INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT

                                                            OF EDUCATION IN VIETNAM  ( AIDEV )

COOPERATION WITH VINH LONG

This is the most extensive program that AIDEV has had with its Vietnamese partners and has beneficiated from the cooperation of all its members. It had the important support, financial and otherwise, of the Institut Universitaire de Technologie ( IUT ) of the University of Paris-Sud at Orsay and later on, of the IUT of Amiens and also got a subsidy from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( MAE ).

History

The cooperation started in 1999 with an email from the head of the IUT Orsay, Michel Pedoussaut, to the Association of which he became later a member.. Having a student who had expressed his desire to do his second year training in Viet Nam, our friend Michel looked up the internet and found the website of AideV. He was immediately directed to our friend Do Dang Giu, who at the time was a member of the same university. So was made the connection.

As a matter of fact, Michel was at the time not only head of the IUT of Orsay but also president of the Association of the directors of all the IUT of France. He expressed the opinion that the French IUT system which had been a success in France and had also been implanted with some success in some other third world countries ( Mexico, Argentina, Maroc … ) could be adaptd for Viet Nam. He looked for a place in Viet Nam to test the idea. The coincidence made it that at the same time, our friend Nguyen thi Phuong , a founding member of AideV, was sejourning in the country. She had received from the town of Vinh Long an urgent request for help in order to renovate its Higher Community School ( HCS ). So, through AideV, a cooperative connection is established between the IUT Orsay and the town of Vinh Long.

Starting the cooperation.

Michel Pedoussaut made a short visit to Vinh Long where he signed a memorandum of cooperation between IUT Orsay and the HCS and invited a delegation of the town to come to France. So, in May 2000, a delegation of 5 persons, conducted by Mrs. Dang Huynh Mai, a Vice Minister to be of education, arrived in France. This visit has been made possible thanks to :

-         the financial support of the IUT Orsay which took in charge the totality of the local expenses in France;

-         the logistic important support of the members of AideV

During two weeks, the delegation has had talks with the heads of the various departments of the IUT, with the president of the university of Paris-Sud. It  could visit the teaching laboratories of the IUT, a water purification plant of the Paris region. To close the visit, the delegation has signed an agreement of the three IUT of Orsay, Amiens and Senart-Fontainebleau, according to which these institutes would help the town of Vinh Long to transform the HCS to an establishment of the type IUT.

Results

The opening of the renovated HCS of Vinh Long took place in February 2003 in the presence of many delegations , those of Orsay and Amiens and AideV of  course, and many representatives of various HCS of Viet Nam, those of the surrounding Mekong region and also that of the city of Hai Phong of North Viet Nam. Following this opening, the HCS of Vinh Long has beneficiated from other supports :

-         an invitation for two young men ( Thien and Phuc ) to come to Orsay for a training period of 3 months, at the laboratory for water treatment of the IUT;

-         an invitation for Miss Linh to come for a 3 months training at the IUT of Amiens

-         a program of loan created by AIDEV. These loans without interest of 2 millions VND each were given to 12 students for the first year ( 2003) and to 24 students the following years. They were given with the promises from the beneficiaries to start to refund once they get a job after ending their studies, at the mimimum rate of 5% of their salary. This program, being intended to help the HCS at its beginning is supposed to end in 2008.

-         AideV has also obtained a subsidy of 5000€ from the French MAE ( 90% only has been received ) for the writing and translation of pedagogical documents in Vietnamese. This program was completed in September 2005.