The Committee is drafting plans to implement regular exchange programs for students, instructors and administrators between schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and Ho Chi Minh City.

We have already had high school and junior college students visit Vietnam. Most of them were part of an internship program supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. As part of this grant we able to take post secondary instructors and administrators to Vietnam. Soon we expect to have assembled the funding and be able to identify mature high school and post-secondary students who will participate in similar exchanges and attend schools in Vietnam. A crucial part of establishing a true exchange program is arranging for students from Vietnam in schools in San Francisco. We need the cooperation of our federal government to make this aspect of an exchange program a reality.

In cooperation with the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), we are structuring an exchange program for practicing nurses from Ho Chi Minh City. It is envisioned that nurses would get specialized training and then transfer this knowledge to their Vietnamese colleagues.

Additionally, the SCC has already adopted an elementary school in Ho Chi Minh City and regularly donates equipment, school supplies. Visits to An Phong Primary School are one of the highlights of our visits to Vietnam. We are looking for other schools to adopt.