"Raising a child" for 3 months, only to discover that the student was not receiving support

(Dan Tri) - Having paid nearly 2 million VND to raise a student, 3 months later, Ms. Le Trang (Hanoi) was shocked to the point of shaking when she learned that the student she adopted in Nghe An did not receive any meals at the boarding school.

“My hands trembled when I learned that students were not allowed to eat.”

According to Ms. Trang, at the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year, after two years of learning about the Nghe An Child Care Project (NENA), led by Ms. Do Thi Nga, she decided to adopt Xeo Van P. The adoption period is from September 2025 to May 2026, with a one-time payment of nearly 2 million VND.

This amount is equivalent to 200,000 VND/month for food, plus 50,000 VND for buying rice trays, spoons, chopsticks and 60,000 VND for buying warm clothes.

According to the list and pictures of the project given to Ms. Trang, P. is a student in Xop Lau village, part of Muong Ai Primary School in Nghe An.

Messages show that the students that sponsors adopt do not actually eat at boarding school (Photo: NVCC).

After some unclear information about Ms. Do Thi Nga's spending spread on social media and in the charity community, Ms. Trang and some donors immediately investigated. She was shocked to learn that the students she had been paying for the past few months had not eaten at school.

“I was shaking when I heard that the student I had been “raising” for the past 3 months had not received any support.

When contacting the project, all messages were in "read" mode but absolutely no one replied, calling was also hopeless.

When we wanted to see pictures of the students we adopted, the project management board did not provide them," said Ms. Trang.

Many sponsors do not receive photos of the students they adopt (Illustration: FB Raising Children Nghe An).

Raised 5 children, 2 never ate a meal, one had the same code

Mr. Hoang Quy, who is adopting 5 students through the NENA project, is also very upset. According to Mr. Quy, the project initially announced that each child would have only one sponsor. The parents signed this commitment with Ms. Do Thi Nga - in the role of project manager.

However, after verifying, he was surprised to find that out of the 5 students he adopted, 2 had lunch at home and had never stayed for lunch at school. One child was given a code for two sponsors in the same 2024-2025 school year.

When the sponsors asked the project to provide photos of the meals, most of the photos had no date, time, or location. In particular, the project used the same photo for two different times in the report sent to the sponsor.

What Mr. Quy was even more upset about was that when he asked for an explanation, the project remained silent for a long time. The project also did not have a financial report for each school year, even though it was included in the initial commitment.

This sponsor said that the project's revenue and expenditure also lacked transparency, initially collecting from August of the previous year to May of the following year.

In 2024-2025, the project collects from September of the previous year to May of the following year. In addition to the food money, sponsors pay extra money to buy trays, plates, and warm clothes, but the project does not have invoices or pictures for these items.

Many sponsors said that NENA's revenue and expenditure lack transparency (Illustration: FB Nuoi em Nghe An).

When trust and love are abused

Ms. Vuong Thanh Huyen, one of the sponsors who discovered the irregularities of the NENA project, said that after the flood in Thai Nguyen , Ms. Do Thi Nga called for sponsorship. However, she and some sponsors found that the financial reports were not transparent.

From these irregularities, Ms. Huyen and some other sponsors verified the activities of raising children in Nghe An and discovered a series of suspicions above. “I am very heartbroken when our trust and love are abused,” Ms. Huyen said.

In a letter sent to the project, Ms. Phan Thu Hang, one of the sponsors of the NENA project for the past 3 years, said that she is raising 3 students at Muong Ai Primary School, Ky Son.

However, like some other sponsors, she was very upset when many months passed without any answers about the controversy surrounding the NENA project.

“We absolutely believe and actively contribute to every call. However, the prolonged silence after the recent scandals has hurt our trust and forced us to speak up,” said Ms. Hang.

In a letter sent to the program, another sponsor also shared: “Among those who “raise the children”, there are students who save money from part-time jobs, there are brothers and sisters who adopt 10-20 children, there are even people who personally prepare gifts to send to the village. All come from sincere love, not for the movement or fame.

The money sent is the sweat, tears and trust of hundreds of people - people who only hope that the project will truly "raise the children" with all their hearts and transparency.

We understand that running a large-scale community project is not easy. However, it is unfortunate that many donors have not seen the final reports or images demonstrating the clear results of those activities.

Regarding this, Mr. Hoang Quy also believes that charity needs to be transparent - that is the foundation of trust.

He and the donors asked for clarity not to attack any individual, but to reclaim clarity for the hearts that have given.

On December 8, the Criminal Police Department, Nghe An Provincial Police, investigated information reflecting the lack of transparency in the operations of the Nghe An Child Care Project.

According to the introduction, the project Raising Children in Nghe An was implemented since 2019 with the goal of supporting nutritious meals for poor students in border communes and mountainous areas of Nghe An province.

This project is supervised and coordinated by the National Volunteer Center - Central Youth Union, under the management of the national volunteer network in the Central region. Donors often transfer money directly into the project account to support specific programs or children.

On some fundraising posts on the project's Fanpage, Ms. Do Thi Nga was introduced as the head of the committee and project manager.

Dan Tri reporter tried to contact Ms. Do Thi Nga via the phone number posted on the documents of the Fanpage of the project Raising Children in Nghe An, but was unsuccessful.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/nuoi-em-3-thang-moi-ta-hoa-phat-hien-hoc-sinh-khong-duoc-ho-tro-20251209002426875.htm