In the fall of 2008, VRE opened its second school funded under our “Sponsor A School” initiative, which allows supporters to donate funds towards a specific project – in this case, the construction of the Chung Hoan Chu school in My An. The school, named after and endowed on behalf of Dr. Dennis and Mrs. Linda Chu, was funded by their family. The Chus are Vietnamese Americans living in Granite Bay, Calif.

We chose to build in My An, a remote commune, because one in five households live in poverty and many children do not have the opportunity to go to school. On top of that, the community has insufficient infrastructure and no central market or clean water system.

We’re already working on our next “Sponsor A School” project: A ''Deloitte'' school funded by donations from Deloitte employees in the U.S. We're currently assessing educational needs in different regions and will update you on the school in upcoming newsletters.