Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – When a penniless Mr. Hoang arrived in Ho Chi Minh City at the age of 19, he had no idea that eight years later he’d establish and become the head photographer and manager for Studio Anna, supervising a team of staff members, volunteers, and trainees. He started out with little concept of accounting, yet today he also handles the financial affairs and budgeting for his studio team. Mr. Hoang is quiet, calm, and unassuming. As we talk, he sits against a backdrop of brilliant sequined dresses in his elegant shop and photo studio just off Le Van Viet Street in District 9. Looking through his numerous photo albums, one understands immediately that he is a professional with an artistic eye.

Mr. Hoang photographs or supervises the photography of Ho Chi Minh City residents’ life events—from graduations to engagements, weddings to baby showers—and has assembled and trained a team of over ten people, most of whom come from the Binh Trieu Development Center and the Binh An Development Center, which are run by Friends for Street Children (FFSC), a GFC grantee partner and Sustainability Award winner. Read more

Tay Ninh, Vietnam — When Lan* borrowed 20 million Vietnamese dong from her landlord, she knew she would have to pay over 40 percent interest along with the principal, or lose her home and land, but she did it anyway. Lan lives in Tay Ninh Province, which is about 100 kilometers northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.

“What option do I have?” she asks as she points toward the farmland where she grows cassava and corn. “Sometimes the payments are up to 70 percent! And if I can’t pay the loan each month; I have to borrow from a second person to pay the first one. And if I can’t pay the second, I have to find a third lender,” she explains with a wry mixture of exasperation, anger, and jocularity. She has three children to care for, two of whom are now teenagers nearing the end of secondary school. One of the daughters says she wants to be an accountant in Ho Chi Minh City, but so far she has not figured out a plan to do so. Read more

Tay Ninh, Vietnam – My minivan is crawling along while the “caller” leans out the window, shouting to folks standing near the street. His eyes dart back and forth along the curbside, scanning for anyone with bags, boxes, or a flash in their eyes hinting that they might need a ride to Tay Ninh Province, approximately 100 kilometers northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.

In two hours, the driver drops me off on a street corner in Tay Ninh, the provincial capital of Tay Ninh Province, sitting roughly 15 miles from the Cambodian city of Svay Rieng. The people here exhibit a palpable mixture of Khmer and Vietnamese culture, language, and appearance. Here I meet two Catholic Vietnamese volunteers—one is running a local preschool for approximately 30 children under the age of 5, and the other is providing English and music classes for children, leading the services at a nearby church, and evolving into a community social worker. With them, I journey into the community to meet the families of the people they each serve so I can better understand their challenges. Read more

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – “This is a danger area,” Duoc mentions over his shoulder to me as he carefully guides his motorbike through some narrow and dark back alleys. “This is where the drug users live.” The engine falls quiet, and I hop off the bike, trying not to step in the soapy running water pooling around our feet. A dull yellow halo of light beams down from the street lamp, silhouetting two figures who appear to be young boys sitting in a lawn chair outside. They are smoking in the dark.

A jovial Vietnamese woman in her mid-50s appears, smiling so deeply that her eyes become little quarter moons. Gray tendrils of hair escape her bun, ringing her oval, cherubic face. She exudes warmth and immediately invites us to follow her. I find myself walking through the alleyways into a small room where she keeps her crafts, cooking supplies, and a jumbled assortment of other household goods. Six children materialize, ranging in age from 5 to 12, and each one is introduced as her grandchild. With ten of us in this room, all sitting on the floor, we resemble a tangled pretzel of feet and legs. Read more

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – Baby Hien was born in a Ho Chi Minh City prison in 2002. Her heroin-addicted mother had been arrested on charges of prostitution, and when she was released, she returned to the streets with her baby. After Hien’s mother died of AIDS, street thugs used Hien as a begging tool, parading her through the city streets in tattered clothes, hoping to increase their day’s income. During her first few years of life, Hien became accustomed to being outside in the sun for long hours at a time, surviving on handouts of food and water from strangers, and avoiding the police, especially at night. Ma Tam, a trainer and consultant for GFC’s grantee partner Smile Group, explains this to me, and suddenly she gets up, walks over to one of the walls, and slumps down, with her head and shoulders leaning forward, role-playing how Hien looked when Ma Tam first encountered her on the streets: vacant and depressed, nearly catatonic.

Ma Tam had known Hien’s mother through her HIV/AIDS outreach work during her ten years at the British Council (a nongovernment organization with branches in many countries, including Vietnam), and had put some effort into convincing Hien’s mother to quit drugs for good. Knowing that little Hien was alone after her mother’s death and likely needed medical treatment and protection, Ma Tam began searching for her on the streets. After a tense standoff with gang members, Ma Tam was able to successfully rescue the toddler by using her street credibility and savvy, along with her extensive community networks of people, including rival street gangs and even the police. Read more