Police block Catholic program that offers English instructions to the poor in Nghe An

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Adults and children pleading for a chance to learn English (photo by VRN)

Information compiled from from VRN

On July 12, some one thousand children and adults gathering at the Catholic church in Cau Ram, Nghe An to start their free Summer English classes were told that the government had evicted all English instructors.   

All five instructors are volunteers from America. Upon arrival to Vietnam, they were pulled into the police station and interrogated for hours. Finally they were ordered to pack up and leave the country.

The English classes are part of a program offered by Education for the Poor, a US-based non-profit, since Summer 2010. A team of Catholic youth in Nghe An helped with the logistics. The program has provided over a thousand poor children and adults, including Catholics and non-Catholics, a rare chance to learn English each Summer. They cannot afford regular English instructions.

Last year most of the Catholic youth involved in this program were arrested. A few of them have been tried and given heavy sentences. The others remain in detention.

The government of Nghe An has over the past year stepped up its assaults on the Catholics in the province.


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