Our Ministry
The Vietnamese products we sell help 2 important causes – our business allows our people back home in the villages of Vietnam to earn an honest livelihood and it also supports our Christian ministry.
We’ve been involved in visiting, counselling and helping the Vietnamese migrant workers since 2005 and our business continues to support and fund the work that we do.
We started helping Vietnamese workers in Penang because our business is located here. Our ministry works closely with them, offering them legal support and advocacy, teaching them about the dangers of HIV/AIDS and starting them on English language classes. Most importantly, we offer them spiritual guidance through learning and sharing from the Bible and ultimately, hope to welcome them into our church.
The Vietnamese Migrant Situation in Malaysia
The Vietnamese migrant population in Malaysia is estimated to be at 130,000. Many Vietnamese arrive here to work in factories, restaurants and construction sites. They usually have work contracts between 3 to 5 years. While they’re all grouped as Vietnamese, not everyone is the same. They come from different ethnic groups such as Tay, Muong, Nung etc. Many come from rural areas and are mostly poor.
They encounter many problems while working in Malaysia such as mistreatment from their employers. Other problems also crop up such as accidents during work hours, lack of insurance coverage, wrongful termination, illegal deportation, exploitation and immigration issues.
The Vietnamese are also beset by social problems such as premarital sex, unwanted pregnancies, venereal diseases, alcoholism, in-fighting, robbery and gambling. Many do not know whom to turn to for help due to the language barrier (many aren’t fluent in English). No one advocates for them when they are ill-treated or abused.
How We Help The Vietnamese
As one of us is a native Vietnamese and the other is a Malaysian lawyer trained in industrial law (and we both are fluent in Vietnamese, English and Bahasa Malaysia), we believe we have the necessary skills to help them. We work closely with local non-government organisations to identify those who need our assistance. We help arbitrate between the workers and their employers, we help argue their cases in court, if needed (we’ve picked up a few criminal cases even), and we counsel those who are in need of advice. In the future are plans to invite experts and guest speakers to impart to them useful skills such as financial management skills because most of them are still poor when their work contract expire.
Buy our Vietnamese arts and crafts and support our ministry!
