Children's Food, Healthcare, Shelter and Education Fund

Improving life for chldren and families worldwide is the mission of Aid For Kids. Currently, the focus is on humanitarian aid projects in Vietnam under the direction of Joy MyLien Degenhardt and supporting projects in Haiti, Africa and El Salvador. Aid for Kids, also known as the Degenhardt Foundation, is a 501(c)3 organization and all donations are tax deductible.

Beach Basketball Cu Lau Cham Style

Aid for Kids is the first and only NGO (charity) to provide services to Cu Lau Cham - one of the island in the China Sea off the coast of Vietnam. Projects include dental and medical missions, a book and toy library, volunteers to teach English, arts and crafts and games. The children were having a great time with all activities - and the women who have nothing else to do except work - wanted to have some fun. The staff developed a "Beach Basketball Game" - which is very creative, too. It is simple - two teams, two stools and two baskets are needed. One of each team members stands on a stool holding a basket - which is movable. There is no dribbling - but the rest of the rules are the same as conventional basketball. As you can see, the whole village turns out to attend the games and everyone has a lot of fun. People of all ages are now playing "Basketball on the Beach" on this small island in the China Sea. Maybe this is the way basketball should be played. See video at YouTube.

Blanket America

The Aid For Kids Foundation has partnered with Blanket America to provide free fleece throws to people in need in our state. For every person that signs up for the free newsletter of Blanket America they will donate a fleece throw to the Aid For Kids Foundation. Participants can unsubscribe at anytime to the newsletter. We will then distribute the throws throughout the state through various nonprofit groups. There is no limit to the number of throws we can receive. This is the link that people will need in order to sign up: http://blanketamerica/content/maine-kids. The process takes less than a minute.

Rachel's Bridge

The Schultz family is in the beginning stage of raising money to build a small foot bridge to benefit Rachel‘s birth family and the surrounding community in a very isolated area in Soc Trang Province (Southern part of Vietnam). After meeting our daughter’s birth parents in a rural area outside of Soc Trang, we were deeply moved that we wanted to help them and their very poor community. We wanted to do something to make our daughter’s birth family’s live a little easier and safer life, to give them hope that they are not invisible, and that people do care about their situation.

This area is very remote, with a tributary of the Mekong Delta cutting through this community creating large transportation obstacles. There is no adequate, safe transportation over this muddy, deep cut in the land. The only way to cross it, presently, is by a “monkey bridge”. Joy Degenhardt with Aid for Kids suggested that we might consider having a small foot bridge built over the tributary to ease the burden of carrying any kind of supplies, not to mention babies, young children or the elderly having to cross on what exists at this time. We would like to see this project become a reality.

UPDATE

We have exciting news to share! After completing our second Bazaar and the very kind and generous donations that have been received for “Rachel's Bridge”, we are now ready to begin the second stage of the project. We are now ready to hire the construction company in Vietnam who will go out to the area where Rachel's family lives to determine the best location, create the design and plans and determine the cost of materials to build the bridge.

As we had previously shared, Joy reported that, "The government is very supportive of this project and they want the village to get involved as much as possible". The construction company reports that they envision a cement bridge approximately 25 meters long and 2.5 meters wide. Our desire is for this bridge to not only benefit Rachel's birth family but also the entire community. The report also supports this desire and estimates that this small cement bridge will benefit about 1,500 people in Rachel's family's village and the surrounding area.

Thank you again for all of your support and encouragement. We still have a long way to go but every little milestone is bringing us closer to making this bridge of hope and help to an impoverished community, a reality.

One of the important benefits of replacing the monkey bridge is to provide a safer and quicker way for children to get to school, especially during the rainy season. Many of the children cannot swim and during times of flooding there are incidences of children drowning. The only other option during flooding if the monkey bridge is impassable is in a small "banana boat". The bridge will also provide a safer and easier way for families, young and old alike to get to town and the local market and back home carrying their supplies.

The estimated cost to build the bridge will be about $15,000. For those of you who have donated funds to make this project a reality, we thank you so much. We hope there will be more caring and concerned people out there who would like to contribute through Aid for Kids.org to see this needed project accomplished.

If you would like to help, please go to Aid for Kids.org to make a tax deductible donation. If donating online through Aid for Kids, please be sure to note in the provided space that your donation is going to the "Rachel's Bridge Project".

Contribution or more information on "Rachel's Bridge" contact:
Joy Degenhardt (Aid for Kids) joy@aidforkids.org or Nancy Schultz at rachelsbridge@gmail.com.

Ambassadors of Vietnam: July 7th  to July 20th, 2012.

Dear Vietnamese adoptees and families with Vietnamese children: You are invited to return to your homeland for a unique cultural experience.  This special conference, “Ambassadors of Vietnam,” will have attendees representing many adopted countries coming together to learn about the Vietnamese people and their rich culture.  Each attendee of this conference will come away with a deeper understanding and have a better appreciation for the history, music, arts and food of their birth country. See Flyer [pdf].

Attendees and their families will be traveling throughout Vietnam, beginning in Hanoi, visiting beautiful Halong Bay, continuing on through Hoi an and Hue and ending in Ho Chi Minh City. This special conference, “Ambassadors of Vietnam” will cover 4 areas:

1. The rich history, culture and ethnic heritage of Vietnam –Enjoy traveling through Vietnam and sightseeing at various historical sights.

2. Delight in the traditional music and wonderful foods of Vietnam – Tantalize the senses with a cooking class & listening to ethnic music.

3. Blessing current Vietnamese orphans –Visit orphanages and interact with the children.

4. INTERNATIONAL VIETNAM – Make a difference, be an ambassador representing your adopted countries.

After 14 days and 13 nights you and your family will now become a bridge to Vietnam by becoming a cultural ambassador of your country. You will be prepared to promote the Vietnamese culture to the world and increase the Vietnamese relationship of your adopted country to Vietnam.

Please join us in this truly unique event, July 7th to July 20th , 2012.

I encourage you to share this invitation with anyone you believe would be interested in attending the conference. For more information, please contact at: joy@aidforkids.org. I look forward to welcoming you all from around the continent to come to Vietnam in 2012.

The "Other Maine" Project

The “Other Maine” Project (formerly known as “Clothes for the County” is a project providing good quality new clothing, school supplies, books, back packs, and other needed merchandise to the rural poor living in Aroostook and Washington Counties in northern Maine. The name was changed recently as the program is a lot more than just clothing now. The “Other Maine” Project was chosen as Northern Maine is often spoken of as the other Maine as it is as different from Southern Maine as it can be. There is such poverty as the lumber and paper mills have mostly closed leaving only agriculture and service agencies for job opportunities. It is one of the most depressed areas in the United States, even before the current economic depression. It is often the coldest place in the nation and we are so isolated – from four to six hours north of Portland.

The project began three years ago when I was at a conference. Two gentlemen over lunch asked if we could distribute their over-runs and unsold inventory – it was brand new and they just could not throw it out – as they knew that many people could use it. They were from Southern Maine, a company that personalizes top quality clothing, office supplies and other advertising merchandise for industry and for companies like McDonalds, TDAmerica, Hannaford, Tyler and many other organizations. Soon 16 pallets arrived (over 180 boxes) of merchandise to be distributed. We had no place to put it as our office is very small, but the owner of our office building allowed us to temporarily store it in an empty office and to line the halls until we could distribute it. Read the full story...

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