Aujourd’hui, je vous fais découvrir l’association Enfants du Mékong, qui vient en aide aux enfants pauvres de l’Asie du Sud Est, et du Vietnam en particulier. N’hésitez pas à cliquer sur le lien suivant pour parrainer un enfant : https://www.enfantsdumekong.com
Hello everyone, welcome to Vietnam Spiritus, where I talk to you about Vietnam and the Vietnamese. Don’t hesitate to subscribe to follow me. Today, I have the great pleasure of presenting to you the association “Enfants du Mékong”, founded by Renel Péchard in 1977. The aim of
This association is to help poor children in South Asia. Is giving them an instruction. I am welcomed by Madame Anh-Liên. Hello, hello, thank you very much for accepting my invitation. If you wish, we will first present the association, then secondly, I would like to introduce you to
My audience, because I want to give the floor to as many Vietnamese of origin as possible to tell us about their life journey and provide inspiration to our community. Anh-Liên, could you present in a few words and tell us your role in the association?
Yes of course. First of all, thank you for having me on your channel. So, Enfants du Mékong is an association that was founded in 1958 to help disadvantaged children in Southeast Asia by enabling them to go to school and thus lift their families out of the cycle of
Poverty. We are present in six countries in Southeast Asia: Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and the Philippines. I am particularly responsible for Vietnam. I am responsible for Vietnam at Enfants du Mékong, and my role is to coordinate the actions of the team at headquarters and the teams in the field for all actions
And projects that are carried out in Vietnam. How many children has the association helped? We support around 24,000 children each year through sponsorship in our six countries of action, and in Vietnam, we support 10,000 children each year. Could you
Give us a concrete example of the type of help you give to children in Vietnam? For example, Enfants du Mékong is above all a sponsorship association. So we help children go to school through sponsorship. Sponsorship is a person in France or Europe who will support a particular child to go to
School through, at the same time, financial aid which arrives every month and which will allow the family to pay the child’s school fees, but also through moral support through exchanges of letters, short videos, perhaps a meeting in Vietnam which will encourage the child to do their best and go to the school. Can
Godparents meet their godchildren in Vietnam? Of course, during a trip to Vietnam, it is entirely possible and even encouraged for those who have the opportunity to meet their godchild and their family to better understand the conditions. in which these families live. How could we sponsor a child or help the association?
I will put all the links below the video. So, there are many ways to help the association, or to help us. So, of course, you can embark on the sponsorship adventure by sponsoring a child to enable them to go to school. There you have it, this exchange, this sponsorship is
Materialized by an exchange of letters between the child and you. And then, as we said, you also have the possibility of going to meet him in Vietnam. Afterwards, you can also help the association with one-off donations which will finance projects such as the renovation
Of schools or boarding school dormitories to accommodate children who live very far from schools. You can also become a volunteer for the association, whether at the headquarters, in Asnières sur Seine, if you are in the surrounding area, or otherwise by joining one of our
Regional delegations. And then, of course, you can help us by telling those around you about us. Now, in this second part, if you would like, I would like you to tell us about yourself. What are your links with Vietnam? Because my channel is focused on
Vietnam and I would like to give a voice to people of Vietnamese origin and see what are the different possible links that they have with Vietnam or not. Could you introduce yourself in a few words? What are your links with Vietnam? Were you born there? Did you live there? Do you have family?
I am mixed race. My mother is Vietnamese and my father is Belgian. I have always, well, my mother has almost always lived in France. So, in fact, culturally, she is still a little more French than Vietnamese. Afterwards, there you go, I think that like many mixed-race children,
I too wanted to explore my roots a little bit. And so, I spent a year in Vietnam when I was a student. I took advantage of a gap year to discover this country and my roots. I remember that it was a somewhat
Difficult year in terms of identity, because when I went there, I realized that I was neither Vietnamese nor completely French. All right. Neither. There were elements that were a little bit familiar to me, like I don’t know, the food, going to the pagoda, that kind of
Thing. And then afterwards, there were also other elements which told me, which made me say that I could never be 100% Vietnamese, in any case, in particular, well here it is, the place of women, for example, in Vietnamese society is still very different from what
We know in France. So, there you have it, it was a year where I asked myself a lot of questions, and I ended up finding, in quotes, a little peace by telling myself that ultimately I was neither Vietnamese nor French, but I belonged to the Vietnamese diaspora. I realized
That ultimately I had a lot more in common with young Vietnamese who were born and raised in France, and that ultimately we shared a lot more in common on a cultural level than what I could share with 100% French or 100% Vietnamese people. Alright. Precisely, regarding heritage, did your parents give you an
Education around Vietnam, around the Vietnamese language, cuisine, traditions, festivals? I know it’s almost Tet. Do you celebrate it in your family? Yes quite. We have lots of little elements that were passed down to us, especially from my maternal grandparents who are Vietnamese. They are the ones who arrived
In France. I learned a little Vietnamese from my grandmother when I was little. And then yes, we have plenty, obviously, we eat, well, a meal without rice is not a meal at home, and especially the “nem” and the “bánh mì”, I would say. Ah OK. But yes, we do Tet every year,
We also celebrate the death anniversaries of ancestors, there you go, lots of little elements of Vietnamese culture that persist. I understand that you are traveling to Vietnam as part of your missions. What achievement are you most proud of on site?
So, I don’t really have one particular accomplishment that makes me prouder than the others. Each child, in fact, who completes his education, who obtains a diploma and then a job behind, is a source of joy for us,
Of course. Afterwards, there it is, it’s not thanks to me, it’s mainly thanks to his godfather, his godmother and then the local manager who accompanied the child all these years. They are the real heroes of this association. Through your functions within the association,
Have you not found the ideal job, the job of your dreams? As you are of Vietnamese origin, I imagine that you must be very happy to help children in Vietnam. Yes, I really like my job, it has a lot of meaning for me. It’s true that my family, when
They arrived in France, they received a lot, they were very lucky to still arrive in fairly good conditions in France, which is not the case for all B people. So, they were, it’s true that they received a lot, and today, I am very happy to say
That I can help all those who have not had this chance and who live in conditions still difficult in Vietnam, in certain regions. In conclusion, could you define Vietnam in three words, or tell us a few words in Vietnamese to finish?
Yes, so in three words, it’s a bit difficult. I think that for me, Vietnam is above all linked to family, traditions and cuisine. Do you know a few words in Vietnamese? Yes, I know how to say “very well”. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. See you soon on Vietnam Spiritus. THANKS.