About Living Dream — A dream of nurturing dreams

On a cold winter night over a decade ago, a teenage girl ran from door to door in the poorest area of Hanoi, Vietnam, trying to see if she could help just one more child have a better life.

The girl was a volunteer, trying to gather disadvantaged kids for a free program that helped them get off the streets and become productive members of society. She had a vacant spot in the program and she didn’t want to miss the opportunity to inspire one more child.

Despite her pleas, people shook their heads and shut their doors. Dejected, she went home, tired and frustrated at her empty efforts.

But the next day, when the program began, she noticed something that made her heart jump: there were no vacant spots. Someone had decided to come. He was Ha, a shoeshine boy, who, despite getting laughed at by his friends, joined the class anyway. A year later, the boy said goodbye to the girl, following his dream to become a useful person to this society by joining the military. He never went back to living on the streets again.

The girl that knocked on all those doors in Hanoi is Ms. Hoa, our co-founder at LivingDream, a non-profit organization aimed at helping youth and adults achieve their dreams through free classes and online/offline activities.

Ms. Hoa never forgot how she inspired the shoeshine boy to follow his dreams. Unfortunately, millions of dreams are never heard in Vietnam. Whether young or old, millions of people go without their life’s dreams ever being heard, much less followed. They listen to their peers telling them what they can’t do, instead of listening to their hearts tell them what they can do. They are afraid of parents, teachers and friends telling them their dreams are unrealistic or arrogant.

LivingDream was founded to help anyone with an unheard dream open up, get the support they need and achieve what they want most in their life.

Ms. Hoa does this through both online and offline courses and events. For over 10 years, she has been on a path to change the lives of kids and adults in some of the poorest areas of Vietnam. Now, with LivingDream, she’s hoping to build a community of people who help one another achieve each other's dreams, no matter their financial status, background, age or gender.