Once per year, a Families In Vietnam board member brings letters and care packages from the children’s sponsors and delivers them personally to the children and their families in Vietnam.  The board member will return with updates on their progress, photos, and letters from your sponsored children.  An email will be sent out letting everyone know when each trip is planned, along with the U.S. address for letters and packages.  The children love to maintain communication with their sponsors – it makes them feel really special!
 

No Language Barriers

Letters from you are translated by our staff for your sponsored child.  Feel free to include a photo of yourselves if you would like to do so – the kids love seeing your photos as much as you love seeing theirs!  If you would like letters from your sponsored child to be addressed to your own children instead of yourself, please email us their names.  The kids in our programs cherish hearing from the person who gives them so much; and it means a lot to them to know how much you care.

Care Package Guidelines

If you would like to put together a care package to be delivered to your child, here are some suggestions:

Ideas for gifts

• Underpants
• Jeans (slim or adjustable waist)
• Long and short-sleeved shirts
• Small dark-haired dolls for girls
• Barbies® for girls (name-brand, dark-haired)
• Small matchbox cars/motorcycles for boys
• Book bags: backpacks or over-the-shoulder style

Hints and Tips: Purchasing

• No candy or gum – they do not brush teeth, and developing a taste only leads to future preference. Sugar-free gum is not available in Vietnam, so a desire for gum is fulfilled by regular gum.
• Clothing purchased abroad is generally of higher quality than that purchased in Vietnam
• Child’s size is generally the child’s age (email us if you don’t know your child’s date of birth)
• Don’t send things such as school supplies- paper, pens, etc. are purchased from the school, so that “our” kids are the same as the higher-income kids
• No shorts for girls – only capri-style
• Avoid white due to dirt

Hints and Tips: Packing

• Remove excess packaging so that more can fit into suitcases
• Make everything as compact as possible – it will be carried in checked luggage
• Send packages with “No Signature Required”
• No gift wrap (the authorities may want to see what is being brought)
• Remove price tags
• Put everything for your child in a labeled bag (child’s full name, your name)

Hints and Tips: Ordering Online

• This is a great way for a sponsor outside the U.S. to send a care package
• Choose gifts for your child at online stores and have them shipped directly to the travelling board member’s address
• It is especially important to let us know so that we don’t have “mystery package”! Contact Us

Hints and Tips: Clothing to be purchased for your child in Vietnam
If you would like clothing to be purchased for your child in Vietnam, you can send a check or make an online donation to Families In Vietnam. 

• Please Contact Us for the mailing address
• Use the Donate button on the right sidebar for online donations with a note to indicate which child is the recipient of your donation

Your purchases and mailing expenses are tax-deductible at the same rate as cash donations.

Thank you!!!  Please see below for a few of our delivery pics!