Kids Promise Completes House #30 and Looks toward the Future
In September 2020, Kids Promise completed its 30th charity home for a deserving family in Vietnam, marking a milestone for the small nonprofit.
“Kids Promise is made up entirely of volunteers,” said Tom Schoen, co-founder of Kids Promise. “The team began by building two or three homes a year, but this year House #30 marks their seventh home in 2020. It really speaks to the team’s extraordinary dedication to bettering children’s lives.”
Kids Promise was founded by three executives at Minneapolis-based BTM Global, a provider of development, implementation and integration technology services. For years, BTM had quietly done philanthropy work in both Minnesota and Vietnam, the location of its second headquarters. But the demand in Vietnam and the interest from donors who wanted to support the work spurred colleagues Andy Huynh, Tom Schoen and Mark Hooley to formally launch the nonprofit Kids Promise.
In addition to home building, Kids Promise funds scholarships and other educational efforts that meet its goal: To fulfill the promise of an elder generation to give its youth a better life.
The impact of a promise
The Kids Promise team in Vietnam is led by Thoi Nguyen, quality control lead at BTM Global, with support from BTM’s director of Vietnam operations, Tien Huynh (no relation to Andy). Many other BTM employees donate their nights and weekends to building homes in poor, rural areas throughout the country. “We’ve had employees leave BTM Global to work elsewhere, but continue volunteering with Kids Promise because they want to make an impact,” said Andy Huynh, who immigrated from Vietnam as a child.
A safe and dry home isn’t just a convenience for a family. In a country barraged by an annual rainy season, the quality of the home significantly impacts the mental health of a child, as well as his or her ability to focus on school. “Several of the kids whose families have received these homes are going on to college,” said Huynh. “A safe home transforms lives and helps children break the cycle of poverty.”
Sometimes, a home is a matter of life and death. “A few years ago, Kids Promise had completed three homes in central Vietnam, and Andy and I were supposed to go visit the families,” recalled Schoen. “But we couldn’t travel there because there was a massive storm that flooded the region. Without the new homes from Kids Promise, each of those families would’ve had to flee their old homes because the flooding would have destroyed them. The new home built by the team in Vietnam saved those families’ livelihoods and perhaps their lives.”
Kids Promise also supports the Good Shepherd School, located on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, which rescues and educates children who have been lured to work illegally in Vietnam’s manufacturing industry. “Workers should be at least 18 years old, but some companies go into the countryside and recruit poor, uneducated kids as young as 14 years old to work in their factories,” said Schoen. “The kids essentially become indentured servants; they might sign up to work for 10 months, and then at the tenth month the company says it won’t pay them unless they work another year.”
With wages between one and five U.S. dollars per week, girls are often forced to prostitute themselves to survive. If lucky, they’ll be found by the Catholic nuns who operate the school.
“The nuns find these girls and house them at the school so they’re safe,” explained Huynh. “They teach them the basics of an education so that when they turn 18, they can work in a legitimate factory and make better wages to break the poverty cycle.”
House #30: A hand up and out of poverty
Kids Promise’s 30th Charity House was built for the family of Mr. Nguyen Van Tiep and Mrs. Lam Thi Ut Nho in Kien Giang province. Mr. Tiep and Mrs. Nho, along with their two children ages 11 and eight, depend on an unpredictable income, such as cutting grass, hauling hay or spraying insecticides in surrounding farmlands. Their home was built of rotting corrugated metal that made an unstable and dangerous shelter in the rainy season.
Their precarious situation worsened when Mrs. Nho was injured in a motorbike accident while taking the children to school. She attempted to do factory work, but after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country, factories slowed and Mrs. Nho was laid off. Her medical bills became so high that the family took out a loan to pay them. With so many stresses and challenges, none of the family members could even dream of a better home.
Kids Promise learned about the family’s circumstances from its government and community partners, and selected them for House #30. A local construction company was chosen to build the home and the community was asked to support the family by providing a few pieces of basic furniture. The new structure includes a front yard, living room, two bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom. The home has a sturdy concrete base, a tile floor, a cool tin roof, and walls that can withstand the severe Vietnam rainy season.
A look toward the future
From a basic education to a safe home, to scholarships and more, Kids Promise has impacted hundreds of children throughout Vietnam and has no plans to slow down. The regular support of these generous individuals and many others are helping them keep that promise:
- Steve Havig and Twin Cities Lake Areas Realty
- Michael Nghia Doan
- Tran Ha
- Chi Vo and Hoang Tran
- Robert Pfeffer
- Aquatic Technologies Company
- The family of Thuy Ly and Quang Tran
- Friends of Thuy Ly and Quang Tran
“The Kids Promise team in Vietnam is very efficient, so we guarantee donors that 99 percent of their donation goes right to the families,” said Huynh. “If someone wants to support a specific house, we can guarantee that all of their donation will go into the construction of the home, which costs about $2,800 U.S. dollars to build.”
For those interested in funding a charity home or supporting the work of the Good Shepherd School, donations can be made on the Kids Promise website.
In addition, Amazon shoppers can designate Kids Promise as part of the Amazon Smile program that donates 0.5% of eligible purchases to the charity of the shopper’s choice. Go here to learn more about the program and search for “Kids Promise” (Minneapolis) to designate the organization.
As Kids Promise continues to serve children and families in Vietnam, their stories are told on the Kids Promise website and on LinkedIn.
“None of this would be possible without our donors’ support and the incredible team in Vietnam,” said Huynh. “We’d like to thank everyone for their hard work. They turn a promise into reality for so many families.”
