Our First Year at UPP
By: Aiyetoro Hinds
2021 has demonstrated that individuals are willing to invest their time towards improving the well-being of others. Giving to others is an experience that rejoices us with an indescribable sense of fulfilment. Having this insight inspired us to serve over 70 children through our projects in our first year.
Having a flexible mindset alongside a clear goal helped us to cope with the challenges of 2021. Despite many setbacks, the year was a success!
We finished the year with:
22 Football sessions
14 Online classes
15 In-person classes.
Our goal in 2021 was to provide stimulating and beneficial opportunities for young people that assist in their development into social moral beings. This goal was challenged from the start, with us having to cancel our first project in February 2021. We had planned to host a football tournament for orphans in District 2, Ho Chi Minh City, but were forced to cancel due to increased Covid-19 cases.
Love and Education - Class 1
This challenge led to us having to adjust our plans immediately and resulted in our first project: Love and Education. Love and Education was a series of online classes that connected youth from different countries around the world in the same online classroom. After one month we hosted classes with children from Vietnam, Jamaica, Bermuda, Canada and Peru.
Love and Education inspired us to move forward with our projects and by April we were gifted with the opportunity to start hosting English classes at the Green Bamboo Center in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. These classes allowed us to connect with multiple students from different areas throughout the city. We created a compassionate and engaging environment that allowed students to develop their understanding of the English language.
By May, we had over 15 volunteers and were hosting four English classes every week, alongside football sessions every Sunday. I was ecstatic. We quickly built momentum. Not only were we connecting youth from different parts of the city but we were actively contributing towards our goal. People were contacting me about ways to get involved and we made exciting plans to host our football tournament in the summer. However, our plans would not come to fruition…
By the end of May, the number of Covid-19 cases in Vietnam rapidly increased and we quickly found ourselves in a city-wide lockdown. The lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City lasted for five months and was a very difficult time for me. Uncertainty of when the restrictions would end, alongside missing family and friends, nearly led to me leaving Vietnam. Having a flexible mindset with a clear goal assisted me through this period and would lead to our hosting of online classes once again.
I was incredibly grateful for the end of lockdown in September and the opportunity to resume our weekly football sessions again. I was further surprised by the amount of people who were motivated to contribute towards our projects and who have ultimately allowed us to continue serving again. Despite not being able to conduct our face-to-face classes due to Covid-19, we were able to remain consistent with our football sessions.
We finished our last session of the year with parachute games, races, pizza and Christmas gifts. I am so proud of what we have accomplished this year. We have contributed towards our goal and have advanced in our commitment to improving the social well-being of others. I am very excited about our plans for the future. Bring on 2022!
