Meet Our Team
Lucette
Founder and Director
Lucette lives in Auckland, New Zealand. She founded Quan Am Foundation in December 2011 after witnessing children living in extreme poverty and fell in love with the people of Vietnam.
Lucette travels to Vietnam every year to oversee projects as well as coordinating the Child Sponsorship Program. She also oversees fundraising and the finances.
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Lucette has lived in Cambodia while consulting for World Vision and currently works in HR. She is actively involved in the Vietnamese community in NZ and can be booked for speaking engagements.
Dung
English Teacher
Dung joined our school in 2018 as an English Teacher. She teachers the Kitty 1 and Kitty 2 classes (children grades 1 to 3).
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Dung is an enthusiastic teacher and enjoys interacting with her students with games and activities. She is married and has two young daughters.
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Dung comes from a similar background to many of our children and struggled in poverty to receive an education. She's an inspiration to our kids!
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Nhu Y
Computer Teacher
Nhu Y joined our team in 2018 when we opened our computer class. She takes two classes, one for primary and one for secondary students.
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Nhu Y studied Information Technology at Nha Trang University and works full time in the IT sector. She learns business English from Ms Hiep who asked her to come help our students.
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Hiep
Vietnam Manager
Hiep lives in Nha Trang, Vietnam. She has been involved in Quan Am Foundation's activities from day one. Her dedication to the poor is truly outstanding and she dedicates all of her time to helping those in need.
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Hiep has been an English teacher since 1973. She has taught in schools, Universities, language institutes and companies. Hiep's entire family assists in our work including her two sons and daughter in law. Hiep also teaches our senior school English classes.
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Hiep coordinates and visits all sponsor children before they join our program. She arranges our scholarship ceremonies and runs our free English school from her home.
Hien
English Teacher
Hien joined our team in March 2019 as an English teacher.
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Hien graduated from University with a major in English and was referred to us by our other teacher Ms Dung.
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We hope Hien will have a long relationship with the Lotus School!
Trung
English Teacher
Trung joined the Lotus School as an English teacher in 2018. He teaches Grades 6 and 7 and takes 4 classes per week.
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He studied at Nha Trang University.
Tuyet
Volunteer
Tuyet lives in Nha Trang, Vietnam with her husband and two children. Tuyet has been involved with Quan Am Foundation for a number of years.
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She is a qualified English Teacher with 3 year's experience at language centers and worked at Loc Tho Charity School. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from University.
Xuan
Volunteer
Xuan lives in Nha Trang, Vietnam. She has been involved in Quan Am Foundation's project work for many years. Xuan has participated in a large number of activities and often travels with the team outside of Nha Trang to help out.
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Xuan has assisted in a variety of projects including visiting schools, organising scholarship ceremonies, wrapping gifts, organising food parcels, taking photos and making costumes. She has also delivered gifts to teachers on Teachers Day and helped out families after the typhoon.
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Hieu
Volunteer
Hieu lives in Nha Trang, Vietnam. He arranged our first event in 2013 and has since organised some of our more exciting field trips and parties.
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Hieu and his friends are always enthusiastic and great with the kids. They bring along music, entertain us on the bus and coordinate games and prizes. Hieu goes above and beyond to make sure our kids have a memorable time.
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We have organised field trips to the water park, a puppet show and hosted charity school parties. Hieu also helps his mother (Hiep) to visit sponsored schools and arrange scholarship ceremonies.
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Linh
Volunteer
Linh lives in Nha Trang, Vietnam and has two sons. She is very talented at sewing and crafts. Linh has helped decorate our English school for Christmas and Tet parties, as well as making costumes for our kids to perform.
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She attends many of our events and helps out wherever needed. She loves to teach crafts to the children.
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The main purpose of Quan Am Foundation is to help vulnerable children in Vietnam. We can personally assure you that 100% of all donations go to those in need or to our very small operating budget. Lucette funds every part of her travel including flights, accommodation, visas, transport etc. We are transparent and determined to to help those most in need.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does the money I donate go to?
We aim to donate as close to 100% as possible and ensure it goes to the right people who are in need. Have a look at Our Work to see more of our work over the past 6 years and to understand the type of projects we support.
If you would like your donation to go to a particular project, school or child then simply let us know and we'll do our best to accommodate. We often release a newsletter after each trip which has a breakdown of every dollar spent. Transparency is key!
Can I visit or volunteer?
We do not encourage orphanage tourism, nor do we offer any volunteering opportunities. Many 'orphans' in Asia are not actually orphans, they can be smuggled or sold from poor farming families,and forced to live in shocking conditions in order to get sympathy from foreigners.
Do your research and plan ahead! If you are planning to visit Vietnam and would like to visit your sponsor child or plan an activity with the children, please contact us one month in advance to arrange with our team on the ground.
Can I donate clothing, shoes, books or toys?
As much as we would love this, the cost of excess luggage and shipping is not often worth it. All these things are very cheap to buy in Vietnam and generally clothing is very traditional compared with NZ. It's much better for us if you have a garage sale and donate the profits so that we buy the right supplies for those in need.
Are you a registered charity?
Yes we are registered as a New Zealand Charity no. CC48133. As part of this registration we submit our financial statements each year to Internal Affairs (New Zealand Charities Commission). We can provide you a receipt for your donation however please note that Quan Am Foundation does not have overseas donee status. This is because 100% of donations are spent outside of New Zealand so you are unable to claim a tax credit from us. You can read more about this on the IRD website.
How do you raise money?
In any way possible! We've had fundraisers such as book sales, yoga nights, movie nights, a high tea and bake sales. We love to share our passion with others so if you are a group or church that would like to organise a speaker, get in touch!
We also sell a variety of beautiful local goods such as silk scarves, bracelets, key rings and decorations.
Still got a question? Get in touch!
Frequently Asked Questions