Volunteer in Saigon

We no longer send volunteers to Saigon. We are now sending all Vietnam volunteers to our programs in Nha Trang

Saigon, a Venice of Southeast Asia or a chaos of motorbikes in the Mekong delta. Saigon is the dominant city in southern Vietnam, and a commercial center in the Mekong delta. The city still has many remnants of the colonial area but it's also a very busy city. Saigon has around 8 million inhabitants but very few cars.
Traffic is dominated by motorbikes and bikes and with very few cars. This has enabled the city to keep it's long boulevards with huge trees, green parks and the town is working to clean up its canals.
The Mekong river just south of Saigon

Volunteer Programs in Saigon

The Association of Women of Charity.
The Association of Women of Charity is running several love shelters housing approximately 150 orphans and street children. These shelters are located in different part of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). The children go to school everyday but they need extra English classes to help them catch up with other normal children in the school. By giving them a chance to improve their English, children can build up their confidence and integrate into the community and set up the first step for a bright future. At the same time, the nuns and the care givers also wish to learn English to help the children and to communicate with international sponsors when they visit the shelters.

Locations: Binh Minh Shelter (District 4), Ba Chieu Shelter (District Binh Thanh), Huong Duong Shelter (District 6), Anh Sang Shelter (District 3), Tan Binh Shelter (District Tan Binh), Hoa Sen Shelter (District 5), Tre Xanh Shelter (District 1).

The Dieu Giac Temple Orphanage
The Dieu Giac Temple Orphanage is located in central Saigon where it shelters and cares for over 120 abandoned, orphaned or street children. They range from several months to 18 years of age and are of different ethnic groups and religious backgrounds. The children of the orphanage are taken care of by a group of Buddhist nuns and volunteers. All the children who reach school age are sent to local school like normal children. After school hours, the children learn handcrafting such as knitting, embroidering and making wooden toys.

Volunteers will teach English to these disadvantaged children in a classroom setting with focus on communication skills. In most of the cases, volunteers teach children ages 6-15 for about 14-20 hours a week. Teaching English to these children not only offers the privilege of serving humanity, but also provides a significant opportunity to learn about teaching, cross-cultural adjustment, and team relationships. Volunteers can also support the shelter’s administrative staff in its daily tasks or organize extracurricular and creative activities such as games, drawing, and singing for the children. Volunteers will be required to travel between the shelters to give lessons.

Thi Nghe Orphanage
Thi Nghe is a large orphanage located in Binh Thanh District, which is currently caring for 400 residential children and about 200 out-patients, the large majority of which are children with disabilities. Many of the children have some level of malnourishment before they are admitted to the orphanage. Althoguh there are a lot of Vietnamee staff & nannies taking care of the children, there is a need for volunteers who can join their effort and bring more fun for the children. Volunteers will help to feed the kids, take care and play with them. Volunteers should not be afraid of working with disabled children.