With December upon us, we are nearing the mid-point of our 40-week teaching year. What a great start to the year it has been! We have made some big changes and it has been very exciting to see the chances we took begin to pay off. For example, you may recall that last year's program in South Vietnam featured a Mobile Teaching Team equipped with Lead & Assistant Teachers, backpacks filled with Classmate PCs, and motorbikes. The teaching team traveled to and from 6 classrooms each week, offering 27 hours of computer lessons to 109 students. The idea was pretty cool. But the toll on the teachers was significant. Hot sun. Heavy rains. Bulging backpacks. Epic Vietnamese traffic jams. Something needed to give.

So we made a change. We cut-back, and then re-focused. Not only in Ho Chi Minh City, but throughout the country. We dropped from 14 classrooms - and nearly 900 students - to 8 classrooms and 215 children. We rented an office. We hired a new Lead Teacher. We designated "Focus Orphanages" where Orphan Impact can really put our program to the test in evaluating the future impact we can have in these kids' lives when we have 3-5 years to prepare students for university or certificate courses or the job market. We set-up computer labs in the orphanages so the kids have opportunities to practice their skills when we are not teaching. We started a career-planning and counseling program for the 16-18 year old students.

In short, we look a lot different now than we did at this time last year.

But we are also still the same. Those of you with experience in Southeast Asia have probably heard the old adage: Same Same, But Different. We feel this represents us well. We may have made some big changes, but we held onto our strengths. We hosted our 5th Intel Education Service Corps team to provide our teachers with continued skill development. We continue our open source policy of sharing our experiences and sharing our lesson plans with other organizations in Vietnam who are wanting to teach computer & internet. We still focus on keeping our costs low and sharing our budget with our donors. And, most importantly, we continue to be unwavering in our commitment to the orphan children participating in our program: We are using computers to teach the kids important next generational skills and the internet to open the kids up to a new world of information and opportunity. We want every single child participating in our program to be better equipped for the lives they will lead when they leave the orphanage. We want our kids to leave the orphanage armed with confidence to face their future rather than a feeling of despair.

As you prepare for your holiday gift-making this year, I ask you to consider making a gift to Orphan Impact. I have set a goal of raising $12,464 ($6,990 to cover 6 months of operating expenses in our 3 focus orphanages and $5,474 for capital improvement purchases of 14 Classmate PCs) to help jump-start 2012 and guide us through another great year. Please take a moment to browse the profiles of our children who are currently without sponsors or take a look at our donation page to see other options for contributing to Orphan Impact.

Know that these children are taking huge steps of progress in learning new skills and gaining much needed self-confidence. With your help, they will have the opportunity to continue their preparation for their lives beyond the orphanage.

Always feel free to give me a call 503.597.8322 or send me an email (tad@orphanimpact.org).

Many blessings to you and your family.

With much gratitude,

Tad Kincaid