Who Do We Serve?
The Beneficiaries of our work are primarily rural, ethnic minority, school-age children and their families. We sometimes work in urban areas too. We also improve the quality of life for children living in local orphanages with an eye on developing programs to help their families whenever possible.
We facilitate dialogue and create connections between families. We aim to serve first (birth) families in all provinces of Viet Nam, and adoptive families throughout the world.
How Do We Do It? (Our Programming)
We work locally with volunteers and community leaders to bring services and resources to the children and families we support. We provide nutritional lunches to poor students. We also bring books, bikes, warm clothing, chickens, pigs and other items to the families of vulnerable school children, and to children living in orphanages.
Our Sponsorship Program is unique in that every sponsor actually contributes directly to their family to help children continue their education and to increase family nutrition. We exchange letters and photos three times per year and many of our sponsors meet their sponsored family when they visit Viet Nam.
VNCGC’s Connecting Families Program is currently fee-based to cover costs in Viet Nam. Our goal is to raise funds to support this program making it available for all interested families.
What Value Do We Bring?
We work primarily with local counterparts because they understand their communities best. We improve the quality of life of our families by providing educational and livestock and food security programs. We tailor our support to provide the resources that are most beneficial. Through this approach, we ensure that the real impact of our work is received and felt by the children who participate in our programs.
Through our Connecting Families Program, we bring critical experience and skill to a complex and delicate process. We place equal importance on the wishes of both families, with special attention to the cultural, emotional, and privacy issues that are part of this exciting and healing journey.
What are our funding sources?
VNCGC relies primarily on the generous contributions of donors who wish to make a difference in the lives of Viet Nam's vulnerable and impoverished children and families. We have a unique, highly personalized Sponsorship Program for donors who wish to commit long term to assisting a child and/or their family to secure good nutrition and education for the children.
VNCGC Connecting Families Program is fee-based to cover costs of our Viet Namese staff. Many of our supporters are giving back to Viet Nam, a country that gave them so much and with which they have a special bond. Becoming part of our projects serves their hearts and fulfills their personal and family dreams.
How Did We Get Started?
Vietnam’s Children: A Global Connection, Inc, (VNCGC) Is the continuation and transformation of Charitable Dreams of the Lockwood family to honor their children who were born in Viet Nam. In 2008, it began as a project by their request as a fund of the NGOFamilies in Vietnam where it developed under the direction and primary funding of the family in 2012, VNCGC became a non-governmental organization (NGO) and is a U.S. registered nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Vietnam's Children: A Global Connection
Lelan Lockwood-Maldonado
President
Lelan is the eldest adopted daughter of VNCGC's co-founder, Bonnie Garner Lockwood. She has a personal bond with Vietnam as she is from Lang Son and was adopted in 2000. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and is continuing her education in a Clinical and Counseling Mental Health Master's program. Through her college career, she has completed research regarding the development and psychological well-being of children and adolescents. Her interest in children's health inspired her passion for VNCGC's purpose and motivates her work with Vietnam's students. She has grown up supporting VNCGC throughout her childhood and is excited about continuing to grow with it.
Hoang Thi Van
Volunteer
Hoang Thi Van is one of our dedicated volunteers in Viet Nam. She is committed to helping the children and families in our programs. She is a 2010 graduate of Hanoi Open University, where she majored in electronics and telecommunications technology. She currently works in customer relations and training for a Hanoi-based organization. Van enjoys music, swimming, and travel. We appreciate her efforts to help our Lang Son families!
Viet Nam’s Children: A Global Connection (VNCGC)
Susan A. Clark
Executive Board Member
Susan A. Clark, MA, has over 25 years of experience in the healthcare field, both domestically and abroad. She has worked and lived in many countries including several years in Viet Nam where she helped manage an international NGO striving to improve reproductive health through local capacity building. During extreme weather in northern Viet Nam, Susan founded “Blankets for Babies” and partnered with the Viet Namese government to get critical supplies to children in local orphanages. She also volunteered for a DC-based non-profit to help support ethical adoptions between the US and Viet Nam. In her last overseas assignment, she was a senior technical advisor to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Tanzania where she focused on developing health systems and better training programs for doctors, nurses, and social workers. Susan is mom to two wonderful children adopted from Da Nang, and is currently completing her training in mental health counseling at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She has a certificate in adoption studies from Rutgers University in addition to training in attachment and play therapy. Susan currently works with children and families at the Center for Counseling and Education (CFCE) in Medford, New Jersey. Susan holds a bachelor degree in psychology from Rutgers University, and a master of international affairs with a public health focus from Columbia University. Susan has been a VNCGC board member since 2012.
Where Do We Want To Be In The Future?
Our Vision is to see every family in Viet Nam escape from poverty and to witness first (birth) and adoptive families fulfill their dream of a loving and respectful connection.
How Do We Achieve Our Vision?
Our Mission is to provide opportunities for children, families, orphans and their communities in Viet Nam to overcome poverty. We initiate healing connections between adoptive families globally and first (birth) families in Viet Nam.
Tami Fur
Executive Board Member
After adopting her daughter from Lang Son in 2009, Ms. Fur felt passionate to both lend a hand in northern Viet Nam, and learn more about the traditions and culture of Viet Nam. After meeting Bonnie she quickly saw an opportunity to use her passion to be part of creating some positive results on the ground. In 2011, The Chicken project, was the first initiative she supported. Tami’s contributions in planning, fund raising and inspiration culminated in 2012 with the delivery of 1,164 healthy baby chickens, including feed for 2 months and the building of a chicken coop in Lang Son.
She holds a degree in Natural Resource Management which includes an emphasis on policy, economics. Working as a Manager in the BC Public Service, her transferrable contributions to the board include:
- Project management; including budgeting, work planning and risk analysis and mitigation
- Understanding of governance models; including writing and interpreting policy
- Principled decision making
- Transparency and financial management and reporting.
Nguyễn Trương Sơn
Volunteer, Vendor
Son is ‘on the ground’ in Viet Nam and instrumental in all of the work done by Viet Nam’s Children: A Global Connection (VNCGC); whether it is to ensure that goods are delivered to families through our Sponsorship Program, or the countless hours spent reconnecting adoptive and biological families through our Birth Family Services Program.
Son has spent the past 16 years in service to the charitable sector. Son is well suited to the challenging work of NGOs. He is particularly masterful in his work with birth families and adoptive families. With 8 years of experience in this area alone he consistently inspires trust in both families, is deeply respectful of them and brings a commitment to healing for all to this work.
Son earned his Bachelor Degree from the Hanoi University of Business and Management. He also studied business at the Pyramid Selangor Business Institute in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, and has certifications in Information Management and English.
Son’s graduate thesis in English received the highest mark in his class, and his work has been integrated into the course curriculum. Son is conversational in Chinese and has extensive knowledge of cultural and business practices in China.
Son is the proud and loving father to his young son. His heart also belongs to those less fortunate in Viet Nam and the VNCGC families worldwide.
Bonnie Garner Lockwood, MA, NCPsyA
Co-founder of Viet Nam’s Children: A Global Connection, Volunteer
Bonnie is a retired Nationally Certified Registered Psychoanalyst. She was awarded her postgraduate degree from the Training and Research Institute for Self-Psychology. She trained extensively in body-mind healing modalities. She is a certified practitioner of the Rubenfeld Synergy Method (RSM), certified in Imago Relationship Therapy (IRT) and Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP). Her years of training include in depth studies of Psychodrama, Gestalt Therapy, the Alexander Technique, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) and more. As part of her private practice she designed and conducted Transforming the Wounded Heart healing retreats for adult survivors of child abuse.
During these years, Bonnie volunteered to facilitate groups for survivors of sex abuse, present lectures, educate police, conduct workshops for public schools, community organizations, and raise public awareness in order to better prevent, protect and treat victims and offenders of childhood abuse.
In 2000 and 2007 she and her husband, Les, adopted their daughters in Viet Nam. Bonnie’s volunteer work deepened into a commitment to begin and oversee a fund for school children in rural Lang Son, Viet Nam.
While directing the Lang Son program she volunteered to facilitate connections between adoptive and birth families. Experiencing the positive effects of this process fueled her dream to continue this important work. To continue providing the services she valued, Bonnie created Birth Family Services, expanded the program, and co-created Viet Nam’s Children: A Global Connection (VNCGC).
It is the beauty of potential healing for all involved that first drew her to this work and the positive impact that connecting families has had on all involved that motivates her to do more. Her hope is to secure funding to further broaden this program, to make these connections available to more families and to continue helping vulnerable families and their children in Viet Nam.