Created in March 2003, “Ariège Violettes” association aims at providing schooling facilities for Vietnam’s poor children. Two sisters belonging to two separate religious communities provide backing on site it in Vietnam. I met them in 1995, when I went there to meet my adoptive son.

These children from the Mekong delta are extremely poor. Schooling is free till the age of 6, but the parents do not often understand the worth of public education, as they didn’t themselves get access to it. From the age of 6, they have to go to another (fee-paying) school, and the vast majority of these kids then leave school to go and work in the rice fields. For most, this will be the extent of their education.

As for the Saigon students, it is not uncommon to find 30 of them living together in a minute space: 18 boys sleep on mats in the 2 small upstairs rooms, whilst 6 girls sleep in the main room downstairs, and 6 others elsewhere.

They are between 18 and 23 years of age and come from an ethnic population in centre Vietnam treated somehow as pariah. They are always smiling, hard working and grateful for our help, since we pay for their rent.

I saw their tiny sink and the single gas ring used to cook their very modest food. (The day of our visit, we made them all have their first taste of a small piece of chocolate). The menu consists of some rice and a few cabbage leaves. Upstairs, a plain 6-foot rack holds their clothing, one hanger for each one, with only one change of garment.

I want to express my gratitude to Pamiers Elders’ Club who knitted for them some woollies, which we took to them, as winters in the mountainous centre of Vietnam are bitterly cold. They continue sending regularly school supplies, bonnets, slippers and small coats. Many thanks also to all the associations in Les Pujols and the Fête Committee for collecting substantial funds which we distributed during our trip there last summer.

We raise funds by offering Benefactors Membership (15 euros per annum minimum, no maximum amount set!), and through the proceeds of our annual Têt Feast Dinner held each January in Les Pujols village hall to celebrate the Vietnamese New Year. (Next one on 31^st January 2009)

Martine RIVALS        

To send an e-mail to the association, please click here