"We Always Come Back" DVD from Library Project of Vietnam (LOV) Video

Last week, Chuck Theusch, one of the more significant contributor to this project gave an update at the Rotary Club of Winnetka-Northfield. During the meeting, Chuck shared with me a copy of a recent DVD they created explaining how they are helping the children through out Vietnam.

You can watch the video by clicking this link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mseGfJLq8o

Special Treat: Breakfast with Mike Leonard Helping Khai Tri Kids on Oct 12th

We are thrilled to have a special opportunity for you to have breakfast with Mike Leonard on Oct. 12th at McDonald’s Hamburger University in Oak Brook, IL. Breakfast will be between 7:15 – 8:00 a.m. We are limiting breakfast to 20 people who are willing to donate $100 to Helping Khai Tri Kids. Feel free to stay to listen to Mike @ 8:30 a.m. when he presents to 300 Chicagoland Learning Leaders How To Tell Your Own Story and shares personal insight on his book The Ride of Our Lives.

Click here to make your $100 donation online and we will email a confirmation with directions to the Oct. 12th breakfast.

Construction is nearly completed and starting to focus on the interior

Our Oct. 1st update from Vietnam, construction is nearly completed and new pictures will arrive soon for sharing on this blog.

The next phase of the Helping Khai Tri Kids project will be focusing on how we can help with equipping the library. Corinne Miller is looking into the One Laptop Per Child from MIT Media Lab and Allison Rossett suggested that we contact http://www.e-learningforkids.org/, a foundation Nick van Dam (CLO at Deloitte) founded and is the current Chairman.

Tom will be traveling to Khai Tri later in the month to help plan for our January ’08 trip and dedication ceremony with friends from Chicago. While Tom is in Vietnam is also be helping with a 12-day medical mission (Oct. 27 - Nov 11) – Tom will be keeping busy.

Khai Tri Kid Posing In Front of the New School Library & Innovation Center

With the roof and exterior brick walls nearly completed, one of the Khai Tri kids poses for this snapshot to be sent to the states.

I personally like this picture for a few reasons:

1. the focus of completing the project is for the kids,


2. the dry, rough brown grass which is the kids main playground is a harsh contrast to the lush green grass I have seen in Spring during the Lunar New Year in February, and


3. we can visual how the school library “fits” in with the existing classroom buildings included on the right of this picture. Currently the classroom building is only one-story … the longer term goal is to add a 2nd story of classrooms as the students graduate into secondary school and more classrooms are needed.

Viewing Tip: If you want to see a larger view of any pictures in the blog, just click on the pic and a larger one is presented on your screen.

Construction Pics @ Khai Tri (End of Aug 2008)

We are thrilled to see the construction progress on the new school library at Khai Tri. These pictures were received on Sept 6, 2007 from Vietnam. Tom is considering visiting the library at the end of October while he is on a medical mission with http://www.emascanada.org/. The construction should be completed in October and Tom can help make sure all is in order for when our Chicago group arrives in January ’08 for the dedication. Many thanks to all the people who helped make Miss Lam’s dream come true.

School Library Construction Underway

Over the weekend, we received our first pictures of the construction of the new school library and innovation center we are building for the Khai Tri kids. Click the photo of the Khai Tri kids above to enlarge the construction pictures on your computer screen.

This time of year it's hot in An Giang and it is the raining season - not easy conditions to build, but they are making progress.

Many thanks to everyone that has been helping make this dream come true.

We will be having a meeting this Friday (August 10th) for the Winnetka-Northfield Rotary Club members interested in visiting Khai Tri in January. If you are interested in joining us on the trip, please contact Dirk.Tussing@learningexecutive.com.

June 6th Ground Breaking Ceremony

Ground Breaking Ceremony was on June 6, 2007 and the library should be completed by the end of the summer before September classes start.

After we receive photos of the construction, we will post them on this blog.

The initial funds agreed to in the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) have arrived in Vietnam today.