Niteco IT course gives hope to Hanoi’s Street Kids

Teen boys and girls whose lives were once plagued by trauma are about to receive exclusive training in IT that will help improve their futures. The new initiative devised by employees of software development firm, Niteco together with Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation hopes to equip and empower survivors of trafficking and abuse by arming them with knowledge that can lead to good employment in years to come.

Commenting on the program, Ms Hau Luong of Niteco said, “For as long as Niteco has been in operation, we have been passionate about helping the most vulnerable in our communities. We have a group called NICEF which stands for Niteco Charity Engagement Foundation and under this umbrella we carry out a range of charitable work, from funding heart surgeries to building schools in hard-to-reach locations. This is the first time we have committed ourselves to sharing our expertise with the younger generation and we’re excited about it.”

Starting in September and running until December three Niteco employees – Hieu Van Thinh, Dung Phuong Thi Nguyen, and Long Hoang To will be spending their Saturdays teaching small groups of teens the basics in Graphic design, Excel and Word. It is hoped that learning from the experts will inspire the class participants to aim higher, in addition to acquiring new skills.

Hoang Chu of Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation remarked, “It has been a long-held dream of ours to be in a position to offer our children sustained learning in IT from the experts and that’s why we are pleased to collaborate with Niteco. The teens who will be participating in this program are between 14 and 19 years old and so will benefit immensely from this. This is part of our desire to help them better plan their futures. We live in a digital age where every job requires minimal understanding of computers and so by offering a course such as this, we’re giving our children a renewed start and a brighter future.”

The classes will take place at Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation’s drop-in center which acts like a safe haven for many of the charity’s formerly abused children.

An Australian charity working in Vietnam, Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation works with children in crisis. From very humble beginnings in 2003, the organization has grown in 15 years to include 87 dedicated staff members supporting over 1,500 of the most vulnerable children across Vietnam every year. Blue Dragon kids are street kids, children with disabilities, children from rural families living in extreme poverty and victims of human trafficking and slavery. The Niteco initiative is now one of many ways the charity aims to ensure recovery and growth for every child who is in their care.