food Assistance for the Elderly/Sickly/Disabled:
This program will be moved to December if the Rice drive for Ha Tinh/Quang Binh succeeded.
Scholarship:  This program will be carried out in September as usual.
Special Projects:  We have just completed three projects:
lunch distribution for poor students and helping 2 veterans Nguyen van cuu and Dao Hong Chau $300 each


April 29th, 2016

Dear Friends:

This is to give you an update on the Notebook and Bicycle projects.

We are currently distributing the notebooks and bicycles to the students.

Due to the increase in number of bicycles we have this year, the distribution will be a little bit longer. We are expecting to complete in the next two weeks.

We will inform you when it is done. This year the Ben Tre region has the salt water disaster, and this has destroyed a lot of crops for many families- making them poor even poorer. So this is the year where our help means a lot more to them because they would not have anything left to support their children for school necessities. And because of this, we extended our help to districts Cho Lach, Mo Cay Bac, Mo Cay Nam, Giong Trom where the salt water hits and they are the places within our reach.

Thank you very much for responding to our plea for the needy students.

We hit our goal of 100 bicycles this year. As for the notebooks, we have 18,540(10,000 5-line notebooks, and 8540 4-line notebooks). The elementary students use 5-line notebooks and the junior high students use 4-line notebooks.

Below are the lists of schools that will be receiving the notebooks/bicycles, our to-date financial update of this project, and the details of how the money was spent.

Our notebooks will be distributed to the following schools:

Phú Sơn Elementary, Chợ Lách District: 1700
Bình Hòa Elementary, Giồng Trôm District: 1200
Hòang Lam Junior High, Giồng Trôm District: 1600
Nhuận Phú Tân Junior High, Mõ Cày Bắc District: 2000
Phước Mỹ Trung Elementary, Mõ Cày Bắc District: 1200
Ngải Đăng Elementary, Mõ Cày Nam District: 1500
Thành Thới A2 Junior High, Mõ Cày Nam District: 1600
An Nhơn Elementary,  Thạnh Phú District: 1600
Hòa Lợi Junior High, Thạnh Phú District: 1600
Thạnh Hải Junior High, Thạnh Phú District: 1740
Tân Phong Elementary, Thạnh Phú District: 1400
Quới Điền Elementary, Thạnh Phú District: 1400

Our bicycles will be distributed to the folowing schools:
Hoang Lam Junior High, Giong Trom District: 10
Tan Thanh Elementary, Giong Trom District: 10
Tan Phu Tay Elementary, Mo Cay Bac District: 10
Thanh An Junior High, Mo Cay Bac District: 10
Thanh Phong A Elementary, Thanh Phu District: 22
Giao Thanh Elementary, Thanh Phu District: 8
An Nhon Junior High, Thanh Phu District: 10
Binh Thanh Elementary, Thanh Phu District: 7
Binh Thanh Junior High, Thanh Phu District: 13

Funding To Date 9797

03/02/16 Sent $3000 (xfer fee:$45), HP Receipt: BD/53173/V
03/16/16 Sent $3000 (xfer fee:$45), HP Receipt: BD/54311/V
04/05/16 Sent $2000 (xfer fee: $30), HP Receipt: BD/56079/V

04/20/16 Sent $1655(xfer fee: $25), HP Receipt: BD/57250/V

Cost paid to HoaPhat Inc to transfer $9655 to VN: $145
Total Spent: $9655 + 145 fee = $9800

Details of costs:

Cost of Bicycles:

Total Bicycles given: 100

Each bicycle costs: $60

Cost to buy 100 bicycles: 100 * 60 = $6000

Cost of 5-line notebooks:

Total of 5-line notebooks bought: 10,000

Price of each 5-line notebook: $.2072

Total cost of 5-line notebooks: .2072 * 10,000 = $2072

Kindergarten to 5th grade students use 5-line notebooks

Each student gets 10 notebooks

Total students get 5-line notebooks: 1000

Cost of 4-line notebooks:

Total of 4-line notebooks bought: 8540

Price of each 4-line notebook: $.1627

Total cost of 4-line notebooks: .16216 * 8540 = $1385

6th grade to 9th grade students use 4-line notebooks

Each student gets 20 notebooks

Total students get 4-line notebooks: 427

Grand Totals:

Total costs of 100 bicycles: $6000

Total cost of 18,540 notebooks: 2072 + 1385 = $3457

Transportation/delivering costs= $200

Cost paid to Hoa Phat to transfer 9655 to VN= $145

Grand Total project cost: 6000 + 3457 + 200 + $145 =$9802

Total combined notebooks bought: 10,000 + 8540 = 18,540

Number of students receiving notebooks: 1000 + 427 = 1427

Number of students receiving bicycles: 100

Project Balance: 9802 - 9797 = (-5)

Shortage made up by General Fund: 5

Project Balance: 0


March 18th, 2016

Dear friends,
This is an update to our projects:
Vietnam Road Trip:
We have finally done posting our Vietnam Road Trip to our website.
This link contains all reports and pictures of the projects we promised to deliver in this Road Trip:
http://www.newhope2008.org/RoadTrip/2016/RoadTrip2016.html

Rice Project:
The pictures from rice project also have been loaded and ready to be viewed:
http://www.newhope2008.org/Rices/2016/rice2016.html

Besides these, we also posted our Vietnam Road Trip on the Dactrung website. On this website, we have more details of our house-to-house trips and on the road stories. The reason we can't duplicate data from the DacTrung link to our Newhope2008 link because in the Dactrung blog,we write as we have time, it's more like diary writing, it still continues. On our NewHope website,
we must get things done to move on to other projects. We have to write it as a report, summarizing everything that we committed to do with the funds we collected. For example, we committed to go to 50 elderly/sickly/disabled families, on our NewHope website, we have a picture of each family, showing they received the gifts and a short description of their family background. On the Dactrung website, on the other hand, it has more pictures, a story how we got there, our feelings, etc.
It also has stories and pictures of others we met and helped on the road besides these 50 families.
It would be too much to ask of our webmaster to duplicate what we have in the Dactrung's website to Newhope's website because it is very time consuming. Besides, we don't know when we are done with the stories. So, if you are interested in more stories, here is the Dactrung link:
http://dtphorum.com/pr4/showthread.php?4848-Vietnam-Road-Trip-Dec-30-2015-Jan-7th-2016/page2

Current projects: Notebooks/Bicycles - to be carried out in April 2016:
As of current, we have raised $7247. Thank you very much for your support.
We will use $6000 to fund 100 bicycles and the rest will be used to fund the notebooks.
We are still collecting until April 15th, 2016. We have started going to the students' house to take picture and verify their family background.


Feb 12th, 2016

Dear friends,
Happy Tết everyone!

We have been busy trying to wrap up the projects in 2015 and getting ready to do our tax return.
Please find the latest updates below:

Housing and Well projects:
Finally we were able to get the last house donated in 2015 completed.
Please click on the following links to view the completed houses and wells from 2015:
http://newhope2008.org/Houses/2015/houses2015.html
http://newhope2008.org/Wells/2015/Wells2015.html

Rice Project:
We are just done writing the report for our Rice project and loaded all pictures to Photobucket.
By next week, our webmaster will be uploading these pictures from Photobucket to our website.
We will keep you posted when they are ready to be viewed.

VN Road Trip Project:
We are still writing. Once done, these write ups will be migrated to our website. In the meantime, you can view our ongoing report at:
http://dtphorum.com/pr4/showthread.php?4848-Vietnam-Road-Trip-Dec-30-2015-Jan-7th-2016&s=0a9f5702aa4b39de4401f2716deba349

Special Projects:
Some of you donated bicycles and bed as we visited the families in our Road Trip project. The pictures of these distributions will be posted in our VN Road Trip section. Will keep you posted when they are done.

Donation Receipts for 2015:
We have mailed out all receipts for 2015. If you are missing any, please let us know.

Current projects: Notebooks/Bicycles - to be carried out in April 2016:
We are currently collecting for the Notebooks/Bicycles projects. These projects will be carried out in April. From our Road Trip project, we have learned that there are greater needs for bicycles. It is very tough for a child to complete elementary school without a bicycle as many of them have to change school after 2nd or 3rd grade because local schools don't have classes beyond this point. After that, they have to walk much longer distance to continue schooling in the main elementary in a bigger village. Furthermore, most poor students don't have anything to eat during lunch. The long walk combined with an empty stomach is just too big of a challenge
to face on a daily basis at this young age. Many of them could not make it and ended up dropping out after 2nd or 3rd grade. It is our hope that a bicycle will keep them in school longer--long enough to for them to learn how to
read and write.
We are hoping to fund 100 bicycles this year. The price for each bicycle last year was $60. If you would like to participate in this project, please send in your donation by April 15th, 2016.

Financial Statement 2015:
Below is our financial statement for 2015. This financial statement will be posted next week on our website under the tab "about us / Financial Statements":

NewHope2008 Nonprofit Organization
 
 
 
P. O. Box 10635, Westminster, CA 92685
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2015 - Revenue and Expense Report
Received
Spent
Forward to 2016
Notebooks/Bicycle Projects
6121
6121
0
Housing Projects
24084
24084
0
Well Project
5833
5833
0
College Scholarship Project
12346
10546
1800
Food Assistance for the Elderly
4314
4314
0
Special Projects
6567
6567
0
Rice Project
6104
6104
0
VN Road Trip Projects
8442
8442
0
PayPal Fee
216
216
0
Admin costs (web hosting, po box rental, tax filing, stamps, phone)
308
308
0
Total donations received in 2014 & 2015 for projects in 2015
74335
 
0
Total spent in 2015 for all projects
 
72535
 
Total balance to be  forwarded to 2016
 
 
1800
** Balance forwarded from donations received in 2014
(3208)
 
 
**Total donations received  in 2015
71127
 
 
 
 
 
 
2015- Accomplishments
 
 
 
Built 22 houses for the homeless/needy families
 
 
 
Built 17 wells for  the poverty-stricken families
 
 
 
Distributed 15 tons of rice to 750 needy families
 
 
 
(10 tons from annual rice project, 1 ton from VN road trip, 4 tons
 
 
 
 from special projects)
 
 
 
Awarded 40 bicycles to the needy students from 4 schools
 
 
 
Awarded 16,700 notebooks to 1290 students from 17 schools
 
 
 
Sponsored food for 129 elderly/disabled families ($50 each family)
 
 
 
(50 families from VN Road Trip)
 
 
 
Awarded 26 college scholarships to 26 needy students)
 
 
 
(6 freshmen, 5 sophomores, 8 juniors, and 10 seniors, $400 each)
 
 
 
Awarded 4 laptops to college students
 
 
 
Distributed 800 veggie meals (400 from VN Road Trip)
 
 
 
Distributed 1102 menthol oil - dầu xanh (648 from VN road trip)
 
 
 
Distributed 400 wind jackets, 200 warm garments, 218 shirts
 
 
 
Distributed 500 bar soaps, 10,000 Advil pills, 10,000 Salonpas pieces
 
 
 

 


Jan 22, 2016

Dear friends / Các bạn thân mến,
We have begun our write up for the Vietnam Road Trip.   
Since there are a lot to write and we only have time do write so much in a day, it will be long before we will complete it.   We don't want to bother our webmaster with daily updates for he is very busy, so we will temporary post our daily report in the DacTrung website below until it is done.

We will notify you when it is available in our NewHope website.  In the meantime, if you want to read our daily write up, you can view it here:
Please note that we will not post thank-you letters and recipients' names on this website.   These data will be posted to our NewHope website only.


Also, we are wrapping up projects in 2015.  We will notify you when all houses and wells for 2015 have been completed.   We will also be sending out the remaining receipts from 2015.  If you are missing any, please feel free to contact us.
Last but not least, we will be sending out our 2015 Financial Statement/Accomplishment report in the next email.   This report will also be posted in the Financial Statements section of our website.

Jan 15th, 2016

Dear Friends / Các bạn thân mến:
The cost of building a house of humanity has increased significantly due to rising cost of materials.

We have learned that a basic house of humanity (1 brick wall and 3 palm-leave walls) would cost a mininum of 30 millions đồng  (around $1400 us dollars) to build (details below).
This is also the minimum price given for a house of humanity by local organizations and the government.
If we don't increase the building cost, the receiving families would need to borrow additional fund to make up the difference.   The problem is not all families have the ability to borrow money, only the ones who are able to repay can borrow.  They either have years of labor left in them or in good health for the government to lend them money.  

We will inevitably eliminating the poorest from our pool, and this would defeat our purpose.
Last year, there was a family refusing to receive a house from us.  We thought they had help form somewhere else, only to find out because they could not make up the difference.

This year, in our road trip, we had a chance to meet the family of Mr. Le Van Cho.  His family is one of the receivers of our housing project.  His house has just been completed recently.
However, due to the additional debt incurred, both husband and wife had to find job in other cities to get better pay.  They are hoping to save enough to pay off the debt in 3 to 4 years.
His children are to stay with relatives around.   Even though the debt was just a couple of hundreds of dollars, but they don't make much and it will be a few years before the family can save enough to pay off and  go back and live in their new house as a family again.
Thus, after much thought, we have decided to increase the price for building a house of humanity to market price at $1500 starting this year.  Please add $40 for PayPal fee if donated using PayPal.

You can always reference back the itemized cost in our FAQ section.

Oct 27th, 2015

Dear Friends:
Here are the updates to our current projects:

College Scholarship:  This project has been completed.   We have 9 graduates this year.  Report and pictures have been loaded to our website:

Rice Drive:   We are currently collecting for this project.  If you would like to participate, please send in donation before December 15th, 2015.   Below is the to-date financial update of this project.

Funding to-date
 
2275

September 25th, 2015

Dear friends / Các bạn thân mến,

This is an update to our projects:

Rice Project:
We are currently collecting for the Rice Project. We will be taking donation from now until December 15th, 2015. This year is a special year. We will have a team from the US coming to Vietnam assisting with the Rice distribution.

Please scroll down to the bottom for the details of the Vietnam trip.

Elderly Project:
Everything is completed. We have loaded all 79 families to our website and also have the Vietnamese version posted. Please check it out when you have a chance:
http://newhope2008.org/Elderly/2015/Elderly2015.html


Scholarship Project:
We have just completed awarding 26 scholarships for the school year 2015-2016. We will be posting the pictures of the award ceremony in the next two weeks.

Funding to-date

 

10546

 

Project Details:

 

 

 

Awards distributed: $10,200 (26 students)

 

 

 

(25 students, $400 each and 1 student got $200)

 

 

 

Total transfer fee:$146; Transportation costs: $200

 

 

 

Total cost of this project: $10,200+146+200 =10,546

 

 

09/09/15

Sent $10,546 (xfer fee: 146) Receipt: BD/33924/V

 

 

 

Total Cost: 10,546

 

 

 

Total Spent: 10,546

 

 

 

Account balance|:  0

 

 

 

Vietnam Trip:
Below is the details of our 6-day tour.   Let us know if you want to participate.
Time frame is Jan 1st to Jan 6th, 2016.

Day 1:  Veggie Meals for the Poor
A few times a year, we distribute veggie meals to the poor in a form of a special project.   In this trip, we would like to participate in the cooking , packing, and distributing veggie meals at a local temple.   We will also talk to the recipients.
If time allowed, we will also help in picking the herbs from the forest and make herbal medicine.   This temple houses a group of poor elderly/sickly who has no family support.  One of the daily activities at the temple is to make herbal medicine for these elderly.

Day 2:  Building a Well of Humanity
 We will interview a few families who are in need for a well.   After choosing the most deserving family, we will witness the building process from ground breaking to completion.  We will also interview the families that are in need for a house and choose one family to be built in the next few days.

Day 3:  Visiting Elementary / Junior High students
We will have an exchange of communication between students from the US and the local students.   This is the chance for them to learn from each other.  For the adults, we will talk to the principles/teachers about the students' needs and ask what can be done to improve our notebooks and bicycles projects.   After done, we will be distributing back packs and any gifts we have.  If you want to send any gift, let us know.   We will need to send all these gifts prior to Dec 17th.
Meeting with college students:  If we can group the students that have been receiving our scholarships, we would like to talk to them, too.   We want to send them a direct message that we expect them them to follow our footsteps in helping other poor students after they are done with their degrees.

Day 4:  Visiting the Sickly/Elderly/Disabled
We will spend a day doing this, carrying with us some gifts for them, too.   This is a our chance to better understand their needs and hope.  

Day 5:  Building a House of Humanity
We will witness and participate in building a house of humanity.  The one that we chose in day 2.   It will take a few weeks for the house to be done, so we will probably just have time to partake in the ground breaking process.

Day 6:  Rice distribution
Our annual Rice project falls in this window of time.  We will help with the distribution of a few villages within a day as time permits.   This is the last activity that wraps up our 6-day tour.


You don't have to participate in all 6 activities.  You can go just one day if you don't have a lot of time.   The arrangement is tentative.   The activities might be switched around if need be.


September 4th, 2015

Dear friends:

We have just done loading the distribution pictures of 79 families to our website, please click on the following link to view:


Also, we just had time completing the English report.   The Vietnamese version will be done next week.   Thank you for your patience.

Also, the following wells have been completed:
Family- Gia đình Sponsor - Người bảo trợ
Đoàn Văn Lam and Đặng Thị Yếm The Baker and Chu family
Tạ Thị Nụ Gia Đình Bùi Đắc Hùm
Nguyễn Hoàng Vũ and Huỳnh Thị Đạm The Baker and Chu family
Hồ Văn Phỉ Mr. Brad Ramelot
Nguyễn Hữu Thọ Gia Đình Bùi Đắc Hùm
Ông Đặng Vủ Linh & Bà Ngô Thị Sáng Bà Lê Thị Xuân Lan and Kim Hùynh
Nguyễn thị Nhịn In Memoriam of Mrs Lê Thị Thông

Thank you very much for supporting  this new project.   Because this is so new, we are still trying to standardize the way it is made, so subsequent wells built will have the same format.  

August 24, 2015

Dear friends:

We are almost done with the elderly project.  This year we are running slow because the weather has been extremely hot in Vietnam, and it is very exhausting to hand carry all the rice bags and food to each house.   Thus, it takes our teams more time than in previous years to make rounds to all families.   As previously reported we have 76 families.  However there were 3 families with urgent needs, so we made exceptions to  include them.   This brought the total to 79 families.  The extra funds came from chi. Thu Van Tran ($100)  and em Phuc Pham ($50). Thank you both very much for allowing us to transfer your fund from the Rice project to this project.

As of now, we are done distributing and have all pictures.   We should be done with the report soon and will have everything ready in our website in a day or two.  Thank you very much for your patience.


Scholarship Project:
This project will be carried out in the next couple of weeks.   If you would like to contribute, please send your donation to us soon.   It is our goal to raise 25 scholarships each year ($10,000). We are still a bit short.    We apologize for the late notice.   Sometimes it is difficult to balance daily work and volunteering work because we still need the income from our daily work to support our living. We hope for your understanding.

Below is our to-date financial update of the Scholarship project:
 
Scholarship Projects
 
 
09/01/14
Account balance at end of school year 2014 ( 9/1/14 )
 
758
 
Funding to-date
 
6958

July 02, 2015

Dear friends:
This is an update to the Food for the Elderly/Disabled/Sickly project.
We have collected a total of $4034.  We will be able to help 76 families.
Each family will receive a total of $50 (half in food and half in cash).
We will begin our distribution in the next few days and will keep you posted when we have made rounds to all 76 families.   Thank you very much for your support.

Below is the to-date financial update of this project:

 
Funding to-date
 
4034
 
Project's details:
 
 
07/01/15
Sent to VN $4060 (HP Receipt: ) BD/27045/V, BD27044/V
 
 
 
Fee to transfer $4000 to VN: $60
 
 
 
Transportation costs to carry out project: 200
 
 
 
Helped 76 familes, $50 each.  Total: $3800
 
 
 
Total Spent: $60 + $200 + $3800 = $4060
 
 
 
Net Balance: 4034 - 4060 = (-26)
 
 
 
** $26 shortage will be made up by General Fund
GF Fund
26
 
Project's Balance: 0
 
 

June 20, 2015

Dear friends:

Below is our to-date financial update of the Food Assistance for the Elderly/Disabled/Sickly project.
We are planning to carry out this project in the first week of July.   If you would like to participate, please send your donations before July 1st, 2015.   Donations received after the cutoff date will be rolled over to the same project next year.

Introducing a new program:  Well of Humanity
Many people in the village have to hand carry water from the river, lake, or other people's wells to their home.
Doing this on a daily basis has been painful for many families with small children as the need for water is greater
and also for elderly families.    In response to the need of the people, we will be building Wells of Humanity.   It costs $350 each.  We will be posting a waiting list of the families that are in need.   Just like the House of Humanity program, you--as the sponsor--can pick any family on the list.  There will be a name plaque  where the name of the sponsor will be engraved.
Please click on the following link to see an example.  This is the first Well of Humanity that was built by us last month:

In Memoriam projects:
Though we have done it a few times, we have not formally introduced it.   If you have a loved one that passes away and would like to use the funeral donation money to carry out a humanitarian project in memory of him/her, we can do it for you as a special project when time permits.
You can view example in the link above.  (Same link where the well was built).

May 25, 2015

Dear friends:
The Notebook and Bicycle projects have been completed. Thank you very much for your support.
All pictures have been loaded to our website, please take a look when you have a chance:
http://newhope2008.org/Notebooks/2015/notebooks2015.html
http://newhope2008.org/Bicycles/2015/bicycles2015.html

Our next program is Food Assistance for the Elderly/Sickly/Disabled.
This project will be carried out in mid July. We are taking donations for this project from now until June 30th, 2015.

Photo Book:
We are making a photo book that has memories of all the projects we have done since 2007. We are almost done. Below is the initial version. The final version will be almost the same except for grammar corrections and changes to the order of some pages.

https://www.mypublisher.com/index/?e=OHm3Q8zJl3QvKjA7Xo8rbg7Ge94mimBv&showForm=true

Please take a look and let us know if you want to order a copy. There is a sale going on right now.
You can order it directly with MyPublisher by yourself or we can include you in our re-order.
It will be cheaper for you if you can pick up from us in person. Otherwise, there will be mailing cost.
With the best sale of the year, the price is $30 (original price $115) plus shipping and tax, we paid around $44 per book. On a re-order of the same version, we paid around $35 per book. We will give you the exact pricing after the book is done.


April 20th, 2015

Dear Friends:

We have concluded our Notebook/Bicycle drive on April 1st, 2015.
We raised a total of $6121.  Thank you very much for lending a hand.
With this fund, we can buy 40 bicycles, 9100 5-line notebooks for elementary students (as required by the department of education) and 7600 4-line notebooks for the junior high students.   Each elementary student needs 10 5-line notebooks to complete the year and  each junior high student needs  20 4-line notebooks

Below are the details of funding and costs.   We will keep you posted when the pictures of the distributions are available.  They should be ready in a few weeks.
Funding To Date
 
6121
03/29/15
Sent $3000 (xfer fee:$45), HP Receipt: BD/17989/V
 
 
03/31/15
Sent $3030 (xfer fee:$46), HP Receipt: BD/18200/V
 
 
 
Total Sent: $6030
 
 
 
Cost paid to HoaPhat Inc to transfer $6030 to VN: $91
 
 
 
Total Spent: 6030 + 91 = $6121
 
 
 
Project Balance: 0
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Details of costs:
 
 
 
Cost of Bicycles:
 
 
 
Total Bicycles given: 40
 
 
 
Each bicycle costs: $60
 
 
 
Cost to buy 40 bicycles: 40 * 60 = $2400
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cost of 5-line notebooks:
 
 
 
Total of 5-line notebooks bought: 9100
 
 
 
Price of each 5-line notebook: $.24
 
 
 
Total cost of 5-line notebooks: .24 * 9100 =  $2184
 
 
 
Kindergarten to 5th grade students use 5-line notebooks
 
 
 
Each student gets 10 notebooks
 
 
 
Total students get 5-line notebooks: 910
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cost of 4-line notebooks:
 
 
 
Total of 4-line notebooks bought: 7600
 
 
 
Price of each 4-line notebook: $.16
 
 
 
Total cost of 4-line notebooks: .16 * 7600 =  $1216
 
 
 
6th grade to 9th grade students use 4-line notebooks
 
 
 
Each student gets 20 notebooks
 
 
 
Total students get 4-line notebooks: 380
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Grand Totals:
 
 
 
Total costs of bicycles & Notebooks: $ $5800
 
 
 
Transportation/delivering costs: $230
 
 
 
Total cost: 5800 +230 = $6030
 
 
 
Total combined notebooks bought: 9100 + 7600 = 16,700
 
 
 
Number of students receiving notebooks: 910 + 380 = 1290
 
 
 
Number of students receiving bicycles: 40
 
 

March 11th, 2015

Dear Friends,

We are currently working on the Notebook and Bicycle project.
This project will be carried out in the beginning of April.
We will distribute notebooks and bicycles to the needy students from elementary to high school.

For those students that live far away, we will give them bicycles.    For each student on the recommended list (given by the schools) to receive a bicycle, we will go to his/her house and verify their economic condition.   And we don't know how many we can give until we know how much funding we have.   To allow our staff time to verify and also to be able to complete the project before the end of the school year, we would like to close our book on March 31st.   Donations received after this date for this project will be forwarded to next year.   We hope to get your support in our effort to get the children to read and write.   From our experience working with the schools, we have learned many children dropped out in elementary just because their families are too poor to even afford notebooks for them to write with.   Some students dropped out as early as 2nd grade.   In this project, it is our hope to get these students the required notebooks and means to transport so at least they can complete elementary.

Below is our to-date financial update of this project.
Funding To Date
 
$4221

February 12th, 2015

Dear Friends,

 
Our Rice project for 2014 has been completed.  All pictures have been posted to our website.
Please click on the following link to view:
Our first  project of the year is the Notebook/Bicycle project.   It will be carried out in April.
We are collecting for this project now until March 31th, 2015.

Below is the to-date financial update of this project:
Funding To Date
 
1031

 


February 3rd, 2015

Dear friends,

Below is our financial statement for 2014.
It also detailed what we have accomplished this year.   Once again, together we have brought
happiness to many desperate families.   You might not have realized how much your gifts meant to them.   Even a little bottle of menthol oil is a dream come true for many elderly.  We hope when you have  a chance to turn back the pages and see  what you have helped accomplishing in 2014, your heart will feel really warm and happy for the happiness you have given others.
Thank you very much for joining us in this long, rough journey. 
Thank you for your love and compassion.

Best wishes to everyone in this  year of the deer.   Happy Tet !!!

2014 - Revenue and Expense Report

Received

Spent

Forward to 2015

Notebooks/Bicycle Projects

7567

(7267)

300

Housing Projects

20394

(20394)

0

College Scholarship Project

14520

(11762)

2758

Food Assistance for the Elderly

5173

(4973)

200

Special Projects

7181

(7181)

0

Rice Project

8718

(8718)

0

PayPal Fee

66

(66)

0

Advertising fee

250

(250)

0

Admin costs (web hosting, po box rental, tax filing, stamps, phone)

373

(373)

0

Total donations received in 2013 & 2014 for projects in 2014

64242

 

 

Total spent in 2014 for all projects

 

(60984)

 

Total balance to be  forwarded to 2015

 

 

3258

** Balance forwarded from donations received in 2013

(6910)

 

 

**Total donations received  in 2014

57332

 

 

 

 

 

 

2014- Accomplishments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Distributed 13 tons of rice & 200 boxes of noodles to 650 needy families

 

 

 

Built 18 houses for the homeless/needy families

 

 

 

Awarded 40 bicycles to the needy students from 4 schools

 

 

 

Awarded 23,780 notebooks to 2038 needy students from 19 schools

 

 

 

Sponsored foods for 94 needy elderly families ($50 each family)

 

 

 

Sponsored foods for 51 disabled families ($50 each family)

 

 

 

Distributed 1152 bottles of menthol oil to the needy families

 

 

 

Distributed 400 veggie meals to the homeless/elderly

 

 

 

Distributed 30 back packs and toys to Dac Lac elementary school

 

 

 

Awarded 29 college scholarships to 29 needy students ($400 each)

 

 

 

 


January 21, 2015

Dear Friends,

This is an update to our Rice project:
Total collected: $8718
Total rice bought: 13 tons to be distributed to 650 families.  Each family gets 20 kilos Total instant noodle bought:  200 boxes.  To be distributed to 200 families in Lâm Đồng and Daklak
In addition, there are a total of 432 bottles of green oil and 2 bottles of Advil (720 pills).

Below is the list of towns where the distributions will take place:

Lâm Đồng (Đà Lạt county):  2 tons (total 100 families: each family will get 20 kilos of rice, 1 box of noodle, 1 menthol oil bottle)
Đắc Lắc (Daklak county): 2 tons (total 100 families: each family will get 20 kilos of rice, 1 box of noodle, 1 menthol oil bottle, and 7 Advil pills)
Xã Nhuận Phú Tân, Mõ Cày Bắc county:  2 tons, (total 100 families.  Each family gets 20 kilos of rice)
Thanh Phong, Bến Tre county : 2 tons, (total 100 families.  Each family gets 20 kilos of rice)
Giao Thanh, Bến Tre county: 1 ton (total 50 families.  Each family gets 20 kilos of rice)
Thị Trấn Thạnh Phú, Bến Tre county: 1 ton (total 50 families.  Each family gets 20 kilos of rice)
Phú Khánh, Bến Tre county : 1 ton (total 50 families.  Each family gets 20 kilos of rice)
Thới Thạnh, Bến Tre county : 1 ton (total 50 families.  Each family gets 20 kilos of rice)
An Thuận, Bến Tre county : 1 ton (total 50 families.  Each family gets 20 kilos of rice)
Giáo Xứ Tú San, Bến Tre county:  This church will help us distribute  the remaining bottles of menthol oil bottles
to the  needy families in the region.
 
We gave more to each families in the central areas (Lâm Đồng and Đắc Lắc) because they are poorer and we might not be able to afford to come back every year.   It's a 3-day trip for us.
 
Our distribution has begun tonight.   Our staff is currently loading rice onto the bus and will be leaving for Dac Lac.
On the way back, we will stop by Phuoc Quang temple in Lam Dong where the second distribution will take place.
After that, we will be heading back to Mo Cay Bac , then Ben Tre county to finish the rest of the distributions.
We are scheduled to be done by month's end.    We will keep you posted when the pictures are available to be viewed on our website.
Thank you very much for lending a hand.   Thank you very much for keeping the hope up for these unfortunate
families. 

December 7th, 2014

Dear friends,

Here are the updates to our projects:
Photo Book of 2014:
We will be making a photo book for all projects we did through out the current year (2014).
It will have 100 pages and will be ordered with MyPublisher.   The lowest cost when it is on sale that we have seen so far is $35  for a medium-size book 11.25" x 8.75".  We will use this size.  The regular price is $100.
If you are interested in buying a copy, please let us know. 

The book will begin with our Mission statement, followed by a summarized description of our current projects, our history, board of directors and supporting staff page, and last but not least the In Appreciation page where we thank all of you who have contributed to this year's projects.   After these preface pages will be the pictures and writeup of each project we did in 2014 as you see on our website.     We will be making a yearly photo book from now on.

Brochure:
Also, once we get the photo book completed, we will be making a brochure, a typical introduction/advertisement mini book where we will place in public gatherings and stores for fund raising purpose.    If you want to donate to this Brochure-making project, we will be very appreciative.

Special Projects:
We have updated our website to include all special projects done to-date: distribution of old clothes, menthol oil,
headache medicine,  veggie meals:

Website update:
We have added a description of each project on its main page.

Rice project:
Our 2014 Rice project will start soon.   We are taking donations until December 31st, 2014.

Below is our to-date financial update of this project:

Funding To Date:
 
$4533



November 14th 2014,

Dear friends,

This is an update to our Scholarship and Rice projects:

Scholarship:
The scholarship project for the school year 2014-2015 has been completed.  All pictures have been posted to our website.  The only missing pictures are diplomas of the graduating students.  As we have learned, these diplomas will not be available for a few months until the students are done with their final thesis.
Rice:
Below is our to-date financial update.   We are still taking donations until December 31st, 2014.

Funding To Date:

 

2483


November 3rd 2014,

Dear friends,

Here are our monthly updates on all projects for 2014:

Bicycle and Notebook:  Donehttp://newhope2008.org/Bicycles/2014/bicycles2014.html

Food Assistance for the Elderly and Disabled:  Done
http://newhope2008.org/Elderly/2014/Elderly2014.html
House Building: On Going http://newhope2008.org/Houses/2014/houses2014.html

Scholarship:  Done.  
All documents have been sent to our webmaster.  We should have everything posted in a few days.

Rice: Current project
Besides the Housing project which is going on all year round,  RICE is our last annual project of the year.  

We hope to get your support to be able to deliver rice to more needy families.  Last year in an unprecedented trip,(29 hours drive and 1 night rest), we have carried 15 tons of rice and noodles to 755 deserving families in Dac Lac county.   We have seen so much tears in their eyes, hope on their faces, and the faith in their hearts for our work.

Please help us to keep their faith up, to put a smile on their face, to shed a sun ray in their gloomy world by sending them a gift of love--a simplest and most needed gift---a bag of rice.

Below is our to-date financial update of this project:

Funding To Date:

 

1083


September 11th, 2014

Dear friends,

Below are the updates to our projects:
Food Assistance For the Elderly:
We have just done posting the pictures of this project on our website:
http://newhope2008.org/Elderly/2014/Elderly2014.html
We apologize for the delay.   We have a new computer and were trying to reinstall our software onto it.   

Scholarship Project:
We have just completed distributing the awards to the students.  This year we awarded 29 scholarships, 5 of which to the new incoming freshmen. We will have a writeup and post the pictures on our website in the next few weeks.
  
Rice Project:
We are taking donation for the Rice project now.   This will be our last project of the year.
The last day to contribute for this project is December 31st, 2014. 
Thank you very much for your support.  Together we have brought many smiles in the lives of these elderly and gave these youngsters a better future.

July 23rd, 2014

Dear friends,

This is an update of the Food Assistance for the Sick/Elderly/Disabled project.

We are just about done with our food distribution.   This year we are able to help 94 families.    Each family gets $50 which consists of food and cash.   This is a special year, we got a special visitor, one of our very first sponsors, from the US came and helped us distributing the food.   It was a great pleasure to work with her.   Hopefully when she comes back to the US,  we will hear from her experience.
Below is the final financial update of this project. In a few weeks, the pictures will be ready and we will notify you when they have been posted on our website.
Thank you very much for lending us a hand so we can keep delivering food to these needy families.  

 
Funding to-date
 
4973
 
 
 
 
 
Project's details:
 
 
04/30/14
Sent to VN $2030 (xfer fee: $30), Receipt BC/77262/V
 
 
07/03/14
Sent to VN $2131 (xfer fee: $31), Receipt BC/84944/V
 
 
07/17/14
Sent to VN $609 (xfer fee: $9), Receipt BC/86616/V
 
 
07/22/14
Sent to VN $203 (xfer fee: $3) Receipt BC/87282/V
 
 
 
Total sent: $4973
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Total Transfer fee: 73
 
 
 
Transportation costs: 200
 
 
 
Helped 94 familes, $50 each.  Total: $4700
 
 
 
Total Spent: $4973
 
 
 
Project Balance: 0

June 23rd, 2014

Dear friends,

We will be distributing food to the Elderly early next month.  This year and going forward, this program will also include the sick and the disabled.   If you would like to sponsor for this program this year, please send your donation by June 30th.   Below is our to-date financial update:

Food Assistance for the Elderly Project

Funding to-date
 

May 25th, 2014

Dear friends,

Here are the updates to our projects:
Notebook and Bicycle:
The Notebook and Bicycle projects have been completed.
All pictures have been posted to our website.  Please click on the links below to view:
http://newhope2008.org/Bicycles/2014/bicycles2014.html

Food-Assistance-for-the-Elderly.
This is our next project. This project will be carried out in July. We are taking donations for this project now.  This year and going forward, we will include the disabled and the sickly to this project. The closing date for this project is June 30th. Donations received after this date will be saved for next year.

College Scholarship:
As usual, our scholarship project will be carried out in September after the college entrance test results are back.  We are planning to hand out 25 scholarship each year.  We hope to get your support for this project. Each scholarship is $400.  This is the average amount needed to pay for tuition for a year.

Housing:
This is the project that is done year-round.   We will start building as soon as we receive donation for a house.  We are currently building the following houses:
Family -Gia đình          Sponsor -Người bảo trợ 
Trần Minh Trường         The Baker and The Chu Family
Nguyễn Văn Đến           Bà Phan Lưu Minh Phượng
Nguyễn Văn Út             In memoriam of Mrs. Phạm Thị Hà
Trần Văn Nhàn              Bạn Phạm Hữu Hiếu
Âu Thị Dễ                     The Baker and The Chu Family
Huỳnh Văn Đắc             Bà Lê Thị Thông
Nguyễn Thị Nhịn          The Cone families
Phạm Văn Vô                Gia Đình Bùi Đắc Hùm

Thank you very much for taking part in making the dreams come true for many youngsters and for making the world better.

April 27, 2014

Dear Friends:
First of all, thank you very, very much for your loyal support for this project.
Because of your help, we are able to buy 23,780 notebooks and 40 bicycles this year.   We will be giving these notebooks and bicycles to 2078 needy students
from 19 elementary and junior high schools.   The total cost of this project is $7267.
The complete financial update of this project is detailed below.  
In a few weeks when we are done distributing, we will have a report and pictures loaded to our website.  We will notify you then.   Once again, thank you very much for lending a hand.
Total received:
 
7267
 
Details of money sent:
 
 
 
4/4/14 Sent: 3000(xfer fee: 45), Receipt: BC/74429/V
 
 
 
4/9/14 Sent: 3000 (xfer fee: 45), Receipt: BC/74841/V
 
 
 
4/19/14 Sent: 1160 (xfer fee:17), Receipt: BC/75867/V
 
 
 
Total Sent: $7160,  Xfer fee: 107,  Total costs: $7267
 
 
 
Account Balance:  0
 
 
 
Details of project's costs:
 
 
 
Cost of Bicycles:
 
 
 
Total bicycles given: 40
 
 
 
Each bicycle costs: $60
 
 
 
Cost to buy 40 bicycles: 40 * 60 = $2400
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cost of 5-line Notebooks:
 
 
 
Total of 5-line notebooks bought: 16980
 
 
 
Price of each 5-line notebook: $.22
 
 
 
Total cost of 5-line notebooks: .22 * 16980 = $3736
 
 
 
Each 1st to 5th grade student gets (10) 5-line notebooks
 
 
 
Total students got 5-line notebooks: 1698
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cost of 4-line notebooks:
 
 
 
Total of 4-line notebooks bought: 6800
 
 
 
Price of each 4-line notebook: $.15
 
 
 
Total cost of 4-line notebooks: .15 * 6800 = $1020
 
 
 
Each 6th - 9th grade student gets (20) 4-line notebooks
 
 
 
Total students got 4-line notebooks: 340
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Grand Totals:
 
 
 
Total costs of bicycles & Notebooks: $7156
 
 
 
Total combined notebooks bought: 23780
 
 
 
Number of students receiving notebooks: 2038
 
 
 
Number of students receiving bicycles: 40

April 7, 2014

Dear Friends:
We would lile to share with you the pictures from the Special Project we just completed.  In this project, we offered food assistance to 51 sick/disable/poor families:
Special projects are humanitarian projects done upon request by a donor or a group of donors.    These projects are funded entirely by the requestor(s) and are taken when we have resources available.  

Update on the Notebook/Bicycle Project:
So far we have collected $4870, still a bit short from our goal of $7000.
This year the elementary schools require the students to use the 5-line notebooks, so the cost will be a bit more for each.   Also, starting from this year we will give each junior high students 20 notebooks instead of 10.  We were informed that 10 is not enough, and these students need 20 notebooks to complete the school year.  There are no change for high school students.  We have been giving them 20 each.
We will have a complete financial update on the closing date of this project, 4/15/14.

March 28, 2014

Dear Friends:

We will begin the distribution of notebooks and bicycles to the needy students at the end of April as planned.   It is our hope to have enough funding to buy notebooks for 2000 students and 60 bicycles.    We would need about $7000 to accomplish this goal.   Below is our to-date financial update.   If you
are planning to support this effort, please send your check in before April 15th for your donation to be used this year.   Donations for this project received after April 15th will be rolled over to the same project next year.  

School Projects - Notebook and Bicycle 2014
Total Carried over from 2013: $1390
To-date Funding (2013 & 2014): $2510

March 1st, 2014

Dear Friends,
In this letter, we share with you our year-end financial report and accomplishments in 2013.   This report will also be posted  under the "Financial Statements" section.  Thank you all very much for making all of these projects possible.  Together we have helped build the future for thousands of youngsters and touched the lives of many poverty-stricken families.

NewHope2008 Nonprofit Organization
P. O. Box 10635, Westminster, CA 92685

www.NewHope2008.org
Email: NewHope2008.charity@yahoo.com
 
2013 - Revenue and Expense Report
Received
Spent
Forwarded to 2014
Notebooks/Bicycle Projects
7440
(6050)
1390
Housing Projects
23244
(23244)
0
College Scholarship Project
16070
(11450)
4620
Food Assistance for the Elderly
4800
(3900)
900
Special Projects
600
(600)
0
Rice Project
11540
(1540)
0
General Funds:Transfer fee and Projects' shortage coverage
513
(513)
0
(**It costs $15 to transfer each 1000 to the island villages)
 
 
 
Admin costs (web hosting, po box rental, tax filing, stamps,phone)
404
(404)
0
Total donations received in 2012 & 2013 for projects in 2013
64788
 
 
Total spent in 2013 for all projects
 
(57878)
 
Total balance to be  forwarded to 2014
 
 
6910
** Balance forwarded from donations received in 2013
(3850)
 
 
**Total donations received  in 2013
60938
 
 


Our next projects are the Notebook and Bicycle projects and will be carried out in the last week of April.   We are taking donations from now until April 15th.    We hope very much to have your continuing support for these projects.


January 25th, 2014

Dear Friends:
We have finally completed the Dac Lac project.   All pictures of the rice distributions have been loaded to our website.  Please take a look when you have a chancw http://newhope2008.org/Rices/2014/rice2013-DakLak.html
This is one of the tough projects to complete.  Thank you all very much for lending a hand.   This is the last project of 2013.  In a few weeks, we will be sending out our year-end financial report and accomplishments.
Once again thank you very much and have a great lunar New Year. 


January 2nd, 2014

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year to everyone! Wish you all have a year filled with laughter, properity, and hapiness.
Here is our update on the Rice Project:

Donation update:
We have raised a total of 15 tons and 100 kilos of rice and 655 boxes of noodles.
The staff in Vietnam have independently raised 100 boxes of noodles (20 of which came from the students we helped graduated from college in our scholarship program). Together, we have enough to help 755 families. Each will get 20 kilos of rice (about 44 lbs) and 1 box of noodles.

Operation update:
Our goods was divided into 2 parts: 2 tons of rice and 100 boxes of noodles were carried by the tour bus free of charge. The rest, 13 tons of rice and 655 boxes of noodles, were carried on our rented truck.
The tour bus will be leaving on Jan 2nd (Vietnam time) from Thanh Phong village (Ben Tre county), and scheduled to arrive in Dac Lac on Jan 3rd at 7am.

Our rented truck left on Jan 1st (Vietnam time) and has arrived safely in Dac Lac last night after 29 hours on the road. Our biggest fear on a trip of this length is the fear of robbery. And it did happen during nightfall. Two robbers tried to overtake our truck. They climbed on the back and attempted to open the cargo door. They tried to force open the padlock, but with no luck, they gave up. Thank God for this.

We will start distributing the rice at 7:30am on Jan 3rd (Vietnam time). We will give you a final update on this project after we are done and get all of the pictures uploaded.
Please scroll down to the bottom of the email for the financial update of this project.

Thank you all very much for lending a hand to help out the poor people in Dac Lac. They are very grateful for our help and have been waiting in tears for our truck to arrive. Some shared that they couldn't sleep for being too happy thinking of the white rice they will receive. As we have shared before, there are many types of rice on the market.
These poor people can only afford to buy the lowest quality, and more often than not, this type contains rice worms, sand, dirt and other impurities making the rice's color yellow or brown. We bought medium quality rice in which most of the impurities are not there, giving the rice its white color. This is why they called our rice "white rice"--the type of rice everyone is dreaming to taste.

This is by far the most rice we have ever raised and the longest distance we have ever traveled to give rice; however, it was well worth it. Once again, thank you, our dear friends, for making this project possible, for giving joy to 755 families, and best of all for your kind heart.
And last but not least, thank God, for helping us arrive to Dac Lac safe and sound.


December 8th, 2013

Dear Friends / Các bạn thân mến:

The change in weather this year has caused flooding in many places in Vietnam.  One of the hardest hit areas is in the county of Dac Lac(central Vietnam).   Many towns in Dac Lac have recently been cleared out by the sweeping flood as it wiped out everything in its path, leaving nothing but rising water higher than the height of a normal roof top. 

Before the flood hit, these people were already poor.  This county is known to be the "New Frontier"--the melting pot of the poorest of the poor in Vietnam.   People come here because they cannot make a living in their hometown and have nowhere else to go.  By relocating to this area, the government offers each family the foundation to build a house and a piece of land for planting crops.  However, after many years, the general population is still poor because this area consists mostly of mountain land and is not ideal for growing crops.  Families get stuck here for many years and can't go back to visit relatives due to the lack of money to pay for transportation.

This year, we will use all of the money collected for the Rice project to help these flood victims in Dac Lac county.  We will give each family 20 kilos (45 lbs) of rice and a box of instant noodles.  We were told that when the sweeping flood comes, it happens so fast that people only have time to grab a few things and instant noodles are the most convenient because
they are light and families can live off the food for several days while waiting for the water to retreat.  We really hope we can give each family 20 kilos of rice and 2 boxes of noodles. Each box is $3.50. 

We will buy rice from the South and rent a truck to  transport it to Dac Lac because the price of rice in Dac Lac is very high--almost  double what we pay in the South.  In the past, we have tagged along with a tour  bus for free, but they can only carry 2 tons for us.  We will still use their service this year to transport 2 tons of rice and instant noodles.  The rest of the rice will be carried on the rented truck.  The average cost of renting the truck is about $400.  The bigger the truck, the more expensive it will be.  We hope to get enough support to make this effort worth it.

Please let us know if you are planning to help with this effort so we can order the right size for the truck.  The closing date of this project is December 31st, 2013.   So far we have collected enough to buy 5 tons of rice and 150 boxes of noodles.   This will be able to feed 250 families. 

Our goal is to reach 8 tons of rice and 800 boxes of noodles (2 boxes for each family) in order to help 400 families.  We will send out a detailed update of the donations received in the next email.

October 16th, 2013

Dear friends:
The scholarship project has just been completed.  Thank you very much for lending a hand.  Together we have changed the lives of 28 students this year.  We have posted a complete report and pictures of the distribution on our website.   Please click on the link below to view:
http://www.newhope2008.org/Scholarships.html

We are currently collecting for the Rice project.   The cutoff date is December 31st, 2013. This project will be carried out in the first few weeks of January 2014.  We are hoping to raise 10 tons of rice.   This will help 500 needy families (45lbs each).   Two tons will be sent to help the poor people in Dac Lac (central Vietnam).   The weather has not been cooperating in that area this year, and many families have been suffering from a lot of hardship, making the poor even poorer.   If we can raise more money we will be sending more rice to Dac Lac.  Please help us  wrap this gift of love to them. 
They are not blessed  with much; any help at this point to them is like miracle from God.  Thank you very much for lending us a hand in these humanitarian efforts.


August 28th, 2013

Dear friends,

We are just done distributing food for the elderly.   Please click on the link below view
 
Any donation to the Elderly project received after the cutoff date will be carried over to next year.   Thank you very much for your support of this project.

Our next project will be awarding scholarships to needy college students.  We have started interviewing the needy students who passed the college entrance test last month and will hold the award conference next week.   We will have a full report after all pictures have been loaded .

After the scholarship project, we will do the Rice project.  This is our last project of the year.
We are taking donation for the Rice project now until December 31st, 2013.

July 27th, 2013

Dear Friends,

Thank you all very much for lending a hand to help us carry out this project again .
We have raised a total of $3900 for 78 elderly families.  (Each will get $50 in food and cash combined).

This project has been closed for this year.   Any donation received from this point for this project will be carried over to next year.   We will have the pictures of the distributions in 3 weeks.   There are 2 teams helping with the distribution.
Team 1 covers 36 familes.  Team 2 covers 42 families.   The transporation cost to buy the goods and door-to-door deliver to these 78 families is $200.  Transfer fee to move $3900 to VN is $62.   Total extra costs is $262.   This cost will be picked up by General Funds.  Current General Funds' balance is: $(-587)

Our next project is the Scholarship Project and will be carried out in September.

July 20th, 2013

Dear friends:

Thank you very much for your continuing support of the Elderly project.
Our to-date financial update of this project si $3550.   With this total amount, we can help 71 elderly familes ($50 each).  Each gift consists of food and cash just like last year.  We will be closing this project in a few days.   

Update on the Foundation Search's project:  We don't have enough support for this project.  We will not proceed and will be refunding the donation for this project back to our donors.   

Thank you for your time and wish you have a great day,

July 3rd, 2013

Dear friends,

We just got a request from our volunteers in Vietnam to change the Elderly project to July.    The reason being is some of our volunteers are teachers and they are off for the summer and  have more time to work on it during June and July.   They prefer to carry out this project before the end of July.   This project is labor intensive as the volunteers will have to carry the goods to each elderly's house, so it makes sense to do it while they are off work.
Thus, we will be collecting donation for this project starting now.  If you would like to lend a hand for this project, please send your donation in before July 20th.

June 12th, 2013


Seeking Yearly Support for Notebook, Bicycle, and Scholarship Projects

Each year, our organization must acquire funding before our projects can become a reality.  In the past, given our limited resources, our organization’s fundraising efforts would start one month before a project was expected to be finished.  Unfortunately, this short thirty day fundraising period created problems for us.  For many projects, a pledge of how much money we could raise was expected in advance so that our staff in Vietnam could visit the local schools and villages to compile a database of potential recipients.  These pledges were necessary to establish rapport and ensure cooperation from the schools and villages involved and also allowed our staff in Vietnam to plan how to distribute the donations most efficiently.  We had lucky months, in which donations would exceed our pledge and the extra funds would trickle down to help waitlisted recipients.  We also had unlucky months, in which board members covered all losses out of pocket.  We recognize that this strategy cannot last. Therefore, we are asking for you to help us implement a new method.

We are now seeking yearly commitments for our programs.  If forced to choose, we would keep the notebook, bicycle and scholarship projects.  Each scholarship is $400.  Each bicycle is $60.  Ten notebooks are $2. 

These are the projects that provide admittance, access and the means to education.  These are the three programs that will build the foundation to facilitate change within the country of Vietnam.  The cost for one year of a college education can be the equivalent of a father’s annual salary—a cost many families cannot justify.  A scholarship will provide admittance.  Children in the village of Cồn Cao have to make a two hour hike to attend elementary school in the distant village of Cồn Mít.  A bicycle for a child in Cồn Cao transforms the two hour hike into a breezy thirty minute commute.  A bicycle will provide access.  Ten notebooks will supply an entire year of paper for grade school students.  That means ten notebooks have the ability to push a student from first grade to second grade—to push illiteracy out and literacy in.  Ten notebooks will provide means.

The effects our programs have are not just speculative. We have documented the progress of eight college students whom we’ve sponsored since 2008.  Like most other applicants, our eight students wrote that their interests were either in politics or military related.  However, after just one year in college, their interests shifted. After one year of college schooling, the students realized that changing a country does not start with politics or warfare, but rather, by creating economic growth to allow Vietnam to compete with the rest of the world through advancements in technology that can increase productivity for agricultural exports such as rice.  As a result, two of our students started as political science majors, but graduated as chemistry majors.  One student is working on developing agricultural techniques.  Another is learning how to make seafood processing more efficient. You can read the letters these students have written to us promising to use their education to build a new society in which they will try to continue to provide new hope for the future of Vietnam:
http://www.newhope2008.org/Scholarships/2012/class2012.html

If you would like to help, please reply with the program name and the amount you wish to donate.  Each year, we will send out an email reminder before collecting funds. This year, the bicycle project has concluded.  We will begin the scholarship project in September. 

Other projects where aggregation is not as big of a problem will remain the same (housing, feeding the elderly, rice distribution). Notifications will be sent one month before the project is carried out and donations will be collected during that time.  If these projects do not receive enough support from our donors, we will cut them to focus our efforts on the three projects discussed earlier.  Please let us know if you would like to commit a yearly donation to one of these other projects. 
We are still seeking new funding from corporate sources.  We will send a future email regarding our progress in this matter and welcome suggestions on whether to go forward.

Thank you for taking the time to read this lengthy letter.  Thank you for your support.  Thank you for allowing us to continue to provide NewHope to the people of Vietnam.

**Thank you Andy Tran for translating this letter


 

Newsletter – April 21st, 2013

Dear Friends,

Here are the updates to our projects:
Housing Project:
We are currently building houses for the following families:
Family -Gia đình
Sponsor -Người bảo trợ
Nguyễn Thị Hằng Nga
Gia Đình Bùi Đắc Hùm
Nam-Phuong Le

Scholarship Project:
We are collecting for our Scholarship project, which will be carried out in September.
This fund will be used to award scholarships for the school year of 2013-2014. We hope to get your support to keep this project alive.  We have raised $4300 so far, and need $5700 more to keep 25 students we helped last year in school.  If we can raise more, we will use the excess fund to award incoming freshmen.

Food for the Elderly
Will be carried out in September. We are accepting donations now.

Bicycle/Notebook Projects:  
This project has been done for this year.
We have raised a total of $6050.  This is enough to buy 50 bicycles and 17,440 notebooks.
We will be able to help 1744 students with note books and 50 with bicycles.  This year many schools asked for help.  Our fund is limitted so we had to drop a few old schools and replaced with new ones to give a new group of students an opportunity.  
Thank you very, very much for your support to make this project possible again.   We got emails from a few friends stating that you want to help out but want to wait until you can save more money, please keep in mind that only $1.72 will send 1 child to school for the whole year.

Newsletter – March 15th, 2013

Dear Friends,

Just a reminder, we are currently collecting for the Notebook and Bicycle projects. 
If you would like to donate, please send your check in before  April 15th.
  We will be doing the distribution on May 1st.   We need to give an estimate of how many notebooks and bicycles we can give so the VN team can start going to the students' home to take pictures (for every student receiving a bicycle, after we get the needy list from the school, we verify his/her poverty status by coming to his/her residence to take pictures).

For the scholarship project, we hope, at the least,  to have enough to continue supporting the current 20 students that we helped last year ($400 each,  total is $10,000).  If we have more, then we will be awarding the incoming freshmen.

Newsletter – February 6th, 2013

Dear friends,

Below is the year-end report of our income, expenses, and accomplishments for 2012.  These data will also be posted on our website under the Financial Statement tab. Thank you all very much for your support to make all these projects possible.   Wish you all have a great Tet and a peaceful and prosperous new year.

2012- Accomplishments' Summary:
** Awarded 16,360 notebooks to 1636 students in 12 schools
** Awarded 51 bicycles to the needy students in 4 schools
(50 from the annual Bicycle Project done in May 2012 and 1 from a special project done in August 2012)
** Built 26 houses for the homeless/needy families
** Awarded 25 scholarships to 25 students, $400 each
(8 freshmen, 8 sophomores, 6 juniors from main stream colleges and 3 sophomores from techical colleges)
** Sponsored food for 80 needy elderly families ($50 each family)
** Distributed 13 tons of rice to 650 needy families (12 tons from the annual Rice Distribution done in Jan 2012 and 1 ton from the Dac Lac Special Project done in May 2012)


Jamuary 30th, 2013

Here are the updates on our projects:

Rice Project: 
Our Rice Project has just  been completed.    All pictures have been loaded.  Thank you everyone very much for lending a hand.  Please click on the following link to view the pictures of our rice distributions:
http://www.newhope2008.org/Rices/2013/rice2013.html

Housing Project:  The cost to build a house of humanity has been increased to $1066.
Itemized of costs can be found in the following link:
http://www.newhope2008.org/FAQ.html

We are currently building houses for the following families:

Family -Gia đình                  Sponsor - Người Bảo Trợ
Âu Thị Châu Gia Đình Bùi Đắc Hùm
Kimberlee Chhun
Nam-Phuong Le
Diễm-Uyên Ngô, Pharm D
Trà Văn Đá Ân Nhân Ẩn Danh

Current Projects:
Notebooks, Bicycles, Scholarship: (to be carried out May 1st, 2013)
We are currently collecting for the Notebooks, Bicycles and Scholarship projects.
We will be giving each needy student 10 notebooks.  This is the amount each needs to work for the whole school year.   Some students with urgent need for transportation will get a bicycle.
Currently the dropout rate for the students who are in poverty is very high--more than 40%.  Some dropped out as early as second grade due to the lack of notebooks to write and a means for transportation.  So by giving them 10 notebooks we don't just give them 10 notebooks, but a whole year of education.   And this one year of education can turn a child from illiterate to literate.   These are the projects on top of our priority list and we sure hope to get your support.
The closing date for the Notebooks and Bicycles projects is April 15th, 2013.
The scholarship project has no closing date.  Donations received before September will be awarded for school year 2013-2014.
   

Jamuary 8th, 2013

Dear Friends,
Here's the update to our Rice project.
First of all, thank you very much for your support to make this project possible.
We have raised enough to buy 10 tons of rice.  With this, we can help 500 needy families.  Each family will get 20 kilograms of rice (about 45 lbs).  We have started the distribution will be completing next week.   This year, besides Ben Tre county (south Vietnam), we will be giving 2 tons to the people in the county of  Dac Lac (central VietNam).  Many poor people from all over Vietnam come to Dac Lac to work as laborers (picking crops in the field) for the lack of anywhere else to go.
In a few weeks, we will have a write-up on the  project with the details of the villages receiving the rice, name of all recipients, thank-you letters, and the pictures of the distribution posted on our website.  We will keep you posted.

December 12th, 2012

Dear friends,

It's that time of the year again.  
There are many needy families waiting for us with hope. For some, it's the hope of tasting white rice; for most, it's the hope of a full stomach. There are many different types of rice.  Poor people usually buy the cheapest type.
The cheapest rice is not white and usually is mixed up with other things or worms. The rice we buy to distribute is 1 grade above average and is a dream for these needy people.  They have not been blessed with much.  We sure hope you can squeeze that extra dollar to make the dream come true for these unfortunate families.
We will be closing our book on this project on December 31st, 2012 to prepare for our distribution in January, 2013--just in time for the lunar new year. We hope to get your donation by then.

November 20th, 2012

Dear friends,

Here are the updates to our Scholarship and Rice projects:
The college scholarship project has been completed.

We have awarded 25 scholarships to 25 college students for the 2012-2013 school year. 
The first 8 students that we sponsored 4 years ago have graduated.
We have collected their graduation pictures and college degrees and have loaded them on our website.  
Please click on the link below to view the distributions of the awards and graduation pictures.  
http://www.newhope2008.org/Scholarships/2012/scholarships2012.html
Thank you all very much for your support of this project.

New Year's Rice Distribution Project:
We are currently collecting for the Rice Project.  The closing date for this project is December 31th, 2012.   If you would like to donate for this project, please mail check to
NewHope2008 (please make check payable to NewHope2008)
P. O. Box 10635
Westminster, CA 92685 
or you can click on the Donate Button on our website NewHope2008.org to donate by credit cards and Paypal.
We will have a complete financial update on this project in the next newsletter.

September 15th, 2012

Dear friends,

Here are the update to our projects:
1.  Food  Assistance for the Elderly:  This project is completely done.  All pictures have been posted to our website.  Please click on the link below to view:
http://www.newhope2008.org/Elderly/2012/Elderly2012.html
Thank you all, our dear friends, very much for making this project possible again.

2.  Scholarship for college students:  We have distributed 24 awards to both university and community college students.  One more award will be handed out in the next 2 weeks, and this brings up the total of awards to 25.  Once everything is done, we will have a comprehensive update on this project.

3. Housing Construction:

These are the houses that have been completed since our last update:
Family- Gia đình
Sponsor - Người bảo trợ
Nguyễn Văn Hiếu Ông Chu Thế Luyến
Ngô Văn Út Gia đình cụ Trần Văn Khắc
Huỳnh Thị Nhị Baker & Chu Family
Nguyễn Thị Cầu Lưu Trần Anh Kiệt

These are the houses that are currently being built:
Family- Gia đình Sponsor - Người bảo trợ
Đặng Văn Nguyên Bùi Thủy Tiên, Tú Quang, Tú Vinh
Huỳnh Văn Khéo Ông Chu Thế Luyến
Phạm Văn Nớt
Lưu Trần Anh Kiệt

New house just got sponsored:  The. Phạm Văn Âu's family  will be sponsored by Mr. and Mrs.  Lý Tấn Vọng.

4.  Special Projects:
There are the small projects we do besides our scheduled annual projects. These are usually much smaller projects and are done based on donors' request.   We will have a year-end  update once we have all pictures loaded and writeup for them.

5. Rice Distribution for year-end 2012:
We are accepting donations for the Rice project.  

Collection begins now and will end on Dec 31st, 2012.
Due to the complication in tax reporting the Rice project in 2-yr span, we will end the donation on the last day of December, so the Rice project can be reported within its entirety for 2012.
Thank you very much for your continuing support for our cause. May God bless you and your family.   Thank you very much for your time.


Dear friends:
-----------------------
We are about the award the college scholarship for the year 2012-2013.
This school year we have 7 new college freshmen and 17 existing sophomores to seniors.
We will be awarding $400 each, totaled to $9600.
We currently have  $8667 in our scholarship account.  We need $1000 to complete this project.
If you would like to help out, we'd appreciate it very much .  Please send your donation to the address  at the end of this email  or you can do directly via our website www.NewHope2008.org  
under the "Donate" button.
 
ps: About the 8 students we have been helping in the past 4 years, some of them have graduated,
some will be done by the end of the year.  We will be posting their graduation pictures and diplomas by year end.

June 9th, 2012,

Dear Friends:

Here are the update to our project:

1.  The Bicycles and Notebooks projects have been completed.  All pictures have been posted:
http://www.newhope2008.org/Notebooks/2012/notebooks2012.html
http://www.newhope2008.org/Bicycles/2012/bicycles2012.html

2. We are currently collecting for the "Food Assistance for the Elderly" project and the
College Scholarship project.   Both of these programs will be carried out at the beginning of
September.

3.  Housing project update :
We have completed the following houses this year
Family- Gia đình       Sponsor
Nguyễn Thị Lê            Lưu Trần Anh Kiệt
Lê Thị Đèo                  Lưu Trần Anh Kiệt
Phạm Văn Tư              Ông Lê Văn Nhơn & Lâm Thủy Tiên &  Trần Trinh Thy
Lê Văn Tươi               The Cone families

The following houses are currently being built
Phạm Văn Bon           Lưu Trần Anh Kiệt
Nguyễn Thị Cầu         Lưu Trần Anh Kiệt
Huỳnh Thị Nhị            Baker & Chu Family
Ngô Văn Út                Gia đình cụ Trần Văn Khắc

4.  Our tax has been done and our Financial statement has been posted on our web, too.

June 6th, 2012

We have just completed our 2012’s Notebook and Bicycle projects.
We are currently taking donation for these two programs:

  1.  Scholarship for college students
  2. Food for the Elderly

We hope to get your support for these two projects.  These students have been trying hard to get this far, and with your lending hand, they will be able to step up on the last step of their journey.  Please help the elderly, too.   They have not been blessed with much.   Your caring will warm their hearts.
Your donations from now until the end of September will be used to carry out these two projects.  Thank you and may God bless you.

Address to send donation:
NewHope2008 ( Please make check payable to NewHope 2008 Charity Org)
P. O. Box 10635, Westminster, CA 92685



May 5th, 2012

Dear Friends,

Here is a summary our Notebook and Bicycle projects:
We have raised a total of $5810 for this project.  We have bought and distributed 50 bicycles and 16360 notebooks to 1636 students in 12 schools ranging from kindergarten to junior high. 
Each student got 10 notebooks.   Some students got 5-line notebooks due to the requirement of that school.  In a few weeks we will be done posting all the pictures of  the distribution to our website.  Will keep you posted.
Thank you very much, all of you, for lending a hand to give us the opportunity to help out these poor students once again.  Your help has been greatly appreciated.  Below is the details of our expense and the list of recipients (schools' names). 

Total collected for this project: $5810
Total spent for bicycles: $55 each  * 50 bicycles = $2750
Total spent for notebooks: $5810 – $2750 = $3060
Details for notebooks as follows:
13760 notebooks (4-line type), each costs 3700 vn dong =50,912,000 vn dong
2600 notebooks (5-line type), each costs 4700 vn dong = 12,220,000 vn dong
(Exchange rate): 1 us dollar = 20,630 vn dong
Total costs for notebooks : 63,132,000 vn dong = 3060 us dollars
Account balance: $5810 – $2750 for bicycles – $3060 for notebooks = 0

 Bicycles Distribution:
1/   Mỹ An Elementary, Mõ Cày Bắc district,  9 bicycles
2/   Phú Khánh Junior High, Thạnh Phú district ,  10 bicycles
3/   Thạnh Phong A Elementary, Thạnh Phú district, 17 bicycles
4/  Thạnh Phong Junior High, Thạnh Phú district, 14 bicycles

 Notebooks Distribution:

1/ Phong Nẫm Junior High, 1500  4-line notebooks, ( district Giồng Trôm)
2/ Long Mỹ Elementary, 1200  4-line notebooks, (district Giồng Trôm)
3/ Đa Phước Hội Elementary, 1300  4-line notebooks, (district Mỏ Cày Nam)
4/ Thạnh Phong A Elementary, 2000  4-line notebooks, (district Thạnh Phú)
5/ Phú Khánh Elementary, 1200  4-line notebooks, (district Thạnh Phú)
6/ Elementary  Thạnh Phong B, 1200 4-line notebooks, (district Thạnh Phú)
7/ Bình Thạnh Junior High, 1500 4-line notebooks, (district Thạnh Phú)
8/ Mỹ An Elementary, 2000 (200 4-line and 1800 5-line notebooks),  district Thạnh Phú
9/ Thạnh Phong Kindergarten, 800 5-line notebooks, (district Thạnh Phú)
10/ An Nhơn Elementary,  1200 4-line notebooks, (district Thạnh Phú)
11/ Phước Mỹ Trung Elementary, 1200 4-line notebooks,  (district Mỏ Cày Bắc)
12/ Phước Mỹ Trung Junior High, 1260 4-line notebooks,  (district Mỏ Cày Bắc)

April 6th, 2012

Dear friends, 
Here are the updates on the Notebook and Bicycle project. 

As of  now, we have received $4510.  This is enough to buy 50 bicycles and about 10,000 notebooks.  The price for each bicycle is $55 (an increase of   $5  comparing to the previous years).   The price of each 4-line notebook is 3500 vietnamese dong, and 5-line notebook is 4500 dong, roughly about 20  cents average.  Each student needs 10 notebook to write for the whole year.  So on the average, we need $2 to buy 10 notebooks for each student. 
Certain grade levels required 4-line notebooks and others require 5-line. We don't know how many of each type of notebook we need until we know the total students we will give  at each grade level.

If you are planning to donate, please send your donation now as we will be closing the book on this project in 10 days. Each $2 of your donation to this project will help a child to stay in school for the whole year.  So you are not just giving them $2 or 10 notebooks, you are giving them a whole year of education.   Many students dropped out just because they couldn't afford to buy the notebooks to write.  Without the notebooks to write down the teacher's lectures and to do the homework, there is no other source for them to study.  They couldn't afford the textbooks, which are even more expensive. You might not realize it, but your little donation will touch and make a difference in many lives.

March 17th, 2012

Dear friends,
 
It's time for our Notebook and Bicycle Project.
We will be distributing Notebooks and Bicycles to the needy students in the last week of April.  We are collecting for these two projects now.    We are hoping to raise enough funds for 100 bicycles and 25,000 notebooks.
The last day for contribution to this project is April 16th, 2012.  We are very grateful for your support last year and hope to get the same support this year.
Here is a link to our Notebook and Bicycle project done last year:
http://www.newhope2008.org/Notebooks/2011/notebooks2011.html
http://www.newhope2008.org/Bicycles/2011/bicycles2011.html


January 23rd, 2012

Dear Friends,

This is our 5th year anniversary—a long milestone to have passed through.  For any business organization, perhaps this milestone represents a good solid standing, but for a nonprofit organization where there is no base income like us, it doesn’t have the same meaning.  We still need your continuing support to sustain the existence of every single project that we have.  

We would like to deeply thank you for your support for our Rice project this year.   We have been able to raise 12 tons of rice and helped 600 needy families.  Each got 20 kilos (about 44 lbs) of rice.    These families are very appreciative.  Some couldn’t hold their tears.  They have asked us to pass their heartfelt thanks to all of you, our dear sponsors and friends.

We wish you all have a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year.  Thank you very much for lending us your hands in this long hard road.  We are very grateful for your support and your trust.

Newsletter – November 18, 2011

Dear friends,

Our annual rice distribution to the needy will take place on the 8th of January, 2012.
We are currently collecting for this project.   If you are planning on donating, please send in so we can put a deposit for the rice.  Currently it is sitting at $610 per ton and the price usually goes up when it gets closer to the new year.    Last year, we helped 750 families (15 tons) in our New Year distribution and 250 families (5 tons) in a special project.  With the current economy we probably will not be able to help as many families as last year, but we sure hope for the best.
Here is our to-date financial update for the Rice project:

Rice Distribution (to be carried out Jan 8th, 2012)

10/14/2011
Hieu Pham
 
10/16/2011
Melissa Le/t3
10/17/2011 The Paxin family
11/5/2011 Nguyen Mai Huong
11/5/2011
Nguyen thi Van Anh
11/7/2011
Tiffany Thuy Le
11/8/2011 Gloria Hopper / Hopper Real Estate, Apple Valley
11/14/2011 Hong Ha Nguyen/ Girard Nail & Skincare Salon, La Jolla
11/15/2011 Trung Minh Tran
11/15/2011 Phuong Tran (Tiffany's friend)
11/16/2011 Gloria Hopper / Hopper Real Estate, Apple Valley

To-date funding for this project:
1500

Newsletter – November 9, 2011

Dear friends,

Here are the updates on our projects:

Rice Distribution (to be carried out this coming lunar New Year):
We are currently collecting for this project.  We are hoping to raise enough funds for 20 tons of rice to help 1000 needy families.  Each family will get 20 kilograms (about 44 lbs). of rice.   Last year a ton of rice was $550.  We will have periodic update on this project until done.   The closing day for this project is Jan 5th, 2012.   Distribution day will be around Jan 8th (2 weeks before the lunar New Year).   We are very grateful for your overwhelmed support in the past years and we hope to get your continuing support this year.  

For donation by check, please send to:
NewHope2008 (please make check payable to NewHope2008)
P. O. Box 10635
Westminster, CA 92685
For donation by credit card/Paypal, please select the "Donation" tab on our web: www.NewHope2008.org 

College scholarship:
- We have completed making our main page for this project.  Here is the link to it:
http://www.newhope2008.org/Scholarships.html
- We have completed the distribution of the awards for all 32 students for this school year.
Starting from this year forward, we hand out awards only at the beginning of the school year.
The students will get the entire award once.  We used to divide and hand out twice a year.
Here is the link to our scholarship awards distribution for this school year, 2011-2012:
http://www.newhope2008.org/Scholarships/2011/scholarships2011.html
 

Special Projects:
Special projects are the good deeds anyone can request for and provide for their funding.
These are usually the humanitarian activities that are not currently in the scope of our annual projects.
After getting the request, if we could do, we would. 
We have done quite a few this year.  Here is a link to all special projects we have done this year:
http://www.newhope2008.org/Special/2011/specials2011.html
The latest one we have done last month was helping out 5 poverty-stricken families

Housing Project:
We have built quite a few houses this year.  To-date, we have completed 24 houses and are currently building 9 more.   Thank you very much for your generosity.  Thank you for giving these needy families a new home sweet home.  Here is the link to our housing projects this year:
http://www.newhope2008.org/Houses/2011/houses2011.html

Here are the houses we have completed building since our last update:
Family/Gia đình          Sponsor/Người bảo trợ
Nguyen Van Chau       Family Discount Pharmacy
Lê Thị Nữa                Preston Le
Nguyễn Thị Lập         Summit Pharmacy Inc
Nguyen Thanh Nhan   Jean Francois Pacou & Chu Famliy
Võ Văn Để                Jordan Kim-Uyen
Nguyễn Văn Văn        Riley Thao-Uyen
Luong Thi Moi            Ông bà Lý Tấn Vọng
Bùi Thị Khoe              Quỹ Từ Thiện của bà Lê Thị Thao và bạn Phạm Hữu Nhơn

Here are the houses we are currently building:
Family/Gia đình          Sponsor/Người bảo trợ
Nguyễn Văn Bảo         Vincent & Mailynda Le & Chu family
Lê Văn Thăng             The Pham & Chu family
Phạm Văn Hiếu            Luu Tran Anh-Kiet **
Phạm Văn Trúc Thi       Luu Tran Anh-Kiet  **
Trần Thị Thu Khuyến    Luu Tran Anh-Kiet **
Nguyễn Văn Vũ            The Baker & The Chu family
Trần Hoàng Thái           Mission Road Pharmacy
Huỳnh Văn Tiếng          Ông Nguyễn Học Tài và bà Phạm Thị Minh
Võ Thị Nga                  Alexander Le

** Our friend, Anh-Kiet Tran Luu had left us to the land of no sorrow.
It is with the deepest sympathy that we extend our prayers to Kiet’s family for his passing, and also our sincere thanks to Kiet and his family for supporting our housing projects through the years.

September 23, 2011

Dear friends,

The Food-Assistance-For-The-Elderly project has just been completed.
We ended up helping 78 elderly families.  All pictures have been loaded and write-up have been done in both English and Vietnamese.  Thank you very very much for your support to keep this project alive.  Here is the link to our website to view this project:
http://www.newhope2008.org/Elderly/2011/Elderly2011.html

Here are the updates to other on-going projects:

Housing projects:

We are currently building the following houses:

Family/Gia đình          Sponsor/Người bảo trợ
Nguyen Van Chau       Family Discount Pharmacy
Lê Thị Nữa                Preston Le
Võ Thị Nga                Alexander Le
Nguyễn Thị Lập          Summit Pharmacy Inc
Nguyen Thanh Nhan    Jean Francois Pacou & Chu Famliy
Võ Văn Để                 Jordan Kim-Uyen
Nguyễn Văn Văn         Riley Thao-Uyen
Luong Thi Moi            Ông bà Lý Tấn Vọng
Bùi Thị Khoe              Quỹ Từ Thiện của bà Lê Thị Thao và bạn Phạm Hữu Nhơn

The following houses have been done since our last update:
Dang Van Ung           Quỹ Từ Thiện của bà Lê Thị Thao và bạn Diana Hồng Đức Pham
Pham Van Nho           Mr. Tim Baker
Nguyễn Văn Lâm        Bà Chu Thanh Tâm và gia đình

College Scholarship Project:
We have awarded the following scholarships:
$1000 each to 8 newly college freshmen
$400 each to 6 college sophomores
$400 each to 8 college seniors
$400 each to 3 community college freshmen
$1500 total (divided evenly) to 7 college freshmen in Cho Lach district
Pictures and write-ups are being loaded and written.  Will keep you posted when we
are done loading everything to our website.

Our next annual project:  Rice distribution for the needy
We are collecting now for our annual Rice Distribution project for new year 2012.
The distribution will be taking place before the Lunar New Year, which is on January 23rd.
We are planning to distribute the rice two weeks before the Lunar new year, which is around January 8th.   We are praying for your support.
Thank you very much for your time and have a great day,

August 14, 2011

Dear friends,

Here are the updates for the projects we are working on:

Food Assistance for the Elderly:
We have raised enough funds to help 65 elderly families.  This project is being carried out right now.  It shall take about 2 weeks to do home delivery for all of these families. We will post pictures of the distribution when they become available.


Housing Project:
Phase II:  We have completed all 8 houses in Phase II:

Family- Gia đình      Sponsor - Người bảo trợ
Nguyen Thi Nghen   Cô Trần thị Ngọc Tuyết
Nguyen Van Yen      Các thân hữu và cảm tình viên của Kiệt
Vo Van Ty              Ông Chu Thế Luyến
Nguyễn Văn Lam     The Loi Diep Family/Hansansan
Truong Van Tri         Ms. Nguyễn Thúy Huệ
Nguyen Van Phuong Ms. Nguyễn Thúy Huệ
Ngo Van Hong         Quỹ Từ Thiện của bà Lê Thị Thao và bạn Phạm Hữu Hiếu
Tran Van E             The Baker & The Chu family (đang chụp hình gởi đến)

Phase III:  The following houses are being built in Phase III:
Family- Gia đình     Sponsor - Người bảo trợ
<to be chosen>      The Paxin's Family (will build when funds are ready)
<to be chosen>      Summit Pharmacy Inc. (funds received)
Võ Văn Để           Jordan Kim-Uyen
Nguyễn Văn Văn   Riley Thao-Uyen
Luong Thi Moi       Ông bà Lý Tấn Vọng
Nguyễn Thị Phi     Quỹ Từ Thiện của bà Lê Thị Thao và bạn Phạm Hữu Nhơn
Dang Van Ung       Quỹ Từ Thiện của bà Lê Thị Thao và bạn Diana Hồng Đức Pham
Pham Van Nho      Tim Baker
Nguyễn Văn Lâm  Bà Chu Thanh Tâm và gia đình

College Scholarships:
8 College Seniors: will be awarded after grade reports turned in
5 College Sophomores:  will be awarded after grade reports turned in
9 incoming freshmen:  will be awarded after passing the college entrance exam


August 3rd, 2011

Dear friends,

This is an update for the Food Assistance for the Elderly Project:
This project will be carried out in 3 weeks.   The last day for donation to this project is August 15th.  If you would like to sponsor, please send your check now so we can begin on time.  We will be distributing rice & dry food and some spending money to 60 elderly families.   The combination is $50 for each family.  We will bring the goods to each house.  It will take about 2 weeks to complete as for some homes, there are no roads even for the motocycle to get through, so we will have to travel partially on foot.
Funds needed to distribute for 60 families: $3000
Transportation cost to buy food and distributing to each family: $250
Cost to transfer $3250 to VN: $49
Total cost for this project: $3299
Total funding to-date: $2255

Funds needed to complete this project: $1044


July 21st, 2011

Dear Friends,
Here are the update for the projects we are working on:

Food Assistance for the Elderly:
Will be carried out in the beginning of September.    We are collecting donations now.

Last day to donate August 15th, 2011.   These are the elderly who live alone or living with families who are too poor to help them out.  Some of them are still working but not making ends meet.  We will buy food and distribute to them at their home.  Each family will get $50 ($30 in food and $20 in spending money).  Please visit our website to view the same project we did last year for details.  We are hoping to have enough fund for 60 families.  If more funding available, we will help more families.  If you are planning to donate, please send money now to help us begin this project on time. We have begun visiting each elderly family to verify their living condition and economic needs.  We have updated our website to-date:
http://www.newhope2008.org/Elderly/2011/Elderly2011.html

College Scholarships:
8 College Seniors: will be awarded after grade reports turned in
5 College Sophomores:  will be awarded after grade reports turned in
9 incoming freshmen:  will be awarded after passing the college entrance exam
(3 more students have been sponsored).

Housing Project:
Phase II:  We have completed 4 of the 7 houses built in Phase II:
Vo Van Ty, sponsored by Mr.  Chu Thế Luyến
Truong Van Tri, sponsored by Ms. Nguyễn Thúy Huệ
Nguyen Van Lam, sponsored by Ms. Nguyễn Thúy Huệ
Nguyen Van Phuong, sponsored by The Loi Diep Family/Hansansan

The following houses will be done in a week or two:
Nguyen Van Yen, Sponsored by friends and relatives of Luu Anh Kiet
Tran Van E, sponsored by The Baker & The Chu family
Nguyen Thi Nghen, sponsored by Ms. Trần Thị Ngọc Tuyết

Phase III:  New houses that have been sponsored and will be built:
Ngo Van Hong, sponsored by Mrs. Lê Thị Thao’s Memorial fund and Phạm Hữu Hiếu
Dang Van Ung, sponsored by Mrs. Lê Thị Thao’s Memorial fund and Diana Hồng Đức Pham
Pham Van Nho, sponsored by Mr.  Tim Baker
 Nguyễn Văn Lâm, sponsored by Ms.  Chu Thanh Tâm and family

Annoucement about change in house's construction cost:

The price of materials and labor have been consistently going up, thus we can no longer afford to build a house at $800.  Starting now, it will be $1000.  This is the minimum to build a basic house as we described in our FAQ section.   Please look at this section to read our itemized cost for building a house.

Thank you for your time and wish you all have a beautiful day.


May 29th, 2011

Dear Friends,

We have completed the Bicycles and Notebooks projects. All pictures have been loaded.

Bicycle Distribution 2011

Notebook Distribution 2011

Here are the projects we will be carrying out in this summer:

Food Assistance for the Elderly:

Will be carried out in the last week of August. We are collecting donations now. Last day to donate August 15th, 2011. We have begun visiting each elderly family to verify their living condition and economic needs.

College Scholarships:

8 College Seniors: will be awarded after grade reports turned in

5 College Sophomores: will be awarded after grade reports turned in

6 incoming freshmen: will be awarded after passing the college entrance exam

Housing Project:

We have completed building the very first 5 Humanity House of this year:

1. Pham Van Binh, sponsored by Các thân hữu và cảm tình viên của Kiệt

2. Luong Thi Ca, sponsored by Sandy Wang, Yiwen Gong, and Yuwen Yeh

3. TranThi Bay, sponsored by Ông Nguyễn Mạnh Dần và bà Nguyễn Thị Vân Anh

4. Huynh van Giang, sponsored by The Paxin Family

5. Nguyen Van Nhu, sponsored by quỷ từ thiện của Bà Lê Thị Thao

Next week, we will begin building the following 7 Humanity houses:

1. Nguyen Van Yen, Sponsored by friends and relatives of Luu Anh Kiet

2. Vo Van Ty, sponsored by Mr. Chu Thế Luyến

3. Nguyen Thi Nghen, sponsored by Ms. Trần Thị Ngọc Tuyết

4. Tran Van E, sponsored by The Baker & The Chu family

5. Truong Van Tri, sponsored by Ms. Nguyễn Thúy Huệ

6. Nguyen Van Lam, sponsored by Ms. Nguyễn Thúy Huệ

7. Nguyen Van Phuong, sponsored by The Loi Diep Family/Hansansan

Thank you for your time and wish you all have a beautiful day.


May 9th, 2011

Dear Friends,
Finally we have raised enough funds to cover for our Bicycles and Notebooks project. Thank you very much for contributing to our cause. To-date, we have completed distributing the notebooks and bicycles to 9 schools. We have 8 more to go. When we have loaded all pictures and the write up, we will email to notify you. For those friends that had sponsored a house in our housing project, please check our website for updates. In-construction and completion pictures have been updated. There are two houses still being built. For those friends that just donated recently for a house, we will start building after the current two houses being built are done.


April 22nd, 2011


Dear friends,
We are just few days away from starting our notebooks and bicycles distribution.
We have come a long way in getting the $8800 needed to finance this project; however, we are still short of $678.   Hopefully in the next few days we will make it.
We would like to thank you very much for supporting our cause.  Friends like you are the main energy that keeps these humanitarian efforts going.  Many of you reached out to families and even long lost friends to help us.   We want you to know that we are very appreciative.
Thank you for your time and wish you all have a peaceful Easter Holiday.



April 18th, 2011

Dear Friends,
We have collected nearly $6600 for this project, still a bit short of the $8800 needed.
We will start our distribution in 2 weeks.  We need to get it done before the last day of school.  If you are planning on donating, please send it in soon so we can complete this project on time.  As a reminder, the money collected for this project will be used to buy 90 bicycles and 22,500 notebooks for the needy students in 17 schools ranging from kindergarten to Junior High.  We have come to each of the 90 bicycle recipients' house to take picture and have posted them on our website.   We hope to have your support to raise enough funds for this project.   If you know of someone who would like to help, please help pass the words.    


April 6, 2011

Dear friends,
This is an update to our Bicycles and Notebooks project for summer 2011.
This year we will be distributing 22,500 notebooks and 90 bicycles to the poor students from 17 schools ranging from kindergarten to Junior High in 2 counties Ben Tre and Tay Ninh.   We will distribute 18,400 notebooks and 50 bicycles to Ben Tre and 4100 notebooks and 40 bicycles to Tay Ninh.  We need $8800 US dollars to fund this project.  
If you are planning on helping, please send your donation now.  We will begin distribution in Tay Ninh in the first week of May, and Ben Tre in the week after.
The last day to contribute for this project is April 25th, 2011.

This year there are some changes in the requirement of the notebooks used for elementary students.  Some grade levels need to use the new 5-line notebooks which are thicker and more expensive.  Each county has different requirement.
Ben Tre requires grade 1, 2, and 3 to use this new notebooks while Tay Ninh requires all grade levels from 1st to 5th.   The cost for each new notebook is 4800 Vietnamese dong (about 23 cents).  The cost for the current 4-line notebook is 3500 dong (about 17 cents).  The cost for each  bicycle is $50 us dollars. 
We have begun putting pictures of students needing bicycles on our website.
We will come to 90 houses to take pictures.   These are the first ones.
We will post more as they become available.
http://newhope2008.org/Bicycles/2011/bicycles2011.html

Please take a look to see who we are helping.  We came to each of these student’s house to verify their living condition after we got the lists of needy students from the principal.

Here is the list of schools that we will be giving notebooks and bicycles to:
From Thanh Phu district in Ben Tre county:
1. Thanh Phong Kindergarten, 80 students, all need 5-line notebooks
2.  Thanh Phong A Elementary,190 (45 need 5-line notebooks, 145 regular), 10 bicycles
3. Thanh Phong B Elementary,100 (40 need 5-line notebooks, 60 regular), 15 bicycles
4. Giao Thanh Elementary,140 (40 need 5-line notebooks, 100 regular)
5. An Thuan Elementary, 140 (60 need 5-line notebooks, 80 regular)
6. Hoa Lơi Kindergarten, 70 (All 5-line notebooks
7. Binh Thanh Junior High, 150 regular notebooks, 15 bicyles
8. Thanh Phu Junior High, 140 regular notebooks
9. Quoi Dien Junior High, 130 regular notebooks
10.Thạnh Phong Junior High, 140 regular notebooks, 10 bicycles
 
From district Mõ Cày Bắc,   Bến Tre county:
11. Thanh An Elementary, 120 (42 need 5-line notebooks, 78 regular)
12. Tan Thanh Binh Elementary, 130 (45 need 5-line notebooks, 85 regular)
13. Thanh An Junior High, 120 regular notebooks
 
From district Châu Thành,  Bến Tre county:
14. Tan Thạch Junior High, 120 regular notebooks
 
From district Tân Hòa,  Tây Ninh county:
15. Tan Hoa Kindergarten, 100,  all 5-line notebooks
16. Tan Hoa Elementary, 160 (129  need 5-line notebooks, 31 regular), 20 bicycles

Other projects’ updates:
Housing Project: 
We are still building the 5 houses for Pham Van Binh, Luong Thi Ca, Tran Thi Bay, Huynh Van Giang and Nguyen Van Nhu.   Updated pictures of the construction process have been updated.  
 
College Scholarship Project  
We have given the 2nd half of the award to the 5 freshmen students in our trip to Vietnam in January.   A report of the award ceremony and the meeting with them will be posted up soon (still writing).   In this summer, around July, we will be given scholarship awards to 8 college seniors, 5 college sophomores, and 6 new coming freshmen.   If there are more funding, we will be looking at awarding
students in two--year colleges, too.
 
Special Projects:
A few families asked for help.  Will post the pictures up soon.
 
Food Assistance for The Elderly
We will carry out this project in August.   You can send in donation now.
Please specify the project if you specifically want the money goes into  a certain Project.
 
Checking Tax Exemption Status of a charitable organization:
Here is how to find our organization in the IRS website.   You can search for any Tax deductible organization in here.   In case you don’t get our receipt, your cancelled check can serve as your receipt:
http://www.irs.gov/app/pub-78/searchFromResults.do?nameSearchTypeStarts=true&names=newhope2008
 
NewHope2008 website update:
We have done writing the tab “Get Involved”.  Please check it out for ways you can help us.   We have moved Mr. Tran Tu Giac’s and Mrs Le Thi Thao’s In Memoriam to  the Special Projects section.