- Vietnam
About Program
Founder and director Shu Tan grew up selling traditional handicrafts to tourists on the streets of Sapa, a famously beautiful mountain town nestled in the Tonkinese Alps of north eastern Vietnam. Shu belongs to the H’mong tribe and saw that although many businesses in Sapa Town were growing rich from ethno tourism (trekking to local villages to see local culture), the minority people remained trapped in the cycle of deep poverty without access to education.
In 2007 she started to organize treks into the villages guided by young people from the tribes, and by 2010 the business was making enough profits to open a free residential English school for up to 35 children. Now in 2016, SOC sponsors 28 children to attend mainstream school, provides a supplementary residential English school and employs over 26 young people from the surrounding villages. Volunteers support us in every aspect of our organization, from teaching English to administrative to creative projects.
Consider your impact: Volunteering abroad can be a rewarding experience for both volunteers and local communities, and at Go Overseas, we believe all volunteers should have the resources to make informed decisions about the type of volunteer project they want to partake in. However, despite best intentions, some organizations offering placements in orphanages may unknowingly place children in danger. You can read about the potential dangers of orphanage volunteering here.
