Good Neighbors International Vietnam - Supporting sustainable development for a happy future for Vietnamese children
WVR - Good Neighbors International (GNI) is a global children's rights NGO founded in 1991 in Korea that is actively engaged in specialized social welfare and international development cooperation projects in 271 locations in 49 countries to create a world without hunger that lives together.
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Since 2005, Good Neighbors International Vietnam (GNI) has been working in six provinces and cities to provide education, healthcare, water and sanitation, income generation, and rights advocacy to local communities (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hoa Binh, Thuyen Quang, Thanh Hoa, and Ha Giang).
Over the past 19 years, Good Neighbors Vietnam has built strategic partnerships with Korean individual sponsors, corporations, and organizations to implement international development projects worth approximately 3.7 million USD in the areas of child bonding sponsorship, education support and child protection, humanitarian assistance, environment, and health, and continues to strive to bring more positive change to nearly 18,000 children and more than 200,000 people.
Through the child matching sponsorship program, Good Neighbors Vietnam has supported about 18,000 children over 20 years by providing gift support, support for children with special needs, regular medical checkups, and nutritional support through a 1:1 match between the sponsored child and the sponsor.
In addition, Good Neighbors Vietnam has identified nearly 3,000 cases of children in crisis needing emergency assistance, provided them with daily necessities and living expenses, and delivered 13,776 gift packages to children in need during the holiday and back-to-school seasons.
Since 2019, Good Neighbors Vietnam has been working with Korean companies such as K-Mart and Lotte Mart in Vietnam to implement the 'Donation Box' project, which enables consumers to share with Good Neighbors Vietnam. Over the past five years, more than 134 donation boxes have been installed in partnership with 12 companies. Good Neighbors Vietnam has supported nearly 50 children with financial difficulties and conducted environmental education programs for children with the funds raised through the project.
Meanwhile, Good Neighbors Vietnam, in collaboration with Samsung Electronics Ho Chi Minh City Home Appliance Complex (SEHC), has supported more than 50 children in Ho Chi Minh City with school fees, insurance, and gifts tailored to each child's needs, continuing to network with companies in Vietnam to make their lives happier.
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| The "Green Light Project" project implemented in the Mai Chau district by GNI was sponsored by KIA Group. |
To help children realize their dreams and grow into healthy adults through academic retention and aptitude development, Good Neighbors Vietnam also built 17 schools, constructed 96 classrooms and multi-classrooms, built 212 classrooms and auxiliary buildings, and built libraries in 55 schools to provide 67,463 children with access to a quality educational environment. We also provided scholarships and tuition assistance to 6,456 students to ensure they did not have to stop their studies due to financial difficulties.
In 2023, we partnered with Umi-E&C's Umi-Hope Foundation to implement the "Cultural Exchange and School Facility Renovation project at Nam Son Primary and Secondary School in Tan Lac District, Hoa Binh Province." The project organized two cultural exchanges with the participation of 60 Korean and 200 Vietnamese students. It supported renovating a friendly library (furniture design and installation, book support) and three classrooms.
Good Neighbors Vietnam also focuses on developing a reading culture through the Reading Culture Promotion Program. In 2023 and 2024, Good Neighbors Vietnam, together with the local branch of KB Kookmin Bank, built friendly school libraries in two middle schools in Son Zuong District, Thuyen Quang Province, and donated books and computers to create a healthy learning environment and promote reading culture in the community.
Child protection and advocacy for children's rights are at the heart of Good Neighbors' projects. Since 2014, Good Neighbors has reached out to approximately 97,610 children to raise awareness of children's rights, build children's capacity for self-protection, and perform puppet shows to prevent child abuse, as well as implement the "Children Are Not Brides" project to prevent child marriage in Quang Binh, Ha Giang Province from 2020 to 2024.
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| GNI strives to bring more positive changes to children in Vietnam. |
In addition, the Global Youth Network (GYN) program is being implemented with children from 17 countries around the world with the support of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Korean Youth Policy Research Institute to help children understand, protect, and practice their rights.
All children deserve to be loved and cared for, and we must ensure their physical and mental safety. In 2019, with the support of Gyeonggi Province, we installed and operated six school counseling centers and provided students with mental health awareness and skills training.
Based on the success of this project, we are working with the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam to implement the "Development of School Social Work and School Counseling" project in six provinces and cities starting in 2023, which aims to improve the effectiveness of school social work and counseling in helping and protecting school students.
Meanwhile, about community health, in addition to providing equipment support for medical facilities, nutrition support, and routine health checkups for children, we provided general health checkups for 15,531 children in 2023, provided nutrition support for more than 13,000 children, and improved access to clean water and sanitation for more than 14,000 people.
We live in an era of climate change and an increasingly polluted environment. We decided to implement an environmental education program to raise awareness of the environment among children. With the cooperation of Lotte Mart, we held 508 classes and 26 environmental day events involving about 5,900 students from 26 schools in the Good Neighbors Vietnam business area.
In addition, Good Neighbors Vietnam and Kia Motors implemented the Green Light Project (GLP) to improve the environment in Ma Thu Thu district, Hoa Binh province, with a total budget of over 11 billion VND. The project installed a waste sorting system and plastic pellet recycling system, supported infrastructure for waste treatment and built four children's playgrounds with recycled materials. Waste collection in Mai Tzu has nearly doubled from 9 tons per day since the project's implementation.
Good Neighbors Vietnam's goal for 2024 is to attract more partners to bring more positive changes to Vietnamese children, and we look forward to the interest and participation of government agencies and embassies, including those in Korea, to achieve this goal. In the future, Good Neighbors will continue to work hard to protect children's rights and bring about more positive and sustainable changes for children and communities.
