Volunteer placement

A bit about my volunteer placement here. I work at what they call a caring center for disabled children. Myself and two other volunteers are working at a center called Phuc Tue. It is in the center of Hanoi near a fairly touristy district. The center is pretty small, three classroomd. Though at the moment children from one of the classes are all away due to the summer holidays. There are about 30 children at the center for the moment in three classrooms. The ratio of children to teachers seems to be fairly high; about 1 teacher to every 3 children or so. The teachers seem to come and go in the classrooms quite frequently. The classrooms are small and the windows are blocked off due to the heat. The children are really lovely and its great spending time with them; the teachers; however, don't seem to want to have much to do with us.

 

The courtyard, the doors of the younger children's classroom

Some of the teachers in the classroom with the more highly mentally disabled children (the lady in the Pink- Thin was probably the most friendly of the teachers, attempting to speak English with us and teaching us some Vietnamese)

The outside wall of the caring center, we've asked to make a new mural on this wall and the director had agreed to let us do it. It is being painted over in one colour next week.

The classroom with the younger children