Partner Organizations

The three organizations from which Armed with a Paintbrush currently receives works of art—Thao Dan, Friends for Street Children, and Truong Hoc Tre Em Su Tram Tre/ School for Mentally Disabled Children (SMDC)—all built their programs upon the recognition of the reality of the growing dangers of having children live in the streets.  Each of these organizations has developed specific programs which target certain groups of this marginalized population of children.

*Thao Dan is comprised of three different orphanages—the Drop-In Center, the Safe House, the Hope House—and a Street Outreach Program.  The Drop-In Center is a place of refuge where children living on the streets can come to get a warm meal and a clean bed.  Additionally, social workers at the Drop-In Center work with children to either re-unite them with their families, or place them in a permanent orphanage.  The Safe House is an orphanage for sexually abused and/or exploited boys.  Thao Dan also provides these children with full-time schooling.  The Hope House is an orphanage for boys who are HIV/AIDS positive.  In addition to full-time schooling, Thao Dan also holds awareness education workshops and sponsors these boys to attend national conferences on HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness.

*FFSC provides social programs and services for underprivileged children and their families so that they may enhance their available resources while, at the same time, be protected against all forms of abuse.  FFSC currently delivers social programs to 1,780 children and their families from eight different Development Centers in and around Ho Chi Minh City—Le Minh Xuan, Pham Van Hai, Binh Hung, Tan Huong, Phu Tho, Binh Trieu, and Thu Thiem.  Each of these centers enables displaced and disadvantaged children to receive education, healthcare and social guidance.  Teachers and social workers at the centers also work with the children’s families and communities to raise awareness of the importance of the education and proper care of their children in order to successfully integrate them into society.

*SMDC serves as a school and home for over 200 mentally disabled and handicapped children.  The majority of the children served by SMDC were orphaned at birth—their disabilities proving to be too much an economic strain on their already impoverished families.  In order to accommodate the unfortunate frequency with which these children are abandoned at hospitals, SMDC’s staff and volunteers make daily visits to Ho Chi Minh City’s hospitals in search of these babies.  SMDC also owns a popular café at which young adults from their school are employed—serving to help integrate them into society and provide them with practical working skills.

While organizations such as Thao Dan, FFSC, and SMDC have wonderful programs structured around the specific needs of the children with which they are working, funds are scarce.  As a result of this financial deficiency, all of the money these organizations receive goes directly to funding their honorable projects, leaving no expenditures for activities geared to build the children’s moral.  It is here where Armed with a Paintbrush’s mission becomes two-fold: (1) providing the artists with a sense of confidence and pride as they witness, first-hand, a foreigner finding their work of art important enough to bring it home as a souvenir of their travels abroad, and (2) providing the finances to these organizations to fund much-needed outings, performances, and educational activities—all of which will help to build these children’s self-esteems and sense of citizenry, instead of ostracized outcasts of society.