“I am against government to government deve-lopment aid that hardly ever reaches the needy” – how Paul showed that aid can reach the needy.

Paul Cleves, Founder & Director, Saigon Children’s Charity, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

“It was not an easy decision to move to Saigon to establish a charity and leave behind the life I was leading before. For several years I was the head of the geography department at one of the most renowned schools in the world, Eton College, and I was teaching a subject that I was always very enthusiastic about. Still, somehow I felt that it was the right time and the right thing to do.” – Paul has the calmness and wisdom that you would expect from a professor and at the same time the spark of passion and compassion that he certainly needs to head a children charity.

It’s been ten years now, since Paul left London, and the first years living in Vietnam were quite difficult, dealing with unexpected cultural differences and getting frustrated that nothing went the way it should. But luckily, Paul was persistent enough to survive this period and today he is proud of the impact he and the organization had, still has and will have in the future on lives, and especially education, of the poorest of the poor Vietnamese children.

Let us give you a short impression of our lively and very interesting discussion with Paul Cleves in the following lines. You might be able to read more about him and his interesting projects in our book “MyImpact”.

Paul Cleves’s selected quotations:
“While teaching at Eton College and at the same time building up the charity projects in Vietnam I felt that neither of these jobs was getting 100% of my attention it deserved. The decision to quit after 13 years and to go to Vietnam was very difficult and everybody but one person told me to stay. However, I felt it was the right thing to go.”

“In 1995 I finally moved to Saigon. I just felt that this was what I needed to do. From the point of view of today, I believe it was the right decision and that I certainly did more good by coming here.”

“My teaching career was quite successful; I had a great job, I researched, I published, I travelled. I have done all these things with a lot of satisfaction. But then it was time to do something different.”

“I guess there was also some kind of a slightly romantic perception of living in Saigon, which, of course, did not turn out quite that way as soon as I really got to know the country and its challenges.”

“It never occurred to me to focus on anything else than education. With my background it somehow seemed obvious.”

“To assume (as some in the West do) that people in Asia need your help is somewhat arrogant. Misrepresentation by the media means that many children in the UK believe that people will die without their immediate help.”

“I met Vietnamese boat people who settled in London – they were in a foreign country, had to build a new life and were very often missing their family members from whom they got separated. What impressed me most was how cheerful they were after all these experiences. I was intrigued to get to know the country which produced these people.”

“I visited Vietnam a couple of times and at some point I suddenly thought that I probably should contribute something the next time I go. Maybe find a little project that the boys at Eton could support. At that point I was – and still am – against government to government development aid that hardly ever reaches the needy.”

“When I started the charity I wanted to do things right from the beginning and so I spent a lot of time thinking and setting up principles like: we help only the poorest of the poor, we work very targeted within the communities, we never finance projects fully, we make sure that we do not build dependency etc.”

“The first 12 months in Saigon were really difficult and it was frustrating that nothing went at the pace I was used to; apart from this I was alone. The situation became better when I found the right Vietnamese people to work with and when I started to understand the Vietnamese way of doing things.”

“What gives me most satisfaction today is that the organisation is quite well established. I used to be involved in all important decisions; today, my Vietnamese colleagues take many important decisions. We all share the vision and the principles that this charity has been built on, but everyone helps to improve it.”

Some background on Paul Cleves:
Paul Cleves was born and grew up in England. He went to study geography in Manchester and was offered a job teaching geography at Eton College soon after graduation. After focusing on physical geography in his first few years, he shifted more and more to human geography. After around 10 years of teaching Paul was assigned the Head of the Geography Department.

Apart from his extensive research of the Gorner Glacier in Zermatt, Paul developed a fervent interest in the third world. Visiting Egypt with its completely different culture and extensive poverty, was a real awakening for Paul and let him study and teach human geography (urbanization, demography, population distribution etc.) from a more accurate perspective.

Having known Vietnamese boat people from East London, where he also met his wife, he got more and more interested in Vietnam. After years of asking the Vietnamese embassy for a visa in vane, he finally got his first chance in 1987. Having seen shacks without real roofs, without electricity where young Vietnamese people tried to study, he oneday thought it would be great to find a small project which his Eton students could contribute directly to and do something good. Paul took care that the mistakes which were made in large scale aid projects would not be repeated in his projects. The response from his students in England was fantastic. Then as the number of projects grew, Paul finally decided to work full time for Saigon Children’s Charity in 1995.

Some background on Saigon Children’s Charity (SCC):
Paul Cleves founded Saigon Children’s Charity in 1992 in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) to help needy Vietnamese children escape form poverty. This is done by providing them with opportunities for education and training which their poverty and circumstances deny them. Most of the work is done in the rural areas surrounding Ho Chi Minh City.
The philosophy steering SCC’s work can be summarized in the following key points:
- SCC concentrates on helping only the poorest
- SCC focuses on education and training
- SCC’s goal is an independent and brighter future for the children supported
- SCC costs are kept to a minimum: more than 84% of expenditures go directly to the educational programs

Over the last years SCC had great achievements in five different areas:
- Health education: 4000 children educated, 2500 children involved in intestinal worm programs, 1350 children cleaning their teeth regularly
- School building: more than 25 schools renovated, 105 classrooms built, 6000 children educated and 150.000 books provided
- English and vocational training: 550 children trained in English each year, 275 young people trained in vocational skills, 45 young people given on-the-job training by employers
- Scholarships: over 3000 sponsorships provided, 99% of primary school children go on to secondary school (most of them first in their family)
- Family savings and loans: 500 families recruited into the scheme, 2425 sustainable income generation activities funded, 3300 people have seen their living standards rise by up to 20% p.a., 100% successful repayment rate

If you would like to engage with the work of Paul Cleves or to know more about his organization “Saigon Children’s Charity”, please visit http://saigonchildren.com/index.php,
or, for more specific opportunities, contact joanna.stefanska@myimpact.ch or wolfgang.hafenmayer@myimpact.ch directly