I AM KIANH
My name is Minh, I'm 13 years old. I started at Kianh aged 5.
I have some developmental delay, which apparently made me a bit naughty so the teachers in the mainstream school asked me to leave after one year. This was very hard for my mum, who looks after me on her own. We don't have much money, we live on the money my mum makes from the vegetables she grows in our garden. My not being allowed to go to school made life even harder.
When she heard about Kianh from some people in our village, she put me on her bicycle and rode there as fast as she could. She was so happy when I was accepted into the school, and I was happy too, because it was boring and sad at home on my own, just hanging around on my own while my mum worked, and not having any friends to play with. We can't afford a motor bike and it takes 3 hours out of my mum's day, ferrying me to school and back on her bike, but she says it is more than worth it. Her proudest day was when I learned to read and write and was moved up to the mainstream class at Kianh. I can do so many things now and my teachers tell me that my future looks rosy, and I believe them.
Our names are Jackie and Jacci. We founded The Kianh Foundation in the year 2000
In the year 2000 , Jackie Wrafter MBE and the poet, Jacci Bulman were in Hoi An and feeling fed up and motivated to move onto a less touristy area. On their last day in the area they visited the local state orphanage and what they found there changed their lives. They came across a dark, locked room with no natural light or fresh air. Children were curled up in foetal positions (some banging their heads repeatedly on the wall) on wooden cots with buckets underneath to catch defecation. They were just being kept alive.
As they opened the door to the room a few of the more cognitive children turned their heads towards the shaft of light – it was like a scene from the movie “Awakenings” - they had clearly been abandoned on a daily basis. They stayed for the day and opened the windows and took some of the children outside. It was amazing to see the response as these ghost children came alive, it was an epiphany moment, and the inspiration for setting up The Kianh Foundation.
Today, Kianh Foundation runs its own school and therapy centre and gives families the support they need to allow them to keep their special child within the family and not give them up to an orphanage or institution.
My name is Hien, I'm a 14 year old girl. I started at Kianh when I was 5.
I have Down's Syndrome and was not allowed to attend a regular mainstream school. My family were so worried about me until they found Kianh. I loved it here from day one. We do so many of the things that I love, like singing, dancing, yoga and art. I have a big gang of friends here and we love swapping jewelry and doing each other's hair and chasing each other at playtime. I have worked my way up through all the classes at the school and now I am in the mainstream class. I now have a new passion to add to my creative ones and that is reading. I love reading books and can happily spend hours doing it. A lot of people in my village are surprised that I can read; in fact, they are surprised that I can do a lot of the things I can do. I am super talented, and apparently a bit of a Diva, but no one may ever have found that out unless I'd come to Kianh.
What we do
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