10 years operation of Lawrence S. Ting Fund
After 10 years of operation, the Executive Committee and Director Board of Lawrence S. Ting Community Support Fund has some remarks as followed:
Education support programs
1/ The scholarship award categories:
Of the nearly 5,000 pupils, students receiving Lawrence S. Ting Scholarship, half of them have graduated and become citizens with good knowledge and ability to contribute to the society.
However the aspiration as well as the objectives of the Lawrence S. Ting Fund are that the scholarship not only supports students in their study but also considers it as receiving the charity given by the society. When the students grow up, the good things will grow along with their career. Thus, our society will have many more people taking care of the community. However in recent years, the Fund has not recorded any of these achievements. This is also the work the Fund has to try for the next years.
2/ About supporting poor students through education promotion foundations:
Since 2006, Lawrence S. Ting Fund has opened the category of supporting poor students in remote areas across 63 provinces. Through the funds of education promotion associations of each province, every year Lawrence S. Ting Fund sends some funds to the associations to offer to the students. Since then, Lawrence S. Ting Fund has supported 66,000 scholarships totaling up to 47 billion VND.
We have visited each of the provincial education promotion association to listen to the effectivenes of this grant. It is particularly reassuring that most of the members of the education promotion associations are leaders of the province who have retired but are still healthy to take the job (especially the leaders of Department of Education and Training or teachers ). Therefore work has been very well implemented. Most leaders of the associations highly appreciated the grants for poor students. Although it is not the large sum of money, it can help thousands of students overcome difficulties, escape the fate of leaving school because of sick parents, or not having enough money to continue their study.
3/ About “Go along with IT” program:
Since 2007, when the Ministry of Education and Training introduced IT to the curriculum of high school, the majority of schools were not equipped with computer labs for students to study. Those which had computers only taught basic IT and had not used the computer lab as a means of teaching other subjects.
Many schools have not created the conditions for students to go online to find information necessary for the lesson contents. Meanwhile, the State could not simultaneously equip all schools with computer labs.
Seeing this situation, Phu My Hung Corporation decided to sponsor the program “Go along with IT”, the first phase of which equipped each province/ city one computer lab (20-30 computers each) consisting all hardware of a server and PCs. There were also a printer, projector, voltage regulator, and copyrighted software etc. The schools which were funded were selected by Department of Education and Training. When offering, the Fund suggested the computer lab should be used as a teacher training room in IT and become a multi-function room for teaching other subjects. On the other hand, local authorities should support fiber cables to the computer lab to give teachers and students the opportunity to go online to find materials.
To enhance teachers’ level of applying IT, the Fund collaborated with Ministry of Education and Training to hold the contest “Electronic lecture design”. The number of submissions in 3 contests went up to 15,414. The valuable lectures were uploaded to MOET network so that teachers in the whole country could have reference.
With the theme “Vietnam Geography” in the 3rd contest, stage 1 has attracted the attention of many teachers. Stage 2 will be organized in 2016. When choosing the theme “Vietnam Geography”, MOET and the Lawrence S. Ting Fund have a three-step plan, including:
Step one, start from education field in which teachers are the key force. Take province/ city as subjects for teachers to collect materials about landscapes, local specialties, ethnic cultural festivals, historical luminaries etc …
Step two, on the basis of the selected lectures, the experts of cultural sector and technical staff will assess the contents and upgrade presentation techniques, and at the same time have additional entries for improvement. Since then, the education sector will have one set of Viet Nam Geography at basic level.
Step three, the Viet Nam Geography will be uploaded for people to have reference, to have critical opinions or additional comments. After some time, this set will be completed by experts in their particular field. Thus we will get a valuable set of books (discs included) of Viet Nam geography.
The set of Viet Nam Geography not only serves teaching but also is a valuable material for the sectors of culture, tourism, economy etc. This is the goal of the Lawrence S. Ting Fund in the next 10 years for the “Go along with IT” program which has has been implemented for years.
4/ Electronic Connectors
The Electronic Connector initially was just a linking tool between a microscope and a computer. This device helps teachers teach and students learn Biology more favorably. The Fund offered this product to the schools supported with computers before. Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunication, HCMC University of Natural Science hs got funding from the Fund to do research to make new products with more capacities. The products continue to be applied to schools in 63 provinces and cities. So far, over 700 schools have been supported by the Fund to install this Connector to serve teaching.
Along with its application in education, the connector has been applied in health sector to serve blood test, medical diagnosis, testing TB germs … and so far 50 hospitals have installed this Connector. This device can also be used in agriculture, environmental protection etc. This is an innovative application of Vietnamese scientists. With little investment cost they invented a device whose functions are diverse and applied effectively. This is a model of active cooperation between Lawrence S. Ting Fund and a university, worth being replicated in the next 10 years.
Support programs for health sector
For the health sector, the Fund initially only supported some medical equipment for provincial hospitals or treatment cost for some poor patients. In addition to that support, the Fund is gradually finding a specific direction to help the community. The Fund has come to the provinces to research and knows that the health requirement is extremely large but it is out of reach of the Fund.
The Fund tried supporting equipment as well as building medical stations on inter-communal scale in remote areas (Hamlet Tri Luc in Ca Mau and Hamlet Tan Thanh Binh in Ben Tre). The construction required huge funds, which was a difficulty but could be overcome. However once built, the maintaining of effective operation entangled management mechanism (lack of personnel, lack of funds etc.) Consequently, the construction of new health facilities in the locality was difficult to implement.
The Funds tried to find the support of medical supplies from the US Medshare. Since 2011, the Fund has received 4 containers worth approximately $ 767,100 and offered 23 district hospitals in 9 provinces and cities. This year the Fund expects to receive 3 more containers.
This program can develop more strongly if the Ministry of Health allows the Fund to receive more types of second-hand medical equipment from Medshare on condition that quality inspection of equipment is done in VN.
If possible, the Fund will acquire more equipment to give to the district hospitals in the provinces and cities, helping people reduce difficulties when going to big cities for treatment. This is also the way to reduce the load for big hospitals, reduce the situation of a bed bearing 2, 3 patients today.
In the past 10 years, in addition to the above work, the Fund has also sponsored the training and improving district doctors who went to HCMC University of Medicine to attend professional training, and sent medical students to Taiwan to practice. Although in medical sector the Fund is trying to find the direction, the total funding in 10 years went up to 34.5 billion VND. If the connector “High- speed low capacity embedded system, connecting microscope with AV device” is used widely and effectively in hospitals in the field of remote diagnosis between upper-line hospitals and lower- line hospitals, and in the future, combined with the program of standardization of testing system among hospitals, the Fund will have the opportunity to contribute more to the society in medical field in the next time.
The social support activities
In the area of social support, the program mainly donated wheelchairs. So far the Fund has offered 14, 375 wheelchairs to the disabled in 54 provinces and cities. The amount of sponsorship is really small compared to the number of people with disabilities. Actually, this funding program has received attention from many other charitable organizations in the country and abroad.
The Fund can support vocational training for those who have disabled limbs, but the mind is still sharp. That is the case of Le Hong Son in Ha Tinh. His two hands are paralyzed, but he trains his feet to replace his hands and he made the tools by himself to become a carpenter with high workmanship. He not only makes tables and chairs, furniture, but also receives people with disabilities and trains them to be able to make a living.
Another case is Ms Huynh Ngoc Hong Nhung in Can Tho. She was paralyzed in both legs but overcame all hardships to study economics in a foreign university. When coming back to the country, she established an organization to support people with disabilities (Can Tho Association of the Disabled). Her Association offers vocational training and also produces crafts so that the disabled can live by their labor. If she is supported with equipment and helped in the consumption of the products, this is a very good program for the charities to participate. When we visited her factory, we knew that the association had about 250 members in 9 provinces of the Mekong Delta, in which more than 10 people were students. This is a model that deserves to be encouraged.
To support in a more practical way, the Lawrence S. Ting Fund respectfully requests that the State should have policies to assist the disabled community mentioned above, such as:
* The law should require companies with over 100 employees to receive 1% of workers with disabilities but can work (with vocational training).
* The products made by people with disabilities or organizations of the disabled should be free of all forms of taxation. That would encourage people with disabilities to actively participate in production and gradually earn their living by themselves and contribute to social life better.
Special thanks to the organizations and individuals who contributed to the Fund
On behalf of the beneficiaries of the Fund, the Lawrence S. Ting Community Support Fund would like to express our deep thanks to the companies, the philanthropists who contributed money to the Fund during the last 10 years, especially the assistance from CT & D (Taiwan), Phu My Hung Co., Ltd., Tan Thuan Joint Venture Company, SPCC, Hiep Phuoc Power Company etc. Without the above funding, the Fund could not create an impressive record as in the past time.
The Fund expects to receive more support in the next 10 years. The philanthropy of individuals, organizations will bring practical effects to the beneficiaries contributing to the development of economy and society.
Above is the perception, experience as well as the work that Lawrence S. Ting Fund has implemented in 10 years, reflecting the Fund’s principle that is to use the charity money on the right people and objectives. In the spirit of always being interested in the recipients, we always go to the place, offer directly, and come back to see the results, from which we draw experience so that the Fund can work better.
