The Fund for Encouragement of Self-Reliance (FESR) is a Vietnamese-American non-governmental organization that partnered with EMW to build two kindergartens in Hue in 2005. The president and founder of FESR, Doan L. Phung, wrote the following article about the experience of building the schools with EMW and Room to Read. The article was originally published in EMW's Reach Vietnam magazine.

 

Keeping It Local
by Doan L. Phung

After I attended a teleconference in 2004 among leaders of Vietnamese American non-governmental organizations (VA-NGOs), I decided to pursue a better way to build community schools in Vietnam. During that conference, Arthur Bao, a fellow colleague related his impressions from a recent trip to visit schools in Vietnam that several of our organizations had helped build. He found that most of the schools, though fully paid for, were now in sorry condition and had little community engagement to sustain and maintain the facilities.

Helping those in need in developing countries can be difficult, especially those governed by top-down political systems like Vietnam. Since aid often comes in the form of a gift, local communities often lack a sense of ownership over a project like school-building. In Vietnam, where parents have to pay the salaries of the kindergarten teachers since the government does not, the quality of the education and the maintenance of the school go downhill from the time the facility is handed over.

Following the conference, I decided my organization would find a way to promote community self-reliance in a kindergarten project in Hue. Through the Fund for the Encouragement of Self-Reliance (FESR), of which I am trustee, I wanted to show that unless the community gets involved in treating the efforts of NGOs as their own, they would not take proud ownership of a new school after the NGOs leave.

FESR began to work with two larger organizations, East Meets West (EMW) and Room to Read (RTR), on building two kindergartens in Hue City. Further, we were going to train the communities to sustain and maintain the schools. The two communities are Ngu Binh, at the foothill of Ngu Binh mountain, and Xom Hanh, located at the outskirt of Hue.

The leadership of all partners, including John Anner of EMW and Erin Ganju, chief operating officer of Room to Read, were key in supporting the self-reliant idea. We all agreed that organizations needed to work with the locals in a transparent way as well as work directly with the building constructors.

With this agreement, FESR began working with Hue Office of Education and Office of External Affairs. To ensure that the local communities would be involved from the beginning, it was required that at least 30% of the cost of the schools would be contributed by the communities.

Per EMW standard operating procedure, the NGOs would pay their part directly to contractors that they independently select, instead of running the funds through government intermediaries.

This arrangement is agreeable to the communities as well, because it means fewer delays due to bureaucracy and fewer “cuts” due to the various taxation requirements.

After Ngu Binh and Xom Hanh came up with the plots of land the schools would be built on, EMW immediately began construction. Based on an existing design adapted for the Hue climate, EMW used an experienced local contractor to commit to have the facilities built in three months. Even after improvements required by quality control, the cost came in at 1% below what was estimated.

There were some setbacks at the local level, however.

Contributions by the communities, which included providing the schools’ furniture, improving the grounds, and improving the road leading to the schools, took six extra months to secure and complete—and, their budget more than doubled what they had originally estimated.

Yet it was still a day of joy for the communities when the schools were finally opened on August 20, 2005, fifteen months after the agreements among all contributing parties Representatives of EMW, Room to Read, FESR and the local government were present as a plaque was put on the wall of each school to commemorate those contributors that helped realize the project. All costs were accounted for in printed handouts given to the community. Speeches were delivered, ribbons were cut, refreshment was served, and the children sang and danced.

But the important role of the NGOs did not stop there, since that would perhaps cause the problem observed by Arthur Bao to repeat itself in a few years.

EMW and Room to Read agreed to let FESR train the communities to be self-reliant in being responsible for the schools’ future. To do this, FESR first worked with the Hue Office of Education to select the teachers from the time of ground- breaking and required them to follow construction and to train at other kindergartens in the city. Next, FESR required the teachers to visit families in the new school service areas to understand the potential student bodies and their families. Third, FESR asked each local community to nominate a School Board consisting of representatives of the Women’s Union, the community leadership and the parents.

The School Board works with the teachers to establish a three-year plan as to the enrollment, costs, revenues, curriculums, expected problems and methods of dealing with school management. Running kindergartens is a local effort. FESR made it clear to the communities that they should consider the newly built schools as a property of the community and manage them like private schools in an effort to give their young a good head start.

Since citizens in these communities are poor, tuition alone would not be sufficient to pay the salary of teachers if there is not enough students. So, the NGOs decided to help by paying 100% of the teacher salaries in the first year, 70% in the second year, and 40% in the third year. Afterwards, the schools have to pay the teachers on their own. Currently the schools collect sufficient tuition to pay for the salaries of teaching assistants and janitors/watchmen.

The long months of training the communities in the concept of self-reliance appears to be working. After one year of operation, both Ngu Binh and Xom Hanh have been able to increase the student population by 20%, collect sufficient tuition (about $3 dollars per student per month) to pay for a portion of teachers’ salaries and to set aside savings to prepare for upcoming needs. The communities also came up with plans and budgets to improve the facilities, such as building sun shelters in the playground and constructing new ditches to handle flood waters. In response to these self-reliant efforts, FESR released some funds to allow the schools to build a rain-sun shelter and a playground at each school.

The success of the efforts of the people in Ngu Binh and Xom Hanh is apparent in the participation of the parents and their happy smiles at school functions. The School Boards and teachers demonstrate a strong sense of responsibility in making the schools vibrant with new teaching tools and concepts. The Hue Office of Education expresses “total agreement” with the FESR concept of self-reliance, and has come back with requests to help other poor communities in and around Hue develop similar projects providing a head start for their own young children. Lessons learned from the project include: Make sure in advance and in writing that responsibilities and authorities are well understood; hold those responsible fast to their tasks; don’t accept promises without a roadmap as to how these promises are to be realized; get the local communities to do their work ahead of the NGO work, and work hard to plan everything in advance.

For the NGO part of the expenses, EMW and Room to Read each contributed 45% of the funding, while FESR contributed both 10% of the funding and a 5% overrun due to increased teacher salaries and also supervised the project in both Vietnam and the US.

All three organizations were very satisfied with the results of the project.

 

For More Info

To get involved with EMW School program, contact the EMW Development Team at info@eastmeetswest.org.