As part of our efforts to connect the Anh Linh School to the rest of the world, we are working in collaboration with students at the Singapore American School to create a school website. Please visit it to gain more information and updates on the school's progress.

http://anhlinhschool.com

Anh Linh Free School History

In Vietnam, education is free, but the costs of supplies, uniforms, books, meals, etc. are borne by the families of the students. This can amount to $15-25 per month. There are no scholarships or sliding scales. Many families cannot afford to pay the school fees, and their children have little hope for a future that is anything different than continued economic and social deprivation.

In 1990 the Vietnamese government gave permission to the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame to open a free school for some of the poorest children in Ho Chi Minh City. The first 17 students were children of prostitutes. The building that housed the first school was a former pigsty. The school was supported by the order and gifts from alumnae of the private boarding school the Congregation had run before 1975. The mission of the Congregation of Notre Dame, from their inception in France in the fifteenth century, was to educate girls and poor children.

It is now almost 20 years later, and the students from the first class are adults with jobs, families and a future.

In 2006, the Vietnamese government gave Anh Linh Free School permission to open a secondary school for sixth through ninth grades. The first sixth grade class began in September, 2006 and construction of a new secondary school began that October. The new school was completed in the spring of 2007. The efforst to raise funds for the secondary school were so successful that in 2008 the old elementary school was torn down and a new one built in its place.

In the fall of 2008, a new elementary school building was completed, with classrooms, a library, a computer room, conference rooms, a 20 bed dormitory for girls, and two guest rooms. Both new facilities provide a wonderful place for the children to learn, airy classrooms, special labs for science and computers and more play area.

Anh Linh Free School provides classes that meet Viet Nam curriculum standards. In Vietnam, 94% of the population is reported to be literate. Viet Nam's economic development is growing faster than any country in Asia. Without Anh Linh these kids would likely live a life of poverty, deprivation, exploitation, or crime.

English language instruction is mandated for all students in the state school system. It will be the language of commerce and economic prosperity in Vietnam's future. The opportunity to learn English and to study computer skills allows Anh Linh students to compete.

For many of Anh Linh's children the school is not only the most stable, safe and loving experience of their lives, it is also their pathway to a future of economic security and hope.