Some dreams do not end for lack of will. They end over a tuition bill a family simply cannot find. For nine years, CIFE has been looking for exactly those children — and staying with them until the day they hold a diploma.
CIFE Social Enterprise Co., Ltd.Selection procedure CIFE-QT-01Updated September 2026Tiếng Việt
The journey
Each year, one step closer to the root
CIFE began in 2018 as a charitable fund under MK Development Management Co., Ltd., and became CIFE Social Enterprise Co., Ltd. in 2023.
Looking back over nine years, no step was accidental. Every project started with going there in person and seeing one very concrete thing standing in a child's way. Once we removed it, we saw the next thing, lying deeper — and we kept going.
A schoolyard and a fence
A drainage canal runs right in front of Phuong Phu 3 Primary School in Hau Giang. At break time the children chased each other along its edge. We paved the yard and built a fence — so that no child would ever fall in.
A boarding house
In Lo Pang, many children walked ten kilometres a day across several hills to reach class. A place to sleep means that in the morning they no longer have to choose between school and home.
School sanitation
A clean toilet block spares children the illnesses that spread through schools, and removes a fear few speak about but which keeps many students — girls above all — away from class. We have now built 12 of them.
Winter coats for highland children
More than 3,000 padded coats have gone to children in the highlands, the remote interior and the border districts, so they can get through the hard northern winter warm.
Full scholarships
And last, the barrier that is hardest to remove and pushes more children out of the classroom than any other: tuition and the cost of living.
2018 – 2022 · Infrastructure
Things you can put your hand on
Before there were scholarships, CIFE's work was cement, brick and corrugated roofing. The first project, in 2018 in Hau Giang province, was a concrete yard and a fence for Phuong Phu 3 Primary School, so that children would no longer wade through mud into class during the rainy season, and no child would fall into the canal in front of the gate.
DuringThe construction crew and CIFE staff on site, Hau Giang, 2018.AfterThe finished yard, ready for the opening of the 2018 - 2019 school year.
In 2019 we went up to Lo Pang, Gia Lai province, to build the Boarding House of Love. Until then, children living far away walked ten kilometres of hill road each day; many dropped out not because they did not want to learn, but because the journey was too long.
DuringThe Lo Pang boarding house, Gia Lai, August 2019.AfterThe finished dormitory — bunk beds, bedding, a window onto the yard.
AfterThe dining room. From here on, children living far away had somewhere to come back to after class.
School sanitation
From the existing state, to a survey, to a building
This is the area where CIFE has done the most — 12 buildings across the country — and the one least often talked about. A derelict toilet block does more than spread disease. It makes children hold on, feel ashamed, and then dread coming to school at all. Our sequence never changes: see the existing state with our own eyes, survey it together with the school, then build anew.
Existing stateThe old sanitation block, derelict and no longer usable.SurveySurvey at Ninh Tan, Khanh Hoa, August 2023.
AfterBuilding number 28 — "Ia Chim Yeu Thuong", Kim Dong Primary School, Kon Tum, inaugurated on 27 September 2024.AfterThe handwashing area, with a sign reminding the children about hygiene and saving water.
Highland winter coats
More than 3,000 coats, turning schoolyards red
Winter in the northern highlands is cold in a way that is hard to describe. Children come to class in thin, worn jackets with their hands pulled up inside the sleeves. CIFE has carried winter coats up to schools in Dien Bien, Son La, Ha Tinh and Quang Ngai — more than 3,000 of them so far.
A whole schoolyard in a single shade of red. Many schools keep the CIFE coats as the children's winter uniform.The "Walking You to School" programme. The coat is bigger than the child — but it is enough to get through one winter.Coats in hand, the children run home to the village. Their feet are still bare on the dirt road, but there is now a warm coat on their shoulders.
The turning point, 2023
After five years, the Board looked back and saw a limit in its own work. Giving gifts to a different group of children each year reached many situations, but it never stayed with anyone long enough to change anything. A winter coat carries a child through one winter. It does not keep that child in the classroom the following year.
Out of that came the CIFE full scholarship. Fewer children, but walking beside each of them for years, all the way to graduation.
Criteria
Who CIFE looks for
The scholarship is for students who are academically strong, in exceptionally difficult circumstances, and at high risk of dropping out. That last clause matters most. We look for the students for whom a single tuition bill can decide whether they stay in school at all.
The family is classified as poor or near-poor under government regulations.
A parent has lost the ability to work through disability or terminal illness; or the student has lost one or both parents and has no one to depend on.
Good conduct and excellent academic results. Priority goes to students who have competed at district level or above in Excellent Student examinations.
Students with merely good results are still considered where the hardship is exceptional and the determination is clear.
The family is in good standing with local law and policy.
Applications reach CIFE only through a referral — from the student's own school, from a licensed charitable organisation, or from a CIFE partner. We do not accept open applications: the referral is the first layer of verification.
Why upper secondary and university
CIFE walks with students from upper secondary school through to the end of university, rather than starting in primary or lower secondary. That is a deliberate choice.
In primary and lower secondary school, fees are low and children are covered by a range of exemptions. From grade 10 onwards, and then at university, everything reverses: costs multiply, students must leave home for the city, and rent and food are added to the bill. That is also the age at which a child becomes old enough to work and help the family.
This is the moment a struggling family has to choose: keep the child in school, or send the child out to earn. A great many stop here — not because they cannot learn, but because their family has reached its limit. It is the stage that decides the rest of their lives, and the stage where the risk of dropping out is highest. That is exactly where CIFE chooses to stand beside them.
Procedure CIFE-QT-01
Ten steps, following the school calendar
The selection procedure is issued as an internal document, drafted by the Project Manager and approved by the Director, the Chairman of the Members' Council and the Advisory Board. Each step is tied to a fixed date, so that no child is missed because a file arrived late.
Receive nomination lists and applications
March – May
Screen applications against the criteria and draw up the survey list
April – May · contact schools and local authorities to schedule visits
Carry out field surveys
May – first week of June
Collect complete files and submit the official list for approval
Weeks 3 – 4 of May
Prepare the award plan and the budget
Weeks 1 – 2 of June · including the school contact point, the list of study materials to purchase, and the total cost
Award the scholarships and gifts, and sit down with the students
July – August or September each year
Receive periodic academic reports from the school or class teacher
Mid-term I, end of term I, mid-term II and end of year
Archive files by school and region
Unscheduled visits and encouragement
Mid-Autumn Festival and Lunar New Year
Produce the annual report
Award list, academic results and total expenditure
Applications are received from 15 June to 15 August each year. Students already on the scholarship submit their school-certified academic report between 15 June and 15 July.
The survey
We go to the house
Step 3 is never shortened. A paper file gives you income and grades. But you only understand the real situation once you are sitting inside the house: the tin roof, the woven walls, the earth floor — and which corner of it is where the child studies.
A home survey for a student of Go Cong Dong High School, Tien Giang, May 2023.Inside the home of a student of Nguyen Van Con High School — woven walls, tin roof.
Tin roof, woven walls, earth floor. The round table in the middle is where the family eats and where the child does homework. This is what a poverty certificate cannot tell you.
The first year · 2023
Two starting points for the scholarship programme
Tien Giang — from Xanh Yeu Thuong to an open letter
The introduction came from our partner organisation Xanh Yeu Thuong. Through that connection, on 5 June 2023 the Go Cong Dong District Study Promotion Association sent CIFE an open letter. It reported that the district still had 678 poor households and 1,689 near-poor households, and asked CIFE to help students at two schools: Nguyen Van Con High School and Go Cong Dong High School.
We travelled to Tien Giang in May 2023, just as the school year ended. That is precisely the moment when grade 12 students hold a university acceptance letter in their hands and start calculating whether to go to work instead of enrolling. After the surveys, CIFE took on 15 students from Go Cong Dong High School and 7 from Nguyen Van Con High School for the 2023 - 2024 school year.
Meeting the students at school, Tien Giang, 2023. At either end of the row are Ms Trinh Hong Nhung and Ms Nguyen Thi Hong Tham.A working session with the board of Nguyen Van Con High School to verify each student's circumstances.
Ha Tinh — through a sponsor's introduction
That same year, Mr David Mackay of Avolta — a Platinum sponsor who has accompanied CIFE for six seasons — and his wife introduced us to Ly Tu Trong High School in Ha Tinh. They joined the survey trip themselves. Afterwards, CIFE funded 20 students from the list the school proposed, awarded on 5 August 2023.
Mr David Mackay and his wife with CIFE representatives and students at Ly Tu Trong High School, Ha Tinh, 2023.
What the scholarship covers
Full, in the literal sense
We do not hand over a sum of money and leave the student to manage. The CIFE scholarship covers, in full, the costs that make a struggling family consider taking a child out of school.
Tuition and school chargesFull-year tuition, supplementary class fees, school health insurance, accident insurance and other school levies.
Uniforms and school suppliesUniforms, PE kit, shoes, textbooks, reference books, notebooks, bags and stationery.
Accommodation and travelDormitory fees or a rent subsidy, plus travel costs for university students.
Living costsA monthly living allowance; in exceptional cases also a study space at home and a means of getting to school.
We do not give students a lump sum for the whole year. Tuition, insurance and school charges are transferred directly to the school or to the student against receipts. The accommodation and living-cost support is transferred to the student's own bank account each month, with full supporting documents kept on file.
Four school years
Every semester is a fresh decision
A CIFE scholarship is not awarded once and forgotten, but neither does it renew by default. At the end of each semester, students send in their school-certified results. We check them against the criteria to decide whether the award continues: upper secondary students must maintain excellent results; university students must hold good to excellent standing and fail no module. It is a commitment in both directions — CIFE keeps its word, and so do they.
School year
Students
Composition
Budget (VND)
2023 - 2024
42
9 university students, 33 high-school students
558,498,150
2024 - 2025
34
25 university students, 9 high-school students
950,558,155
2025 - 2026
31
All university students
937,886,595
2026 - 2027
33
All university students · projected
880,016,000
Why the budget falls
The first year always costs the most: enrolment, initial equipment, finding a room, learning to live in a city. From the second year the students have settled, many take part-time work and cover part of their own costs. The budget falls not because CIFE is cutting back, but because they are standing more firmly on their own feet.
The number of students changes from year to year, and we record the reasons exactly as they happened: a few chose a different path after grade 12, one passed the entrance examination for a military academy where all costs are covered, and some did not maintain the renewal criteria.
In the 2025 - 2026 year, two students had their scholarships suspended for failing to meet the academic requirement. This is the hardest part of the work, and we do it anyway, because criteria only mean something if they are actually applied. Suspension is not termination: both students were reassessed the following year, and both returned to the list. That is exactly the outcome we hope for — not a punishment, but a reminder that this opportunity has a price.
At the 2026 - 2027 award ceremony we announced our first two graduates — two students who walked the whole road that, four years earlier, had looked as though it would have to be abandoned.
2023 - 2024 · The award ceremony in Go Cong Dong, 26 August 2023.2024 - 2025 · The ceremony, attended by district leaders and the Study Promotion Association.
2025 - 2026 · 31 students, by then all at university.2026 - 2027 · The two new graduates receive their certificates of completion.
Students studying far from home join the ceremony on screen. Step 6 of the procedure is not only about handing over money — it is about meeting, asking after each other, and listening to how their year has gone.
Nine years · 2018 – 2026
What has been done
40projects completed
37schools supported
22provinces and cities
10.29billion VND in funding
12school sanitation projects
02boarding house projects
3,000+winter coats for highland children
5,000+gift packages
Figures compiled as at 29 September 2025.
Year
Projects
2018
Schoolyard in Hau Giang · Linh Trung Ward study promotion fund · Scholarships at Thanh Loc Secondary School
2019
Build a School, Welcome the Children — Coc Bang, Cao Bang · Boarding House of Love, Lo Pang · Anh Duong Special School
2020
Classroom of Love — Y Ngong Primary School · Central Vietnam Relief · School sanitation at Bung Binh Primary School, Tay Ninh
2021
Shelter of Love (Covid-19 response) · School sanitation, Da Lat · Support for the Saigon Children's Charity
2022
Well drilling in Ngam Dang Vai commune, Ha Giang · Thien An boarding house · Six school sanitation projects in Ham Tan (Binh Thuan), Tien Phuoc (Quang Nam), Hai Chau (Nam Dinh), Hoa My and Vinh An (Hue), Nam Hung (Nghe An) · Teach For Vietnam Quang Nam · Truc Lam Bien Hoa Monastery
2023
Walking You to School — Northwest · NHO Scholarship · School sanitation at Ninh Tan, Khanh Hoa · 20 scholarships at Ly Tu Trong High School, Ha Tinh · 22 scholarships at Go Cong Dong District People's Committee · Nguyen Duc Canh Scholarship
2024
Ia Chim school sanitation project — Kim Dong Primary School, Kon Tum · 34 full scholarships · 50 school hats · SAL Scholarship
2025
CIFE scholarship ceremony for 2025 - 2026 · 186 winter coats and 1,000 face masks at Huong Binh Primary School, Ha Tinh · 200 winter coats at Tra Tan Primary and Secondary School, Quang Ngai · Support for Anh Linh School, 250 packages
2026
33 full scholarships awarded
Certificates of merit and letters of thanks from local authorities, government departments and schools over nine years.
Thank you
Not one building and not one scholarship of the past nine years belongs to CIFE alone. Behind every figure above stand our partners, our sponsors, the teachers and the local authorities who placed their trust in us and walked the road with us.
CIFE thanks you sincerely, and hopes to keep walking beside you on the road ahead — so that more children reach school, and go the whole way.
