Agape Fish Fund, in partnership with The Chao Foundation, is pleased to award ZOE International in Thailand an $8,000 grant for their Health Plus Program. This is the third annual grant that ZOE has received from Agape Fish Fund/The Chao Foundation/Transparent Fish Fund to fund the Health Plus Program. This grant for December 2018–November 2019 will provide the 60+ children and their caretakers with preventative medical, dental, and nutritional healthcare, including:

• Flu shots for all children and their caregivers
• Comprehensive dental care for all children
• Daily multivitamins for all children
• Deworming medicine for all children and their caregivers

​Agape Fish Fund is pleased to be an official partner of PovertyCure. PovertyCure is a Christian initiative that seeks to promote lasting, enterprise-based solutions that affirm the roles of individuals and families in turning around their situations. 

PovertyCure has already become well-established, with over 400 partner organizations worldwide in over 140 countries. They have seen communities turn around when we focus on asking “What causes wealth?” instead of “What causes poverty?” Instead of giving aid, these solutions focus on enabling people to create value and prosperity for themselves, through business, enterprise, and entrepreneurship.

Grounded in economics and fueled by a spiritual passion for serving others, PovertyCure is focused on serving impact-driven individuals and organizations by:

1. Providing a rally point where like-minded people can connect and collaborate 
2. Giving a voice to entrepreneurs and development activists from around the world 
3. Producing thought-provoking, sharable content and research in their blog, short video series, educational curriculum, and documentary film.

In order to nurture a passion and cultivate prayer for poverty alleviation and missions among the Christian community in the United States, we are offering these programs: 

1. PovertyCure Training: Educates the Vietnamese community through 3 courses on how they can effectively help alleviate poverty for missions, so they will have an increased desire to join the cause of empowering people to become self-sustainable.
2. Financial Literacy Training: Empowers the church in East Palo Alto to model Jesus’ heart for low-income families in the area through practical and supportive classes that incorporate Christian principles with financial stewardship. 
3. Asian Christian Stewardship Training: Creates a network and platform for Asian Christian philanthropists to share best practices, common challenges, and innovative solutions, which will encourage more Asian Christians to donate and get involved.

​Unmanaged diabetes in the Vietnamese community is a potentially life-threatening issue that needs to be addressed. ​A 2015 study found that about 1 in 17 Vietnamese adults (1 in 15 men and 1 in 20 women) has diabetes. The World Health Organization said that the prevalence of diabetes in Vietnam has almost doubled in the past 10 years, and across the population there is a lack of awareness about diabetes.

​When diabetic patients are unaware of how to manage their diabetes, the disease can threaten their lives. There is a dire need for the low-income, diabetic Vietnamese population in California to have practical support in managing their diabetes.

Children who come from rural villages in Vietnam usually don’t have the opportunity to go to school if they stay in the villages. One reason is that the schools are located far away from their homes. The children would have to travel a distance to get to school, and then board nearby. 

​Another reason is that the impoverished parents prefer the children to help out with the farming work or to help provide family income in other ways. If the children aren’t helping with the farm work, then they run around unattended, or their parents have them go into town to sell lotto tickets, postcards, or homemade desserts to earn money. In some cases, the children might even have to beg on the streets for their family. These rural children need a way to have an education to break the poverty cycle for their family.

Our partner missionary trains his disciples and is a tentmaker. He and his team have already been supporting the church in Lashio, helping 40 children, for about 50 cents a day. However, this year there are over 50 children that came from the countryside, due to the increased need. Although the parents are supposed to fund half the food budget, many couldn’t afford to this year because of their fields being ravaged from the war.