Children of Peace International
Encyclopedia
Children of Peace International (COPI) is a humanitarian non-profit organization
aiming to serve the charity projects in Vietnam
and help developing the capability of the people to help themselves. Children were the beginning and still are the primary focus for aid efforts of COPI.
. Coming back to Vietnam as translator for a group of doctors in 1993, Binh Rybacki was deeply moved by seeing children working there as street peddlers and prostitutes. So she decided to find the ways for helping to improve the lives of these kids and created Children of Peace International.
In 2002 Binh Rybacki and COPI was awarded World Service Medal by Kiwanis International.
The organization is based in Loveland, Colorado
.
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
aiming to serve the charity projects in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
and help developing the capability of the people to help themselves. Children were the beginning and still are the primary focus for aid efforts of COPI.
History
The organization was founded in 1993 by Binh Rybacki, a Vietnamese native, who fled from Saigon with her family in 1975 and settled in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Coming back to Vietnam as translator for a group of doctors in 1993, Binh Rybacki was deeply moved by seeing children working there as street peddlers and prostitutes. So she decided to find the ways for helping to improve the lives of these kids and created Children of Peace International.
In 2002 Binh Rybacki and COPI was awarded World Service Medal by Kiwanis International.
The organization is based in Loveland, Colorado
Loveland, Colorado
Loveland is a Home Rule Municipality that is the second most populous city in Larimer County, Colorado, United States. Loveland is situated north of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. Loveland is the 14th most populous city in Colorado. The United States Census Bureau that in 2010 the...
.
Activities
At present, COPI has the following programs in Vietnam:- Schools and Orphanages. Supporting eleven schools and orpahanages located in Viet Tri, Tranh Ba near HanoiHanoiHanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
, Ha LongHa LongHạ Long also known as Hong Gai, Hon Gai and Hongay, is the capital city of Quang Ninh province, Vietnam. The city mainly lies on Bai Tu Long Bay, which is part of the Hạ Long Bay. It is located at about 160 km northeast of Hanoi...
, HueHueHue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically , as "the degree to which a stimulus can be describedas similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow,"...
, Nha TrangNha TrangNha Trang is a coastal city and capital of Khanh Hoa province, on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is bounded on the North by Ninh Hoà district, on the East by the South China Sea, on the South by Cam Ranh town and on the West by Diên Khánh district...
, Buon Me Thuot, Lai Thieu, Ho Chi Minh CityHo Chi Minh CityHo Chi Minh City , formerly named Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam...
, its districts Go Vap and Thu Duc, which serve over 4,500 children. - Scholarships and vocational training to children in the orphanages and to the poor children in the surrounding communities.
- Micro-Loan Programs, which provide small interest-free loans to single women with children to help them finance cottage industries so that the family can stay together.
- Hospital Support. Supply of medical equipment, training, and other support for hospitalHospitalA hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
s throughout Vietnam. - HIV center. In cooperation with the Vietnamese government, COPI built Vietnam's first pediatric HIVHIVHuman immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
center in Ho Chi Minh CityHo Chi Minh CityHo Chi Minh City , formerly named Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam...
. - Community Support. Construction of clean water wells and facilities for healthcare for the ethnic minority people in Hoa BinhHoa BinhHòa Bình is a city in Vietnam. It is the capital of Hoa Binh province and is located 76 kilometres from Hanoi, a 5 kilometres from the Da River. The Battle of Hoa Binh was fought around the city in 1951-52 during the First Indochina War.-References:...
. - Medical Missions. Organization and sponsorship of American medical teams who travel to Vietnam and deliver dental and medical care to the orphans and poor people of the neighboring communities.
- Partnership with the Rocky Mountain and New England Districts of Key Club International, a high school service organization sponsored by Kiwanis. The organization has raised over $56,000 in the last five years to build a two story school in Doan Hung, which serves 1200 students and community members.