OneSky helps Vietnam factory zone Covid-19 heroes

In better times they care for workers’ kids but this week OneSky Early Learning Center staff served those fighting Covid-19 within their own factory community.

As the Covid-19 situation has worsened in Vietnam and in Da Nang, where OneSky’s Early Learning Center (ELC) is based, OneSky staff are helping support those fighting Covid-19 in their ward by donating food and water.

The ELC is situated within Hoa Khanh factory zone where recent news reports included details of 60 new cases. Within the local area and beyond, factories have had to close on a temporary or longer-term basis. In parts of Vietnam, factories are looking to form social bubbles with staff living, working, and sleeping on the premises.

On a national scale, the closures disrupt the Vietnamese economy and exports. Locally it means workers are unable to earn and support their families. The ELC specifically cares for the children of rural migrants who don’t have local extended families to help with childcare. However, the ELC itself has been closed since early May due to lockdown measures.

Now, its local Hoa Khanh Bac Ward is functioning under Directive 16 – Vietnam’s most stringent lockdown rules. To assist those battling Covid-19 in their neighborhood, OneSky has donated 60 boxes of noodles, 46 boxes of freshwater, and 25 boxes of milk to 30 local checkpoints.

Since the ELC closed in early May, teachers have been continuing regular online lessons and interactions with children.
Vietnam has suffered fewer than 400 deaths in a population of just under 100 million people after locking down early in 2020. But cases arriving via leaky borders, and the wait for vaccination availability, have put a huge strain on the country this year.

Vietnam Program Director Vo Thi Hien said: “Everyone is making sacrifices to keep our communities safe. If we cannot serve our community by caring for their children, we will do what we can to reach out in other ways. We look forward to better times and seeing the happy smiling faces of the children again.”