Media
Lifestart for Vietnam's kids
Star - Tuesday 29 June 2004
Karen Leonard organises a major fundraiser to support her charity work in Vietnam, as Mario Xuereb reports
A MAJOR fundraiser to support orphaned youths and street kids in Vietnam will be held in Footscray.
Organiser Karen Leonard, founder of the Lifestart Foundation, called on Maribyrnong's Vietnamese businesses and residents to support the cause.
Ms Leonard, a music teacher from Essendon, has spent the last five years working to improve the lives of Vietnam's poor.
Using mostly her own money and donations from friends, Ms Leonard has personally helped turn around the lives of ordinary Vietnamese, especially orphans and street kids.
"I was backpacking in Vietnam a couple of years back and, though I'd seen this type of poverty before, something inside of me decided that I could no longer be an observer - I had to do something," she said.
Ms Leonard now makes annual trips to Vietnam where she funds and sets-up programs to break the poverty cycle.
She also works to improve orphanage facilities.
"Conditions at the orphanages are extremely spartan," Ms Leonard said.
"Children usually sleep eight to ten per room with wooden bunk beds without mattresses."
Ms Leonard has also set up programs to help poverty-stricken families start small businesses.
Other programs find traineeship opportunities for street kids and at-risk youth in Vietnam.
"Vietnam has thousands of street kids," she said.
"Most of these children have not had a good education, except for the school of hard knocks on the street."
One of Ms Leonard's first projects was to find an apprenticeship for a Vietnamese boy selling postcards.
The boy found work in a restaurant and is now training as a chef.
Ms Leonard said that even the smallest efforts have had a profound impact on people's lives, with many now able to access schools and medical treatment.
So far Ms Leonard's efforts have relied on her own funds but she is keen on expanding her work.
The fundraising dinner dance in August will be the Lifestart Foundation's first major charity drive.
Ms Leonard hoped Footscray's strong Vietnamese community and businesses would help support the foundation's work by attending the dinner.
"Though a very small portion of Vietnamese people are doing well in their homeland, the majority are still struggling," she said.
"They need a lot of help and it would be wonderful to enlist the support and help of Vietnamese people in Footscray."
The Lifestart Foundation's fundraising dinner dance will be held 7 August at 501 Receptions in Barkly St, Footscray. Tickets cost $60 a seat.
For more information contact Karen Leonard on 9331 2540.