Hoa Mẫu Đơn is a private orphanage, located in one of the poorest district of Ho Chi Minh City. Founded by Phạm Thiên Đơn in 1998, now it accommodates 72 children from some days to 18 years of age, children who have been abandoned by their parents after birth or whose family does not have enough ressources to allow them to access education.

 

 

According to Phạm Thiên Đơn, director of the orphanage, the problem comes from the lack of staff and the overwork of the existing staff.

After two months of observation, in which we regularly visited the orphanage, exchanged with the local staff, the children and the director, we noticed some remarks concerning the negative effects of the building, the energy consumption and the functioning of the place.

 

The plumbing is in a very bad condition, which causes hygiene problems: some sanitary leaks overflow in the bedroom where children sleep and do the daily activities. The electricity system has been tinkered by a former child of the orphanage - who is today the accountant of this same orphanage - who has never received any training in electricity. Tile and paint has been renovated recently.

 

 

The building where the children live is unfit for habitation.

 

The different living places of the structure are never aerated, stagnant air plus ambient heat (it is 32 degrees warm in average in Ho Chi Minh City) are very difficult to endure and kitchen odors are very strong in all the orphanage, the stairs come directly in the center of the kitchen and no wall separate the different living places from the stairs.

 

The structure of the building also leads to an over-consumption of energy. The lack of natural light in the places where children spend their time – windows are covered with punch polished steel plates – forces them to use artificial light permanently; the lack of natural ventilation involves the use of fans in each room of the orphanage, plus an over-consumption of water and energy to wash the clothes of the 72 children, in average they need to do 3 washing machines a day.

 

In addition to the danger and the over-consumption of energy, the precariousness of the structure affects the children and the local staff a lot, causing tiredness and repugnance. It often leads to some psychic barriers interfering with the child’s development.

 

The contact with the outside world is very limited, physically and visually. The windows do not let enough natural light come from the outside and the children go out only to go to school plus the omnipresence of metallic materials (doors, windows, bars, beds, tables…) conjure up a prison atmosphere; and the existence of magnetic fields due to the erection of a telecommunication antenna on the roof of the orphanage.

 

The development of the space is not optimized too. Each floor is independent: the first floor is for motorbikes, reception and storage; the second floor is dedicated to the babies (0 to 3 years of age); the third floor is occupied by the laundry-library, the activities room and the computer room; the third floor is used by the rest of the children as place to sleep and live; then we find the kitchen and a terrace on the last floor. Some places are used for many activities, such as laundry and library, kitchen and clothes washing, bedrooms and lavatories… There are a lot of storages on 3different floors (1st, 2nd and terrace). On the third floor, the library, the computer room and the toilets are not freely accessible by children, in the absence of the person in charge, the access to these places is closed.

 

Moreover, because of the lack of staff and the numerous staircases to climb, some people find themselves in a situation of isolation within the orphanage. One particular case is a disabled child; she is 8 years-old. She keeps still all the day in a room of 10 square meters and does not communicate a lot outside the visits she receives occasionally. The babies (0 to 3 years of age) stay all the day in the same room of 10 square meters and never go out unless they receive a visit from outside. And there is an elderly woman who lives with the disabled child.

 

 

Return to the roots of Montessori education

 

During her researches on child’s development, Maria Montessori contributed a lot to our comprehension of children. Originally developed in very poor districts of Italy, Montessori education was very successful and has been adopted very rapidly by numerous private schools. Nowadays, Montessori education is more fashionable than ever, but contrary to what Maria Montessori started, underprivileged children are no longer those who take advantage of this education but privileged children, whose families can offer the scholar fees of private schools.

 

When we went to the Hoa Mẫu Đơn orphanage for the first time, we saw there a huge potential but untapped. Some actions had already been initiated, for the creation of the sensorial material, the organization of classes of fine motor and sensory development. So we wanted to join in this effort. It is at this stage that our project was born.

 

 

“I worked in the orphanage as a volunteer when I met Glob Civilisation. I was happy to share my feelings with someone outside the orphanage. The children and the local staff were so imbued with the place than what really shocked was utterly normal for them. I was not sure anymore of what is the normality, what was due to the cultural difference and what was inherent in the blatant lack of resources. I had already started to organize sensory development and fine motor classes to teach the younger (3 to 5 years of age) what they would learn if they could go to a kindergarten, to teach them the writing, the language, the numbers… To achieve this, I tried to get involve the local staff as much as I could so they could continue what I started when I would be gone. But I had to face a big problem: The lack of local staff and its overwork.”

Sophie Meillaud

 

 

Our project is based on several steps, each one is important, so it is fundamental not to race through the stages.

Observation: This stage is very important because our target is not to impose our vision of the world but to help these people. So to help them we need to observe them in order to know their habits, their needs. This step is important to be pertinent and efficient.

Exchange: Because observation is not enough, we also need to exchange with the different actors of the orphanage, to be sure to share the same vision and to have the same motivations. Here again, it is not a matter of imposing our own model but of working together to result in the most adequate model we could build.

Comprehension: It is important to understand the culture of the place to realize the existing potential that we should develop in the future project and not to destroy that part of their identity.

Concept: Find the concept that will meet their needs. That one will be necessarily on a holistic way. Our target is not to focus on one isolated element, like the architecture, but to have an action on the entire organization, through the creation of spatial, energetic and human resources (staff training, children education).

Conceptualization: Last but not least, when we have every piece of information we need to drive the project well, we can make a prescription for the space prescription.

 

 

This project represents a lot of issues.

How could we make that orphanage work with greater autonomy and less dependent on human and fossil energies?

How could we make the places smarter, useful and resourcing?

How could we facilitate meeting and communication in this orphanage?

 

To response to these issues, we want to bring human and ecologic changes by inspiring us with technical innovations that have already been proven and by favoring the exchange with the different actors of the project, whether they are a part of the orphanage or of our organization.

 

 

We decided to follow Montessori education precepts because it aims to encourage children development in order to make them more autonomous. It is a matter of respecting the rhythm of the child so he can develop himself and not to format or replace his personality. This approach is particularly adapted to this environment where human resources are scarce and where the children are lacking in terms of self-confidence.