IBVM Hostel Scholarships
Project overview
This project’s objective is to award up to ten scholarships to young female university students in need of assistance. The scholarship covers the cost of rent, food, and utilities to alleviate the immediate financial burden on the students’ families.
The IBVM hostels aim to assist girls aged between 18-21 years, who come from impoverished rural areas to study at colleges and universities in Ho Chi Minh City. MWIA is proud of its commitment to the IBVM hostels that currently provide accommodation for 50 young female students. There are two IBVM Hostels in Ho Chi Minh City – the Mary Ward Hostel, in operation since 2013, and the St Mary’s Hostel, in operation since 2014.
The hostels provide safe and healthy conditions in which to live and study, and a sense of belonging to a community away from home. The low monthly fee to cover rent, food, and utilities can be a burden for rural families. The IBVM Hostel Scholarships project will provide ten students with this support, assisting the students to complete their tertiary education and helping alleviate the financial burden on families.
Students graduate from their respective colleges and universities and return home to improved job and entrepreneurship prospects. Female students develop greater self-esteem, gender equality is enhanced, and generational impact is strengthened.
Project activities
- Provide ten scholarships of AUD $4000 annually to young female university students
- Provide funds for board
- Support and encouragement
John XXIII Teacher Training Scholarship
Project overview
John XXIII Teacher Training Scholarships provide six annual bursaries for disadvantaged students studying to become teachers to help meet the costs associated with tuition.
Insufficient remuneration or incentives in the form of accommodation, living, and travel allowances to motivate teachers to work in remote areas means that educational needs in rural Vietnam are not being met. Poverty and geographic remoteness are barriers to education and greatly hinder a child’s ability to complete the most basic primary education.
The Department of Education and Training predicts future increases in student numbers, and the government of Vietnam continues to build schools, however, they are unable to keep pace with the ever-growing demand to provide teachers.
Many Vietnamese children living in rural areas have limited education with most not completing primary education. Ethnic minorities, many of them living in highland areas, account for 72% of Vietnam’s poor. This problem is exacerbated by an increase in student enrolments and a decrease in supply of available teachers in rural areas.
Project activities
- Give financial security to six students to enable them to study effectively and complete their university courses
- Provide encouragement and incentives
- Cover costs associated with tuition – textbooks, stationary, rental payments, food and transportation
Recent project achievements
- Currently there are 6 students receiving scholarships, with scope for 2 more to be awarded. The scholarship covers costs associated with tuition, such as textbooks, stationery, rental payments, food and transportation
- MWIA hopes to expand this program to support teacher training scholarships in other countries where the need is great
