Non-Profit Discoveries

Yesterday was a day to discover two of the non-profit organizations formed to help the Vietnamese people.

Our first stop was the Vietnam Quilts Community Development Organization Shop. This program trains women in rural communities to develop skills so they can be self sufficient in supporting their families. Any extra profit goes to educate the children in the village. Check out their web site WWW.Vietnam-quilts.org. You can custom order quilts choosing your own colors and designs. The cotton and fabrics come from the fabric market in Saigon.

The young woman who managed the shop spoke very good English which is unusual to find in Hanoi. I tried to tell her about the Amish women in the US who also quilted as a community and sold their quilts. She could not believe that they chose to live without electricity or anything with a motor.

Otto feel in love with a quilt similar to the one in the photo only in blues. Now the Sharples family will proudly be able to display a new quilt on each of the kids beds!!

In the evening Cliff, Steff and I escaped to go to cooking school. Koto International was founded in the late 1990's by a Vietnamese Australian who met some street kids and asked them what they wanted in life. They needed skills. Look at www.koto.com.au From a small sandwich shop the organization has grown to an 24 month resturant program giving 18 young men and women life skill lessons and hospitality-based English language classes. At the end of the program students have been successfully placed in restaurants throughout Hanoi.

The Koto restaurant has excellent food and offers cooking classes on Tuesday nights in their teaching center. It was fun to learn about some of the amazing produce we has seen in the street markets. After preparing five dishes, we sat down to a meal served in the garden by candlelight. Most of the 16 people that evening were living in Hanoi - we were the only Americans.