East Meets West Foundation announced that several disadvantaged students who they have helped with their SPELL scholarship program have earned places this school year at special schools for gifted children.
One of the gifted students, 15-year-old Tran Van Anh, said he was certain that without SPELL to pay his school fees and provide books and tutoring support for the past five years he would have been forced to leave school long ago.
Tran from a poor family in rural Quang Ngai Province passed the rigorous exams to get into the gifted school and wants to continue his studies to be an engineer.
SPELL’s national coordinator Tung Hoang Ngoc said, “We really felt concerned when we saw Anh’s situation. His parents, who are farmers, both have chronic illnesses, and could barely afford daily meals and medical expenses.”
SPELL, EMW’s Scholarship Program to Enhance Literacy and Learning, supports students with school expenses and tutoring from grade three until they leave high school. The programs are operating in seven provinces in central Vietnam, supporting over 4,500 students and families who are among the country’s poorest and most vulnerable.
