Ciao Fund Rising

Ciao Fund:

A wonderful country with beautiful landscapes and kind people is being more and more attracted by the eyes of  foreign friends -It is Vietnam

But on some parts of my father land, you still see people living in poverty with thin clothes, no shocks in boned cold of winter, no rice to get by and children has no chance to go school.

And We want to change the image in your sense and do meaningful help to contribute for a happier life of children in Vietnam- Ciao Fund is born.

Ciao Fund activities:

·         Trips frequently organize to the isolated highlands on the occasion of the winter in Vietnam: to help ethnic minority people, poor children without clothes, books ... in program "Warm winter " has been implemented in Cao Son in Muong Khuong, Lao Cai on November 30, 2009 trip to the past.

·         Bring culture’s light to highland villages: coordinate with foreign students studying in Vietnam teach ethnic minority children in summer.

·         Giving jobs for children in difficult circumstances who learning in Vocational School work at Ciao company on Classic Sail with positions as: bar, house keeping….

Managing Finance:

Ciao Fund is non-profit ones contributed by two main revenue sources:

1. Employees of Ciaotravel from monthly salary.

2. By kind heart people when you click at our website:

Http://www.ciaotravel.vn or http://www.halongclassicsail.com

Or you come to see me at our Head Office: 21 Nguyen Sieu str- Hanoi City, precious value of one dollars from your services booked will be transferred to Ciao Fund.

Representatives be chose through doing lucky draw by ourselves customers who take our tours at the end of year, then send email to you to inform that you will person assist Charity trips with Ciaotravel.

From Cao Son : Merry Christmas and Happy New year!

From Ciao travel in Cao Son:

Cao Son in winter

The first impression of us was the image of the baby's in the kindergarten right next to where we stayed. Their round eyes looked at us eagerly, their hands reddened because of the cold, and welcomed us bustlingly “bye- bye, bye-bye… “. We didn’t understand what was happening?

A few minutes later, we begun to understand: In Cao Son, there was only a kindergarten for babies from 3 to 5 years old. This class was built by the Embassy of Denmark, called "Class of Mercy”. Perhaps the teacher taught the children to say "bye bye" to the guests who offered this school. The school was built in 2007, but probably there are rarely visits, so that any cars could make the children confused with those foreign visitors.

Getting familiar with the children was easy, because we had prepared many candies. They were obedient, made a queue and called each other and didn’t scramble for different candies. Perhaps with the children, the candy is always delicious...

When we visited, the class was having a break. There were 14 babies, aged from 3 to 5 with 5 quite young teachers.

We chose 14 warm pants, coats, scarves and the teacher helped us to select and wear those on for the children.

They talked in Mong language so we couldn’t understand. But looking at their eyes and smiles when they were waiting for new clothes, we felt that it would be better if we had brought more clothes.

These images will remain in our heart forever. We are aware that it is these children who will bring the future to this land.

In the afternoon, we brought the old clothes to Ngai Phong Cho – a tribal village. Being unable to go by car, we had to ride motorbikes for10km trail from Cao Son. The journey gave us a chance to enjoy the fresh air, the big panorama when we followed the trail and went along the mountain slope. The mountain showed its softer side and its slopes wrapped in green trees. The highland terrace fields were suddenly dotted with wild flowers or the outstanding color of Hmong girls’ skirts, miraculous as a dream .

The local people were getting around on this way:

 
We really saw the life of the local minority groups here. The village had about 20 houses which were scattered around the top of the mountain. There was a school, which is the most beautiful, model building here and also it’s the living place for 2 teachers. The teacher htold us that in order to “keep their student going to school”, they had to prepare sweets, candies to give them. People rarely visited the village, that’s why the children looked at us curiously.

Far away from city skyscrapers, Cao Son is the imprint of the natural life. The local people here live a simple life which is still intact as tens and, hundreds of years ago.

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Visit Cao Son with Ciao Travel

Warm winter in Cao Son

Itinerary:

Day 1: Hanoi – Lao Cai – Cao Son – Lung Xeng Nung

Day2: Cao Son – Tin Thang – Coc Ly – Bao Nhai – Lao Cai – Hanoi

Mission:

- Bring 6 clothing packages donated in Hanoi during this November to tribe village in Cao Son

- Find out the most difficulty of the local people here to support them.

Cao son overview:

- Location: Muong Khuong – Bac Ha – Lai Chau

o 460km from Hà Nội.

o 80km from Lao Cai.

- Elevation: 1500m.

- Transportation: Train, Auto

- Average temperature: 16-18

- Ethnic minority groups: H’mong Hoa, Nùng, Tày, Ba Dí và Dao Đỏ.

Ciao Cao Son!

During one month asking for donation from many sources, we got many old clothes. We spent the Saturday for classification and packing. We had to bring all to the train station in the morning as we go by night.

20:35 the train departs. Early but to prepare for the next day, we go to bed, try to read something before fall asleep.

4:30, wake up, Lao Cai is here. Contact early,the bus is ready for us, but for a long way ahead, we have breakfast first. From Lao Cai, using 7- seats car, our driver said that it’ll take us more than 2 hours to get Cao Son.

The road is quite narrow, crooked according to the mountain side. It’s the time to forget the big city and enjoy the beauty of mountain ranges, valleys and hill tribe villages.

Passing the town, we take a stopover to visit the local market here. In the highland, several nearby villages have a market, open weekly. People come here from many minority groups, including H’Mong, Nung, Dao…make the market looks more colorful with beautiful dresses. The Flower H’Mong girls are easiest to recognize by their brocade skirts and shawls.. Tuesday is not the day for the market so there are not many people, but we can still buy daily life stuff here.

From Lung Khau Nhin to Cao Son, the road is sloping. That’s why the local people here call this area: Cao Son plateau ( cao: high, son: mountain). But once we get to Cao Son, all the tiring is driven away. The cold and fresh air here makes us – the people from a plain area – to be of sound mind. Ciao Cao Son.