The East Bali Poverty Project (EBPP) was established in July 1998 following a plea for help from residents of the impoverished Desa Ban Village. In this isolated 7,200Ha mountain village, made up of  of 19 remote hamlets scattered over the steep,  arid eastern slopes of Mounts Agung and Abang, EBPP Founder and CEO, David J Booth MBE, found thousands of people  living in abject poverty without water, sanitation, roads, schools, health facilities or electricity.

Children were the main victims.  Up to 100% of the village’s youngsters were illiterate, 85% had iodine deficiency disorders and the majority were malnourished and suffered from acute impetigo, an infectious bacterial skin disease. In November 1998 over 1,000 families prioritised children’s education as their greatest area of need; the result was an inspiring and productive collaboration with seven of Desa Ban’s most remote communities. The East Bali Poverty Project has since grown to take in the entire village population and children’s education remains at its heart

What do they do?

After  launching its  first integrated education programme in 1999, for 35 six to sixteen year olds in the remote Bunga hamlet, EBPP received private funding to open  a further five  schools during  2000 to 2007, which now provide  education at all levels from primary to senior high school. Since 1999 more than 1,500 children have been educated in the Project’s schools.

EBPP addresses all aspects of human need, with a key focus on maternal child health, infant nutrition, clean/safe water, hygiene and sanitation and environmental rehabilitation, in order to empower the communities involved towards sustainable social and economic development. Its wide ranging  sustainable projects include  infrastructure improvements;  the provision of safe water supplies; plastic waste management and recycling initiatives;  women’s cattle breeding cooperatives and  the farming of sustainable organic vegetables and  herbs,  bamboo for reforestation,   and vetiver  grass to stop erosion and  conserve soil and water.

In keeping with  EBPP’s philosophy of “helping people to help themselves”, all its programmes are designed as models, fully documented, and carried out  by local people, who transfer knowledge and experience of appropriate technology within their communitiesso  they can be replicated in rural villages worldwide.

EXO Foundation support

In 2014, the EXO Foundation contacted the EBPP to ask how we could help. The Project asked us to fund only five toilets for five families. We donated US$1,300 to this hard working organisation believing it would mark the start of a long term cooperation. Indeed in November 2014 they got back to us, as the expected funding from another source did not materialize.  The Foundation thus donated $6,500 to build another 44 toilets including this time as well washing station for laundry and personal hygiene.

In 2017 we gave another $5,000 to pursue their program and most recently we ‘ve sent $4,800 for relief aid provision following the strong earthquake that took place in September supporting displaced families by fear of high probability of Mt Agung eruption.

How can you help?

All donations to EBPP projects directly help thousands of people move out of poverty towards sustainable social and economic development. The Project has minimal overheads as all its staff are from the villages it supports.

What your donation provides:

• $10  buys 5 early English reading books
• $50  funds an organic vegetable garden to improve infant/child nutrition and eliminate malnutrition
• $ 75  buys shoes and socks for ten children.
• $100  buys school uniforms for ten children.
• $200  buys six sets of large world globes.
• $250  funds the construction of a toilet/bathroom for one family to greatly improve hygiene and sanitation.
• $300  buys a laptop computer for one class.
• $400  buys 200 early English reading books for twenty primary school students.
• $500  buys six male/female torso kits to assist biology education in EBPP schools.
• $1,500  funds vocational skills training for one EBPP school graduate for one year to assist the mountain village development programme.
• $3,600  sponsors one year’s University education for one exceptional EBPP school graduate.

Established in 1986 in Ho Chi Minh City, Hy Vong is a privately run school that provides much needed learning opportunities for children with hearing impairment. The founding force behind the school is Mrs Ngoi, a former Catholic nun who took on lay status so she could carry out her life’s mission unimpeded by the government’s repression of the catholic community. Since then she has dedicated her time, energy and money to improving the life chances of hearing impaired children. Mrs Ngoi worked for six years at the Lay Thieu school 30 km south of Saigon before starting up her own teaching facility at Hy Vong, in premises provided free of charge by Notre Dame Cathedral.

 What do they do?

As regular Vietnamese schools are generally unable to meet their educational needs, hearing impaired children have little chance of learning to read and write and are seen as a burden to their families.  The Hy Vong school provides cultural and vocational education to 108 children from kindergarten to high school age, equipping them with the abilities, confidence and self esteem to play a positive and productive role in society.

The school intervenes among families at the earliest opportunity, training parents to understand and cope with their child’s impairment and to interact with them in a way that encourages their abilities. Pupils are taught sign language, helped to improve their listening and speaking skills and given a general education in line with a national program. Tutors also equip them for future employment by teaching vocational skills like tailoring, embroidery, wood working, hair dressing, manicuring, computer drawing and painting. Older pupils produce small craft items such as postcards that are sold to assist fundraising for the school.  Saturday mornings are given over to extra-curricular activities for the over 15s that help them develop social, artistic and athletic skills; and camping trips with children who do not have hearing impairment help pupils improve their ability to communicate confidently with other young people.

EXO Foundation support

2016 & 2017: $9,000

2015: $4,000

In 2014, the EXO Foundation has donated US$ 3 500 to Hy Vong School to support the study costs of nine underprivileged children and the salary of one IT teacher.

How can you help?

Fees at Hy Vong school are kept to a minimum – around VND 550 000 (US$ 27.5) per month plus VND 15,000 (US$ 0.6) for every meal – but 18 of the 108 pupils among cannot afford to pay and are sponsored by the school.  You can help secure a positive future for these children by sponsoring the studies that will make an invaluable difference to their lives. This is a very small organisation and tehy can’t receive direct donation as tehy do nothave a dedicated website. If you wish to donate please contact us.

Your donation directly benefits their needs:

We guarantee that this project will receive 100% of all donations made via EXO Foundation, as we cover all money transfer expenses when above $100. Lower amounts are not worth for an international money transfer as bank costs are at least 30$ per transaction.

US$ 24       One uniform

US$ 27       Sponsorship of  a child for one month

US$ 125     Monthly salary for pre school educator

US$ 157     Lunch meals for one year for one child

US$ 215     Monthly salary of a specialist educator for deaf children

US$ 288     Sponsorship of a child for one year

US$ 2 250 Annual salary for a graphic art teacher

US$ 2 600 Annual salary for a specialist educator for deaf children or IT teacher

The Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre (TAEC) is a museum located in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Luang Prabang, Lao PDR. It is dedicated to the collection, preservation and interpretation of the traditional arts and lifestyles of the country’s many and diverse ethnic groups. Launched in 2007, TAEC aims to become a centre for learning and exchange on the ethnology and artisanal heritage of Laos, promoting pride and appreciation for the cultures and knowledge of its diverse people. It also supports ethnic minority communities to help safeguard their tangible and intangible cultural heritage and foster a sustainable livelihood development.

What do they do?

TAEC is a very active museum that strives to highlight and sustain traditional know how, pay tribute to craftsmanship as a secular art, support cultural heritage and develop livelihoods of ethnic groups. As such TAEC has developed a range of complementary activities:

Exhibitions (both permanent and rotating) that tell the story of ethnic tribes in Northern Laos, gathering texts, photographs and objects. To date, TAEC has welcomed over 120 000 Lao and international visitors, and has rapidly emerged as a regional leader in cultural heritage management and community development.

Preservation and documentation. TAEC permanent collection consists of 400 objects from 30 ethnic groups and a growing library with a wide variety of materials on ethnology, arts and history of Laos and Southeast Asia in English, Laotian, Thai and French languages.

Advocacy and livelihoods. By fair-trading crafts sourced directly from artisan communities, TAEC promotes handicraft skills and livelihoods based on traditional arts, thus contributing to pride and identity building within the communities whilst reducing the need to sell antiques. On average, 50% of the shop’s income goes directly to the artisans themselves and currently provides over 500 families from ethnic groups in 12 provinces with a supplementary income.

TAEC offers small loans and payment upfront, training in product design, quality and small business practices and logistical support.
Education. TAEC Encourages Lao communities and youth to learn about ethnic diversity by offering free admission to all Lao citizens and running school outreach activities and student tours. They also host young people from rural ethnic villages in an internship program and provide professional development and training for cultural and tourism workers.

Research. TAEC conducts primary research in ethnic communities, developing close relationships to localize and enrich the information collected. They actively participate in international ethnology and developing traditional arts scholarship; they are regularly invited to conferences in Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand and to prepare articles in specialized reviews.

How can you help?

In Luang Prabang a visit of TAEC is a must-do. After viewing the exhibitions, flip through a book with a glass of rosella juice at the TAEC Cafe, and stop by the Museum Shop or the TAEC Boutique on the main road to purchase some of their unique fair trade handicrafts.

Your donation directly benefits their needs:

We guarantee that this project will receive 100% of all donations made via EXO Foundation, as we cover all money transfer expenses. If you decide to give directly to the organisation, we ask that you please inform us so we can acknowledge your generosity on our Facebook page and in our annual report, and measure the effectiveness of our work to support valuable projects in the region.

US$ 40      pays for a school pack consisting of games, photos and information to leave in classrooms after the school outreach programs.

US$ 50       provides one community with a new stock of basic medicines for their village health cabinet or, buy archival paper, boxes and foam for safe storage of the collections objects.

US$ 100      buys 10 pairs of eyeglasses for older embroiderers and weavers.

US$ 150     pays for an art class to schools outside Luang Prabang, helping raise cultural awareness and sense of ownership of their own heritage.

US$ 300      covers a loan for one artisan to invest in materials and equipment to produce handicrafts.

US$ 700   sponsors two young people from a rural ethnic community to follow an internship at TAEC for two weeks, including field trips and learning materials.

US$ 1 200  will allow training and help set up a new handicraft production based on traditional skills in a community.

The Hospitality and Catering Training Center (HCTC), located in Mae Sot (Thailand), is a vocational training center providing a two years quality training in hospitality and catering careers such as cook, waiter, bartender, housekeeper and receptionist. That welcomes in average 60 underprivileged young Thai-Karen per 2 years, aged 16 to 22, in order to create opportunities for them to have better lives. It was co-created in 2008 by a Thai NGO, the Tak Border Child Assistance Foundation (TBCAF), and by French NGO, the European Institute of Cooperation and Development (IECD), to fill the gap in educational services accessible to Karen youth, and to promote their social and professional integration in Thai society.

What do they do?

The project promotes the socio-economic integration of rural Thai youth in hospitality and catering trades.

HCTC provides a high level of education to its beneficiaries during the training and accompany them in their job placement after the training in order to help them to find jobs in high quality standards hotels all over Thailand. The Tak region, where the school is located, faces a relatively low educational level, offers few employment opportunities and is at the heart of substantial social challenges, due to its situation at the Thai Myanmar border.

The training center includes classrooms, a vocational hotel-restaurant called “The Passport”, a dormitory, a canteen, a media laboratory and a pedagogic garden. The theoretical and practical training allows students to acquire technical skills (kitchen, service, reception, housekeeping) but also general skills (languages, life skills…).

Thanks to a solid network of partners comprising more than 70 hotels, students also carry out two internships for a total of seven months, which help student to define their career project and integrate the job market. This network is completed by numerous institutions and associations that participate at various levels of the training.

Among the 23 students who graduated last april 2016, 16 found a job in less than one month after their graduation, one student participated in a national contest in kitchen, while the others are on the process to finalize their job application process.

How can you help?

 Sponsor the studies of one student

By granting 50,000 THB (approximately $1,500) per student for one year, can contribute to the scholarship expenses of a student and give him the chance to get a better future.

Benefits

Through our student sponsorship initiative, you will :

-Have instant CSR visibility and recognition

-Assist our financial sustainability and allow us to get better at what we do

 Contact info@exofoundation.org if you wish to make a donation

Dine & Sleep at The Passport

You are welcome for dinner to support our school at the application restaurant

The Passport, 507 Moo 10, Mae Pa, Mae Sot.

You can try some amazingly tasty food cooked and served by the students, and choose between Asian or Western menu (250THB to 290THB : starter, main course, dessert) with an extensive cheese platters, wines and cocktails list (Trip Advisor Certificate of Exellence 2015). Moreover, you can also sleep in The Passport hotel (Only 300THB to 500 THB) which offers 4 spacious rooms, quiet to work and relax, a meeting room (35 seats) and a friendly atmosphere with nature all around.

EXO Foundation support

In 2016, the EXO Foundation donated $5,000 to this vocational training program run with the support of the excellent French organisation IECD.

EXO Thailand now includes a stop at The Passport excellent restaurant on its tours to Mae Sot, make sure it is included in your tour if you travel to Mae Sot!

Shanty Town Spirit was created in 2012 when his founder discovered children living in the garbage-filled slum of Boeung Trabek were collecting rubbish instead of going to school. Since then the association aim has been to provide to the impoverished children of the slum, and their families, the minimum required to have a decent quality of life in term of education, hygiene and healthcare.

What do they do?

The goal is to support the community members in becoming self sufficient and be able to support their own families. Our main focus is that every child in the community attends school.

Education

We provide them with tuition, school supplies, uniforms, books, English lessons. We help children with their homework.

We elaborate a reward system where we offer to our top best students gifts such as bicycle, clothes, training shoes, books…

Young adults who couldn’t get yet an education are encouraged and motivated to find an internship to learn new skills and obtain at the end of the internship a job.

Medical Program:

We follow all medical issues and supply them for minor health issue. In case of sickness or surgery, we helped our members financially and psychologically. We provide also reading glasses and we send all children for dental checkup.

Necessary controls are supported : hygiene, pregnancies, birth control, sexual disease prevention.

Sustainability Program:

We want to change the mindset of parent about their kids, that they must let their children go to school and understand that education is primordial instead of sending them to collect garbage.

We teach accountability and personal responsibility to achieve sustainability.

The fact their children get an education, they understand they will give back for their

We organize a new way of life for them and give them the tools to improve their life and increase their quality of life. We advise them to budget and to manage their income.

Household Support Program:

We evaluate their houses, their problems and how can we help them more efficiently.

We help to fix houses and buy furniture and household equipment.

Nutrition is monitored and we donate them rice, do groceries for them and take care of our elderly community.

Recreational Activities:

We take out children to park recreation, public parks, swimming pools, movie theater, restaurant.

Often offered by our supporters and donors

How can you help?

US$ 5            Hygiene product or extra class for 1 subject at school or basic medicine for one family for one month

US$ 10         One school uniform

US$ 15         Blood, optometry test

US$ 20         Visit to a general practitioner

US$ 45         75 kg of rice to support a family of 4 for 1 month

US$ 100       Support 1 kid for 1 month for education, hygiene, health and entertainment activities

US$200        Furniture for a house in the slum

US$ 300      To set up an house in electrical standard (many houses catch fire in the slums)

US$ 960       Allowance for an elder for 1 year

EXO Foundation support

Since 2016, the EXO Foundation donated $8,000 to this program which is now supporting a few families within this community litterally living ON garbage, and which needs much more support to break the cycle of poverty, hunger, disease and misery. Aside this donation EXO Foundation gave 20 copies of our comic strip, Don’t Waste your Waste – GB Version within the frame of a clean up program called CAKE Shanti contributes to on the small island opposite Naga World where garbage collection is not organised. pick up.

Lone Buffalo is a non-profit organisation formed in 2010, following the sudden death of the inspirational Manophet ‘Lone Buffalo’, who founded EDS school & football club in Phonsavan, Xieng Khouang Province in North Eastern Laos. Manophet committed his life to helping others and everyone who met him was touched by his dedication, generosity, selflessness and stamina.

The Xieng Khouang Province is one of the most heavily bombed places in the world, a tragic and deadly legacy of the second Indochina war. Lone Buffalo are committed to improving opportunities for young people in this province through their English, football and creative skills programs.

What do they do?

Lone Buffalo create a unique environment in which boys and girls from different ethnic backgrounds can study, develop, build confidence and play sport together. The project provides free English study, structured weekend football coaching and photography and film making programs for young people. They also offer computer skills and free Internet access to support their students studies. Lone Buffalo teach five levels of English, from Beginner to Intermediate, using a combination of trained local teachers and qualified western volunteer teachers.

Students come from relatively poor backgrounds but Lone Buffalo believe that they should be given the same chance as others to benefit from the opportunities that are arising as Laos graduates from the UN’s ‘Least Developed’ status. Most students’ parents are farmers – but they have similar ambitions to other young people for successful careers in business, arts and technology. Lone Buffalo’s goal is to help them achieve these aspirations. Almost 50% of students are girls, who play an important role both inside and outside of the classroom – the project currently has both FIFA approved female student football coaches and female movie directors.

Lone Buffalo host inspirational guest speakers and arrange field trips to local attractions, encouraging young people to contribute to and learn about their community. The organisation have set up a support network in Vientiane Capital City, monitoring former students progress at university and introducing them to prospective employers from the private sector.

Lone Buffalo encourage creativity through film making projects. Students have produced short films, some of which have won awards at international student film events. The students have also set up a Lone Buffalo Vimeo Channel for their movies. The project associated movie On Safer Ground generated international awareness of the tragic Unexploded Ordnance problem in Laos and several student films tackle the issue of UXO.

A further goal of the project is to develop the skills of their Lao teaching team, through workshops hosted by both Western and Lao teachers. As most of the local teachers also work in State schools, this improves general teaching skills within the community.

How can you help?

If you visit Phonsavan, you can buy Lone Buffalo merchandise and the Student Guide to Phonsavan at Bamboozle Restaurant and Cranky T’s Café. 

Sponsor a class – It costs $1500 a year to support a class of up to 25 students. 

Lone Buffalo Class Supporters Program 2017-18 (new link)

Your donations directly benefit their needs:

We guarantee that this project will receive 100% of all donations made via EXO Foundation, as we cover all money transfer expenses. If you make a direct donation to the organisation (www.justgiving.com/lone-buffalo), and inform us we will match it to 50%.

Supporting Lone Buffalo will help towards achieving their key objectives

• Start new classes for the many young people waiting to join Lone Buffalo. More than 200 new students registered during the 2016-17 term and are waiting for classes.
• Provide employmentand training for new local teachers.
• Provide opportunities for females – almost 50% of students are girls and Lone Buffalo has female football coaches and film directors.
• Assist with school fees (where necessary) to help current Lone Buffalo students finishing High School to find university or vocational school placements.
• Support Lone Buffalo Teacher Trainingworkshops to improve the quality of teaching within the local community.
• Fund FIFA coaching certificatesfor both male and female students.
• Fund film-making projects at Lone Buffalo for the Vientiane Film Festival and other International youth film events.
• Launch the Lone Buffalo website

EXO Foundation support

IN 2017 we increased our support to $4,000 as we have been enthusiastic about the great work achieved we could asses thanks to the regular feedback provided bu the organisation. In 2016, the EXO Foundation donated $2,400 to sponsor 2 english classes, we wish them all good luck and maybe one day they come to work at EXO!

IECD mission, an international solidarity organization,  is to create environments that allow everyone to build their future in a more equitable society. IECD and its local partner, the Social Development Training Center (SDTC) have launched since 2013 the Micro and Small Entrepreneurs Support Program (MSE Support Program) in Ho Chi Minh City.

In Vietnam according to World Bank, the proportion of the population living below the national poverty line (GSO-WB Poverty line) considerably dropped reaching 13.5 percent in 2014—down from close to 60 percent in 1993. More than 40 million people escaped poverty over the course of two decades. Now Vietnam is considered as middle income country but is still characterized by an important informal sector, which consists of 10 million of informal household businesses operating on the fringe of the economy. Despite its size, the informal sector suffers from a lack of interest from public authorities. In particular, informal household businesses, among which a large portion of itinerant street vendors, are facing difficulties, such as lack of access to technical and accounting training, capacity building, market, credit, legal and tax information.

Up to date (2017), a total of 892 participants have benefited from this program.

What do they do?

The MSE program act as a “business school for street vendors working in the informal sector” and the objective is to accompany these entrepreneurs to structure their business and to reinforce their capacity to run their activities more effectively and sustainably, thus generating better income for them and their families; the ultimate goal of the program is to help them to move from a logic of survival to a more sustainable growth scheme. This way, they will get out of the precarious situation in which they have being for years.

The capacity building program provide them with a wide range of activities:

– management training, basic notions in marketing and accounting, customer psychology, strategy of customer retention, how to build a business plan, the use of cashbook, how to optimize the cost, acquire basic notions in English, etc.

– a series of personalized individual follow up during 12 months after the training to accompany on a long run each beneficiary in their process of change

The program is reinforced by a ‘Micro/small Entrepreneurs Business Club’, which impulses new business practices, networking through thematic workshops, peer-to-peer experience sharing, contributing to create a favourable ecosystem where micro entrepreneurs are no longer isolated self-employed vendors.

Up to date, a total of 892 participants have benefited from the program.

How can you help?

If you are a traveler and go to discover Vietnam, then you will probably be charmed by the street vendors community, by their ingenuity, their smiles, and their hardworking, but also by the diversity of the dishes and products they are offering, the flavours and the colours they display. Support them by buying a kilo of mangoes or rambutan depending on the season of your trip, or discover the unique tastes of a “banh mi” or a bowl of “pho”.

If you have a few days available in HCMC, then you can join our pool of “skilled volunteers” and participate to animate our English club, which aims to give some notions of English to those entrepreneurs, so that they can interact more easily with potential foreigner customers.

Address: 98 Ngo Tat To, ward 19, Binh Thanh District

EXO Foundation Support

The EXO Foundation is keen to support small entrepreneurs allowing them to develop further.

We decided to support their 2017/18 program with $4,800.

We hope and encourage in the future IECD includes Eco Friendly trainings to teach how to avoid plastic packagings and treat  waste in the most eco friendly manner. Vietnam is one of the top 5 most polluting countries in the world and street vendors as selling mostly take-aways are amongst the main source of plastic waste in Asia, whereas easily accessible solutions are now available and increasingly requested by lovers of local street food.

Improving Cambodia’s Society through Skillful Parenting (ICS-SP) is a national non-profit organization, officially registered with Cambodian Ministry of Interior in July 2015 (see the attached of official status). ICS-SP aims to improve family lives that have a significant impact on the well being of children and women. A goal we aim to achieve by working with parents and caregivers, by strengthening families and communities, and by strengthening and influencing the government, civil society and private sector towards better policies and practice to fulfil the protection of children. At the core of ICS-SP approach is Skillful Parenting program to reduce and prevent violence against children and to promote appropriate parenting for each age.

What do they do?

• ICS developed  9 modules for Skillful Parenting delivered directly to parents/caregivers

Objective: to empower vulnerable parents/caregivers in raising-up their children through and to build a non-violent environment for children and women.

• Building capacity of NGOs-like-minded on effective work with parents and children in community

Objective: is to become a recognized training agency providing training to other organizations or institutions to incorporate skillful parenting in their programs. International development agencies, local civil society and government agencies will pay a training fee for their staff to be trained as facilitators on skillful parenting. ICS-SP chooses to structure this activity as a Social Business as this will allow ICS-SP to reach out to a large number of parents and caregivers in different parts and segments of Cambodian society in a financially sustainable way.

• Promoting Skillful Parenting at national and regional level

Objective: to provide a platform for stakeholders from different entities both local and international share their work experiences, documentations, results, good practice, on parenting program in a widen, and enrich national understanding of parenting in Cambodia. This will be in cooperation with Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), which included research assignment on parenting and monitoring.

How can you help

• A lot of vulnerable parents and caregivers need to be empowered in a positive parenting practice to make sure that their children live in a safe and non-violent environment.
  • US$80 = The cost ICS-SP needs per parent to equip him/her with knowledge and skills on positive parenting.
• ICS-SP also needs to produce IEC materials such as poster, flipbook, leaflet to conduct further awareness raising for parents and caregivers.
  • US$10,000 are needed for developing and printing those materials to reach about 400 vulnerable parents and caregivers.
•  US$300 to train a para-professional facilitator to be qualified on Skillful Parenting in order to reach larger number of parents and caregivers in different parts and segments of Cambodian society in a financially sustainable way.

All donations to be made here

EXO Foundation Support

EXO Foundation loves ICS -SP purpose and objectives as completely in line with our views and values about children care, as well as our  campaign against children centers visits by tourists as a charity activity. It is so wonderful such an organisation was created and is strongly backed up by the government of Cambodia who has committed to reduce by 30% the number of residential care centres (orphanage or alikes) by 2018, and to close down right away those which do not follow the minimum standards set up by the government.

EXO Foundation is indeed very happy to give $3,500 in 2017 and will continue throughout years to support this social enterprise.

IECD (French Institute for Cooperation and Development) is a French NGO operating since 1988 in four areas of actions: General education, Healthcare, Entrepreneurship and Vocational training, mainly in Africa, Middle-East and South-East Asia. Since 1992, IECD has accompanied the creation and development of sustainable professional training centres in hospitality and catering. Thanks to its close collaboration with local partners being well rooted in their environment, the INGO has launched or strengthened 26 schools, in 14 countries where tourism is expanding and providing good employment prospects for disadvantaged youths.

Since early 2016, IECD has started operating in Myanmar where it supports the Inle Heritage Hospitality Vocational Training Centre (IHHVTC), reinforcing the human resources skills. Parallel, through its support to the French Bakery & Pastry School in Hue (Vietnam) and the launch of a similar project in Ho Chi Minh City, IECD has gained a strong expertise in the bakery and pastry sector. Since its creation in 1999, the school in Hue has been training more than 80 young disadvantaged Vietnamese; 95% of them are currently working.

What do they do?

Using its 20-year experience in Hue, IECD studied the feasibility of a similar project in Yangon, aiming at giving a chance to vulnerable Burmese youths. Following the positive results of this study, IECD has decided to enter into a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism (MoHT) and the Luxembourg Development Agency (LuxDev) to open a bakery and pastry school in 2017.

Through its contribution to tourism development in Myanmar, the MoHT aims at generating employment, reducing poverty, empowering women, preserving environment and building peace. Under a request made by the MoHT, the Hospitality Training School (HTS) has been launched by LuxDev and shall open its doors by the end of the year, in Bo Soon Pat Street, Downtown Yangon. Different trades such as kitchen helper, waiter, receptionist, bell boy and housekeeper have been developed by Lux Dev.

Thanks to IECD collaboration, the HTS school will be training also disadvantaged youth ( between 18 and 25 years old) from the city’s suburbs and other states to bakery and pastry skills during 16 to 20 months, providing them with accommodation, food, stationeries, uniform and, at the end, a certification of excellence leading them towards a rewarding and sustainable job. These youngsters are socially, economically and/or academically vulnerable: most of them come from poor families and have no opportunity to pursue further studies for financial reasons.

The school has been conceived as a project combining both a primary social goal and an innovative economic model. It will work as a social enterprise: the bakery and pastry products made by students as part of their training will be sold in a dedicated point of sale, as well as to hotels and restaurants.

Through this project, every year, 10 to 15 disadvantaged youths, out of which approximately 50% of girls, will be trained to bakery and pastry trades and given a unique opportunity to pursue their professional and personal project. Their family (in average 4,4 people per household) will also benefit indirectly from the project.

Every year, the project will thus benefit to approximately 60 vulnerable youths and their relatives. It will also benefit to 20 industry-workers each year through short specialized courses; occupying mainly low positions in hotels and restaurants, they will thus be able to improve their skills and develop their career. Moreover, the school will provide employment and training to 8 local staff.

How can you help?

In a few months, you will be welcome for a delicious breakfast, lunch or team time with your friends, colleagues or family, in order to support our school, at the application bakery shop, ‘ La Boulangerie Française’, located in Bo Soon Pat Street – lower block, Yangon. You will have the chance to try some amazingly tasty products baked by the students.

Sponsoring a student

By granting 1.500 USD per student for one year, can contribute to the scholarship expenses of a student and give him the chance to get a better future.

EXO Foundation Support

The Foundation already supports  IECD through various projects in Thailand Mae Sot Vocational Training Restaurant the Passport, and In Vietnam a program helping informal sector and in particular mobile street food vendors.

Myanmar has few access for the poorest to qualifying trainings, we are confident under IECD this project will be a successful one, allowing a bunch of students to enter a promising career every year and all visitors and residents of Yangon to enjoy delicious bakery French style.

In 2017, we donated $4,800 to this program.

Our association was founded in 1999 by Marcel Roux, a former vice-president of Doctors without Borders. His Chinese name was Madaifu, Ma for Marcel and Daifu for doctor.

Since then, our key programme, « Orphanage Without Walls », aims to give back their hope and dignity to orphaned children in the remote and destitute parts of western China of the Gansu Province.

We give destitute orphans another chance by supporting them in their studies and keeping them in a safe family environment… supporting them till they can fend for themselves.

In 2017, we support 122 children aged from 6 to 22 (including 27 of them in high school).

Our association is registered in China according to new legislation.

What do they do?

Because they know how much importance we give field work, teachers and local authorities point out to us the children most in need of help. We visit the child at home and in school to assess his needs and ensure he can stay with his grandparents, aunt or uncle. When we start supporting a child, we sign an agreement with both them and their families.

Our help includes a «living allowance» for food and clothing and school fees.

Children of Madaifu’s local manager and volunteers ensure thorough follow-ups of the children’s situation, as well as that of their families and schools. We also respond to local needs, as expressed by the schools and communities.

When Children of Madaifu starts supporting a child and their family, we always ensure we can keep going until he finishes school. This long-term commitment is essential to our work and therefore requires repeated and regular donations.

How can you help?

• SUPPORT their annual events in China and France
  • such as the Apple Day in November in Beijing and Shanghai
  • Madaifu Express “treasure hunt” in Paris

• Support special events with the great artists who already support us such as Prune Noury, Gilles Sabrié, Wen Fang

• COLLECT through your own dedicated activities
  • Invent your sport event to benefit our association
  • Organise a charity dinner with an auction

Their volunteers, based in Shanghai, Beijing and Paris will be happy to work on your initiatives with you!

All donations to be made here

EXO Foundation Support

We are very keen to welcome what is our first beneficiary in China. Les Enfants de Maidafu (Children of Maidafu ) as they are fully in line with our values and principles: keeping children in their families instead of keeping them in an orphanage outside of society and their community; No visit to children centers by tourists or donors, no individual sponsoring of children.

In 2017, we donated $4,800 to their excellent program « Orphanage Without Walls ».

The Green River Project was born when, on a common ground, people from EXO Travel realized that the rivers of their own country were filled with waste and plastic. Not only this is damaging the magnificent landscapes of the Kingdom Of Cambodia, but it is also harmful to the people living in affected communities across the country. Waste pollution burnt, especially plastic, is seriously endangering the lives of the whole population on daily basis. The aim of this project is to partner with Universities/schools/youth volunteer groups around the country to spread awareness on waste pollution and to inform local inhabitants on the negative consequences of disposing unproperly of their waste (such as throwing garbage & plastic in the rivers).  They have decided to start this initiative with a campaign from Prek Leap until Chhroy Chongva.

What do they do?

EXO Travel Cambodia has officially signed a partnership with the Prek Leap National College of Agriculture (PNCA) in order to address this matter together with their students. Thus, PNCA has gathered 235 volunteer students and EXO Travel Team has organized training for students on “Waste pollution & plastic waste”, in order to share their knowledge on this topic and help them to understand all the stakes behind this major issue. In total, 130 students have been on the ground to spread awareness on waste management to local inhabitants.

After seeing the commitment of the students, along with the energy that is building around the project, EXO Travel Cambodia is aiming at extending the action beyond the Chhroy Chongva community.

 How can you help?

• DONATE – to support this initiative, buy waste collection bins and to help students to organize raising awareness campaigns.
• VOLUNTEER – with students and/or to organize these campaigns.
• FUNDRAISE – From sponsored walks to donation boxes, there are many ways to fundraise
• CAMPAIGN & EDUCATE – Spread awareness on the Green River project campaigns and educate others.
• MATERIALS – in kind donation of refillable bottles for students & inhabitants, pedagogical materials etc.
• CORPORATE – Do you know of or work for a company that would be able to provide them with corporate sponsor?
• PROMOTE – Promote Green River projetc through local media by contacting your local outlet, social media by joining their Facebook page, and speak to your friends and family, education is the key!!!

EXO Foundation Support

We have started our collaboration in 2018 in order to help them setting up the first campaigns and we hope this will be a long term one. We like that it is an initiative led by EXO Travel team in Cambodia, in partnership with other Civil Society organizations.

EXO Foundation encourages EXO Travel to spread Green River project activities and to offer travelers to contribute to this project.

In 2018, we donated $2000 for the project.

Help them to reach their target .

ChuChu is a Myanmar social enterprise re-designing waste material into crafts, tourists can visit the workshop not only to do shopping, but also to get hand-on experience by making own crafts work. ChuChu is a workshop space located in Dala Township, on the southern bank of the Yangon River, across from downtown Yangon. Six families work there together to produce & sell crafts.

What do they do?

They work with recycled plastics to create new fabric, which they use to make purses, bags, and household goods.

• Product design and marketing – they have developed 7 different techniques and over 60 designs with waste material.
• Training – they provide training in schools and for other non profit organizations, teaching them techniques to re-use waste and supporting the setup of handicraft groups, either in cooperation with ChuChu or stand alone.
• Visibility on recycling – with their own workspace which can be visited by the public and make people aware that garbage/plastic waste can be changed into useful materials beautiful crafts.

This group of designers all consult one another in their work; each person has a voice in business decisions from designs to strategy. Together, they set the prices for their crafts and ensure their business is sustainable.

ChuChu is working as a production cooperative negotiating between retailers and producers taking a fixed percentage for organizational development. All families are responsible for continuous development and improvement in production while customer relations are handled by an executive director who is part of a production family as well.

Raw material is sourced by every producing family from their own surrounding relying partly on existing collectors partly establishing new structures. All raw material needs to be segregated and cleaned before further processing Materials come from: dumps, streets, shops, markets.

• Plastic film (LDPE: plastic bags and covers)
• Packaging (chips, instant coffee mix, etc.)
• Umbrella textile
• Tube (Bicycle, Motorcycle, Bus, truck)
• Tyre (Bicycle, Mining Bulldozers)
• Cement and rice sacks
• Old cloth
• Newspaper

ChuChu items are mostly available in Yangon through main retailers Hla Day and Pomelo, in downtown Yangon, but as well by Clover in Kalaw, Inle Princess at Inle lake. They also have a small outlet at their workshop in Dala, where visitors can get an insight into our production and can purchase products

How can you help?

• BUY – their crafts while you are traveling in Myanmar and take a tour to their workshop!
• DONATE – to ChuChu organization!
• FUND-RAISE – From sponsored walks to donation boxes, there are many ways to fundraise.
• PROMOTE – Promote ChuChu through local media by joining their Facebook page

EXO Foundation Support

EXO Foundation has decided to support ChuChu for purchasing new production equipment: rubber sewing machine, heating equipment for plastics, big irons.

We have started our collaboration in 2018, with a donation of $850 and we hope this will be a long term one!

Pictures: http://www.crafttalk.org/

Founded in 2010 as the first bicycle tour in Battambang, Soksabike is a social enterprise that provides young Cambodians with meaningful pathways to employment. Training in sustainable tourism and guiding allows young people to develop transferable skills in English language, tourism and hospitality, operations, and management. It invests the majority of its revenue into its impact programs – vocational training, community development, and cross-cultural exchange – and business sustainability and growth so they can ensure their  programs and impact survive far into the future.

What do they do?

• Vocational training is a core tenant of Soksabike’s mission, they use tourism not only to develop their own skills, but also to share their amazing culture with travelers from around the world. An important and critical part of Soksabike’s mission is to give travelers an authentic experience in the Cambodian countryside, meeting with local families, exploring the culture and learning about Cambodian daily life. Soksabike’s goal is that by the end of the tour, travelers feel a sense of connection and understanding to Cambodian life, people, and culture.
• Community support is one of mission Soksabike ‘respects local families and works very hard to develop its community relationships and to ensure all its partners are happy to work with them.

Soksabike is undergoing a key transition by transferring ownership of the company to three members of the local team.

EXO Foundation Support

The EXO Foundation will be helping Sokasabike with this transition to ensure the sustainability of the company. This project involves new equipment and the formal legal transfer of the business to the local team; a critical step in ensuring the team receives all advantages of local ownership.

Soksabike is prioritizing capacity development of the local team as part of this process and will send the two local owners to Ho Chi Minh City to participate in MIST’s boot camp for the Mekong Innovative Startups in Tourism competition. EXO Foundation will also help Soksabike to invest in their bike fleet allowing them to transition five of their bikes to newer models that will include new biking technology to improve guest safety and comfort.

In exchange for EXO Foundation’s support Soksabike team will organize at least one training for EXO Travel Cambodia Adventure tour guides to share their knowledge and good practices on responsible tourism.

Viet Youth on Sustainable Tourism (VYST) is a one-year project (10/2017 – 10/2018) led by a group of Vietnamese undergraduate students from British University Vietnam (BUV) and Vietnam University of Social Sciences and Humanities (VNU-USSH) who are extremely interested in learning about Sustainability issues related to the concept of Tourism, and spreading the message of responsible travelling to everyone.

With the slogan “Dare to dream. Dare to change!”, they would like to show their strong and faithful belief in a much better tourism industry that is beneficial and ethical for all; and the determination of making positive changes from smallest actions of every single individual.

The core missions of VYST are to raise people’s awareness of the importance of responsible traveling and the global trend of sustainable development, and make real positive impacts on both the environment and host communities by enhancing people’s knowledge, behaviors and actions on tourism-related activities.

The project is launched with the following aims:
• Raise people’s awareness (especially the young generation) about the importance of responsible travelling.
• Make real positive changes to the environment and host community by enhancing the public’s tourism knowledge and behaviour.
• Encourage Vietnamese young people to take the initiative and promote their leadership in spreading the meaningful message of responsible travelling.
• Provide Vietnamese young people with opportunities to demonstrate their confidence, enthusiasm, dynamic, unity and responsibility on mutual global issues.
• Promote the exchange of information and knowledge among young people nationwide.

Activities:

The workshop  “Young leaders towards Sustainable Tourism”, was organized on 13th of April 2018 with support from EXO Travel as guest speaker. It tackled the concept of Sustainable Tourism and Responsible Travel; the contribution of Sustainable Tourism in the global drive for 17 Sustainable Development Goals; what Vietnam is doing with Sustainable Tourism and how every single individual can become a responsible traveler to contribute to the big picture. The rest of the workshop consisted in ice breaking games and group work to encourage people to cooperate to produce ideas together.

The photography contest “Stories worth sharing” is organized with the aim of encouraging people to take pictures and share their interesting and inspiring stories on how they travel responsibly. It is open to everyone all over Vietnam, regardless of age. Everyone regardless of gender, age, profession, social class, ethnic group is encouraged to join the contest. The top best 30 pictures will be exhibited in the project closing ceremony. It is believed that the contest will create huge impacts on people’s awareness about the individual responsibility for this global topic.

EXO Foundation has financially supported this project.

Shanty Town Spirit was created in 2012 when his founder discovered children living in the garbage-filled slum of Boeung Trabek were collecting rubbish instead of going to school. Since then the association aim is to provide to the impoverished children of the slum, and their families, the minimum required to have a decent quality of life in term of education, hygiene and healthcare.

What do they do?

The goal is to support the community members in becoming self sufficient and be able to support their own families. Their main focus is that every child in the community attends school.

Education

They provide them with tuition, school supplies, uniforms, books, English lessons. We help children with their homework.

They elaborate a reward system where we offer to our top best students gifts such as bicycle, clothes, training shoes, books…

Young adults who couldn’t get yet an education are encouraged and motivated to find an internship to learn new skills and obtain at the end of the internship a job.

Medical Program:

They follow all medical issues and supply them for minor health issue. In case of sickness or surgery, we helped our members financially and psychologically. They provide also reading glasses and we send all children for dental checkup.

Necessary controls are supported : hygiene, pregnancies, birth control, sexual disease prevention.

Sustainability Program:

They want to change the mindset of parent about their kids, by encouraging them to let their children go to school and understand that education is primordial.

They teach accountability and personal responsibility to achieve sustainability.

They organize a new way of life for them and give them the tools to improve their life and increase their quality of life. They advise them to budget and to manage their income.

Household Support Program:

They evaluate their houses, their problems and find solutions to help them efficiently.

They help to fix houses and buy furniture and household equipment.

Nutrition is monitored and they donate rice, do groceries shopping for them and take care of their elderly community.

Recreational Activities:

They take out children to park recreation, public parks, swimming pools, movie theater, restaurant.

How can you help?

• US$ 5            Hygiene product or extra class for 1 subject at school or basic medicine for one family for one month
• US$ 10         One school uniform
• US$ 15         Blood, optometry test
• US$ 20         Visit to a general practitioner
• US$ 45         75 kg of rice to support a family of 4 for 1 month
• US$ 100       Support 1 kid for 1 month for education, hygiene, health and entertainment activities
• US$200        Furniture for a house in the slum
• US$ 300      To set up an house in electrical standard (many houses catch fire in the slums)
• US$ 960       Allowance for an elder for 1 year

EXO Foundation support

Since 2016, EXO Foundation donated to this organization which is now supporting a few families within this community living in the slum. Aside from its donation EXO Foundation gave 20 copies of our comic strip, Don’t Waste your Waste – GB Version within the frame of a clean up program called CAKE Shanti.

Lone Buffalo is a non-profit organisation formed in 2010, following the sudden death of the inspirational Manophet ‘Lone Buffalo’, who founded EDS school & football club in Phonsavan, Xieng Khouang Province in North Eastern Laos. Manophet committed his life to helping others and everyone who met him was touched by his dedication, generosity, selflessness and stamina.

The Xieng Khouang Province is one of the most heavily bombed places in the world, a tragic and deadly legacy of the second Indochina war. Lone Buffalo are committed to improving opportunities for young people in this province through their English, football and creative skills programs.

What do they do?

Lone Buffalo create a unique environment in which boys and girls from different ethnic backgrounds can study, develop, build confidence and play sport together. The project provides free English study, structured weekend football coaching and photography and film making programs for young people. They also offer computer skills and free Internet access to support their students studies. Lone Buffalo teach five levels of English, from Beginner to Intermediate, using a combination of trained local teachers and qualified western volunteer teachers.

Students come from relatively poor backgrounds but Lone Buffalo believe that they should be given the same chance as others to benefit from the opportunities that are arising as Laos graduates from the UN’s ‘Least Developed’ status. Most students’ parents are farmers – but they have similar ambitions to other young people for successful careers in business, arts and technology. Lone Buffalo’s goal is to help them achieve these aspirations. Almost 50% of students are girls, who play an important role both inside and outside of the classroom – the project currently has both FIFA approved female student football coaches and female movie directors.

Lone Buffalo host inspirational guest speakers and arrange field trips to local attractions, encouraging young people to contribute to and learn about their community. The organisation have set up a support network in Vientiane Capital City, monitoring former students progress at university and introducing them to prospective employers from the private sector.

Lone Buffalo encourage creativity through film making projects. Students have produced short films, some of which have won awards at international student film events. The students have also set up a Lone Buffalo Vimeo Channel for their movies. The project associated movie On Safer Ground generated international awareness of the tragic Unexploded Ordnance problem in Laos and several student films tackle the issue of UXO.

A further goal of the project is to develop the skills of their Lao teaching team, through workshops hosted by both Western and Lao teachers. As most of the local teachers also work in State schools, this improves general teaching skills within the community.

How can you help?

If you visit Phonsavan, you can buy Lone Buffalo merchandise and the Student Guide to Phonsavan at Bamboozle Restaurant and Cranky T’s Café. 

Sponsor a class – It costs $1500 a year to support a class of up to 25 students

Supporting Lone Buffalo will help towards achieving their key objectives

• Start new classes for the many young people waiting to join Lone Buffalo. More than 200 new students registered during the 2016-17 term and are waiting for classes.
• Provide employment and training for new local teachers.
• Provide opportunities for females – almost 50% of students are girls and Lone Buffalo has female football coaches and film directors.
• Assist with school fees (where necessary) to help current Lone Buffalo students finishing High School to find university or vocational school placements.
• Support Lone Buffalo Teacher Training workshops to improve the quality of teaching within the local community.
• Fund FIFA coaching certificates for both male and female students.
• Fund film-making projects at Lone Buffalo for the Vientiane Film Festival and other International youth film events.
• Launch the Lone Buffalo website

EXO Foundation support

We support Lone Buffalo to sponsor 2 english classes, we wish them all good luck and maybe one day they come to work at EXO!

IECD mission, an international solidarity organization,  is to create environments that allow everyone to build their future in a more equitable society. IECD and its local partner, the Social Development Training Center (SDTC) have launched since 2013 the Micro and Small Entrepreneurs Support Program (MSE Support Program) in Ho Chi Minh City.

In Vietnam according to World Bank, the proportion of the population living below the national poverty line (GSO-WB Poverty line) considerably dropped reaching 13.5 percent in 2014—down from close to 60 percent in 1993. More than 40 million people escaped poverty over the course of two decades. Now Vietnam is considered as middle income country but is still characterized by an important informal sector, which consists of 10 million of informal household businesses operating on the fringe of the economy. Despite its size, the informal sector suffers from a lack of interest from public authorities. In particular, informal household businesses, among which a large portion of itinerant street vendors, are facing difficulties, such as lack of access to technical and accounting training, capacity building, market, credit, legal and tax information.

In 2017, a total of 892 participants have benefited from this program.

What do they do?

The MSE program act as a “business school for street vendors working in the informal sector” and the objective is to accompany these entrepreneurs to structure their business and to reinforce their capacity to run their activities more effectively and sustainably, thus generating better income for them and their families; the ultimate goal of the program is to help them to move from a logic of survival to a more sustainable growth scheme. This way, they will get out of the precarious situation in which they have being for years.

The capacity building program provide them with a wide range of activities:

– management training, basic notions in marketing and accounting, customer psychology, strategy of customer retention, how to build a business plan, the use of cashbook, how to optimize the cost, acquire basic notions in English, etc.

– a series of personalized individual follow up during 12 months after the training to accompany on a long run each beneficiary in their process of change

The program is reinforced by a ‘Micro/small Entrepreneurs Business Club’, which impulses new business practices, networking through thematic workshops, peer-to-peer experience sharing, contributing to create a favourable ecosystem where micro entrepreneurs are no longer isolated self-employed vendors.

Up to date, a total of 892 participants have benefited from the program.

How can you help?

If you are a traveler and go to discover Vietnam, then you will probably be charmed by the street vendors community, by their ingenuity, their smiles, and their hardworking, but also by the diversity of the dishes and products they are offering, the flavours and the colours they display. Support them by buying a kilo of mangoes or rambutan depending on the season of your trip, or discover the unique tastes of a “banh mi” or a bowl of “pho”.

If you have a few days available in HCMC, then you can join our pool of “skilled volunteers” and participate to animate our English club, which aims to give some notions of English to those entrepreneurs, so that they can interact more easily with potential foreigner customers.

Address: 98 Ngo Tat To, ward 19, Binh Thanh District

EXO Foundation Support

The EXO Foundation is keen to support small entrepreneurs allowing them to develop further.

Improving Cambodia’s Society through Skillful Parenting (ICS-SP) is a national non-profit organization, officially registered with Cambodian Ministry of Interior in July 2015 (see the attached of official status). ICS-SP aims to improve family lives that have a significant impact on the well being of children and women. A goal we aim to achieve by working with parents and caregivers, by strengthening families and communities, and by strengthening and influencing the government, civil society and private sector towards better policies and practice to fulfil the protection of children. At the core of ICS-SP approach is Skillful Parenting program to reduce and prevent violence against children and to promote appropriate parenting for each age.

What do they do?

• ICS developed  9 modules for Skillful Parenting delivered directly to parents/caregivers

Objective: to empower vulnerable parents/caregivers in raising-up their children through and to build a non-violent environment for children and women.

• Building capacity of NGOs-like-minded on effective work with parents and children in community

Objective: is to become a recognized training agency providing training to other organizations or institutions to incorporate skillful parenting in their programs. International development agencies, local civil society and government agencies will pay a training fee for their staff to be trained as facilitators on skillful parenting. ICS-SP chooses to structure this activity as a Social Business as this will allow ICS-SP to reach out to a large number of parents and caregivers in different parts and segments of Cambodian society in a financially sustainable way.

• Promoting Skillful Parenting at national and regional level

Objective: to provide a platform for stakeholders from different entities both local and international share their work experiences, documentations, results, good practice, on parenting program in a widen, and enrich national understanding of parenting in Cambodia. This will be in cooperation with Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), which included research assignment on parenting and monitoring.

How can you help

• A lot of vulnerable parents and caregivers need to be empowered in a positive parenting practice to make sure that their children live in a safe and non-violent environment.
  • US$80 = The cost ICS-SP needs per parent to equip him/her with knowledge and skills on positive parenting.
• ICS-SP also needs to produce educational materials such as poster, flipbook, leaflet to conduct further awareness raising for parents and caregivers.
  • US$10,000 are needed for developing and printing those materials to reach about 400 vulnerable parents and caregivers.
•  US$300 to train a para-professional facilitator to be qualified on Skillful Parenting in order to reach larger number of parents and caregivers in different parts and segments of Cambodian society in a financially sustainable way.

All donations to be made here

EXO Foundation Support

EXO Foundation loves ICS -SP purpose and objectives as completely in line with our views and values about children care, as well as our  campaign against children centers visits by tourists as a charity activity. It is so wonderful such an organisation was created and is strongly backed up by the government of Cambodia who has committed to reduce by 30% the number of residential care centres (orphanage or alikes) by 2018, and to close down right away those which do not follow the minimum standards set up by the government.

IECD (French Institute for Cooperation and Development) is a French NGO operating since 1988 in four areas of actions: General education, Healthcare, Entrepreneurship and Vocational training, mainly in Africa, Middle-East and South-East Asia. Since 1992, IECD has accompanied the creation and development of sustainable professional training centres in hospitality and catering. Thanks to its close collaboration with local partners being well rooted in their environment, the INGO has launched or strengthened 26 schools, in 14 countries where tourism is expanding and providing good employment prospects for disadvantaged youths.

Since early 2016, IECD has started operating in Myanmar where it supports the Inle Heritage Hospitality Vocational Training Centre (IHHVTC), reinforcing the human resources skills. Parallel, through its support to the French Bakery & Pastry School in Hue (Vietnam) and the launch of a similar project in Ho Chi Minh City, IECD has gained a strong expertise in the bakery and pastry sector. Since its creation in 1999, the school in Hue has been training more than 80 young disadvantaged Vietnamese; 95% of them are currently working.

What do they do?

Using its 20-year experience in Hue, IECD studied the feasibility of a similar project in Yangon, aiming at giving a chance to vulnerable Burmese youths. Following the positive results of this study, IECD has decided to enter into a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism (MoHT) and the Luxembourg Development Agency (LuxDev) to open a bakery and pastry school in 2017.

Through its contribution to tourism development in Myanmar, the MoHT aims at generating employment, reducing poverty, empowering women, preserving environment and building peace. Under a request made by the MoHT, the Hospitality Training School (HTS) has been launched by LuxDev and shall open its doors by the end of the year, in Bo Soon Pat Street, Downtown Yangon. Different trades such as kitchen helper, waiter, receptionist, bell boy and housekeeper have been developed by Lux Dev.

Thanks to IECD collaboration, the HTS school will be training also disadvantaged youth ( between 18 and 25 years old) from the city’s suburbs and other states to bakery and pastry skills during 16 to 20 months, providing them with accommodation, food, stationeries, uniform and, at the end, a certification of excellence leading them towards a rewarding and sustainable job. These youngsters are socially, economically and/or academically vulnerable: most of them come from poor families and have no opportunity to pursue further studies for financial reasons.

The school has been conceived as a project combining both a primary social goal and an innovative economic model. It will work as a social enterprise: the bakery and pastry products made by students as part of their training will be sold in a dedicated point of sale, as well as to hotels and restaurants.

Through this project, every year, 10 to 15 disadvantaged youths, out of which approximately 50% of girls, will be trained to bakery and pastry trades and given a unique opportunity to pursue their professional and personal project. Their family (in average 4,4 people per household) will also benefit indirectly from the project.

Every year, the project will thus benefit to approximately 60 vulnerable youths and their relatives. It will also benefit to 20 industry-workers each year through short specialized courses; occupying mainly low positions in hotels and restaurants, they will thus be able to improve their skills and develop their career. Moreover, the school will provide employment and training to 8 local staff.

How can you help?

• Purchasing a delicious breakfast at the application bakery shop, ‘ La Boulangerie Française’, located in Bo Soon Pat Street – lower block, Yangon. There you will have the chance to try some amazingly tasty products baked by the students.
• Sponsoring a student, by granting 1.500 USD per student for one year, you can contribute to the scholarship expenses of a student and give him the chance to get a better future.

EXO Foundation Support

The Foundation already supports IECD through various projects in Thailand Mae Sot Vocational Training Restaurant the Passport, and in Vietnam.

Myanmar has few access for the poorest to qualifying training, we are confident under IECD this project will be a successful one, allowing  its students to enter a promising career every year and all visitors and residents of Yangon to enjoy delicious bakery French style.

The association was founded in 1999 by Marcel Roux, a former vice-president of Doctors without Borders. His Chinese name was Madaifu, Ma for Marcel and Daifu for doctor.

Since then, their key programme, « Orphanage Without Walls », aims to give back their hope and dignity to orphaned children in the remote and destitute parts of western China of the Gansu Province.

They give destitute orphans another chance by supporting them in their studies and keeping them in a safe family environment… supporting them till they can fend for themselves.

In 2017, they supported 122 children aged from 6 to 22 (including 27 of them in high school).

What do they do?

Because they know how much importance they give to field work, teachers and local authorities point out to them the children that are the most in need. They visit the children at home and at their schools to assess their needs and to ensure that they can stay with their grandparents, aunt or uncle. When they start supporting a child, they sign an agreement with both the child and its family.

Their help includes a «living allowance» for food and clothing and school fees.

Children of Madaifu’s local manager and volunteers ensure thorough follow-ups of the children’s situation, as well as that of their families and schools. They also respond to local needs, as expressed by the schools and communities.

When Children of Madaifu starts supporting a child and their family, they always ensure that they can keep going until him/her finishes school. This long-term commitment is essential to their work and therefore requires repeated and regular donations.

How can you help?

• SUPPORT their annual events in China and France
  • such as the Apple Day in November in Beijing and Shanghai
  • Madaifu Express “treasure hunt” in Paris

• Support special events with the great artists who already support us such as Prune Noury, Gilles Sabrié, Wen Fang

• COLLECT through your own dedicated activities
  • Invent your sport event to benefit our association
  • Organise a charity dinner with an auction

Their volunteers, based in Shanghai, Beijing and Paris will be happy to work on your initiatives with you!

EXO Foundation Support

We are very keen to welcome what is our first beneficiary in China. Les Enfants de Maidafu (Children of Maidafu ) as they are fully in line with our values and principles: keeping children in their families instead of keeping them in an orphanage outside of society and their community; no visit to children centers by tourists or donors, no individual sponsoring of children.