KOTO is a charity training restaurant for street children set up in 1996 in
Hanoi,
Viet
nam by Vietnamese-Australian
Jimmy Pham (pdf file).
Of the more than 100 or so former street kids who have learned cooking, waiting and bar skills, 100% of KOTO graduates have since become employed in hotels and restaurants in Hanoi.
KOTO stands for
Know One Teach One and they
provide uniforms, accomodation,
most meals and a small wage during the traineeship.
Even
Bill Clinton ate there.
Street children number something in the order of 20,000 or more in Vietnam
and most head to the city from poor villages in the countryside, seeking their own slice of the wealth that transition to a market economy is said to generate. Most
make little money shining shoes and selling postcards and many become involved in drugs, crime, prostitution or are harassed and arrested by the Police.
Hoa Sua restaurant is another exemplary training enterprise (French affiliation) run along similar lines to KOTO excepting that they also have bakery outlets and embroidery training.
These organizations are hopeful examples of education combatting the cycle of poverty.
(
Aside: but no
contribution to the Vietnamese economy will be
forthcoming from U.S. chemical companies who supplied
agent orange during the war)
posted by peacay
on Mar 11, 2005 -
11 comments