Da Lat Home for the Blind

This very modest building houses two Sisters and six boys. The boys sleep on mattresses on the floor.
Another half dozen children (mostly girls) come to the Home during the day either for class or for help with their studies at other schools.

Minh is 15 and is "multi-impaired" and is schooled at the center.

Krotbras a.k.a. Rom is 17. He is a member of an "ethnic minority" (hence the unusual name for a Vietnamese person). He attends 8th grade at a local school.

Luan is 13 and of the same ethnic group as Krotobras. He is completely blind. Here he is writing a composition in Braille using a stylus and a rubber template.

Lung is 11 and is also schooled at the center.
He is smiling because his father had just telephoned to tell him that Lung will be coming home for Tet. Sister Hung is trying to keep him on task.
Many children with disabilities who need special education must live away from home.
Travel is very difficult in Vietnam and many families of these children live in remote areas.

Here is BVCF Boardmember Joseph Murphy teaching the song "Bingo" to the boys.
("there was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name").
They look pretty serious, but they were trying to have a good time...honest!
The boy in the back to the left is Bao. He was quite comfortable speaking with Joseph in English.
Bao is a classmate of Krotbros. Both "low-vision" boys borrow notes from sighted classmates
and copy them outside class because it is too hard to write notes in class.

Here are the "Boys of Da Lat" eating dinner.

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