The Alternative Spring Break Program is a weeklong trip that places university students in a foreign country to work on service projects, learn leadership skills, learn about the culture of the destination country and have a lot of fun! This is an exciting way to meet new people, learn a new culture, and perform meaningful service to others. 

The 2008 ASB team will be traveling to the Tan Thanh Village, a remote Village of the Giong Trom district, located in the Ben Tre province, in the lower Mekong delta, 140km, South-East of HCM. The local people mainly live by agriculture and husbandry. The standards of living are low and the majority of families are under financial constraints. The Tan Thanh primary school has 4 branches at 4 hamlets of the village with over 500 students. 

The place where ASB will be working is the remotest and most downgraded in the village. About 136 students from 1st form to 5th form (morning shift and afternoon shift) are studying in two existing degraded classrooms which are not enough for all the children, so some students travel to study at a neighboring village’s school which is about 5-7 km away by rice-field way.

The school is very old, and it can collapse at anytime in the rainy reason. It is in great need to be rebuilt and the Village does not have the resources to rebuild the school on its own. The Education Department of Giong Trom district urgently needs new classrooms for their students. 

The Objectives of the Alternative Spring Break Program in Giong Trom will be to:

• Provide a new and safe classroom for the children

• Contributing to the sustainable development of the education in the district

• Reassuring the parents about their children when they are at the school

• Building and tightening the partnership b/t Honolulu, VN YMCA and Giong Trom district
  
  
  Please support us in our endeavors and donate to our project.