PURPOSE

The "In The Name Of Humanity" program, or "ITNOH", is designed to expose Middle, High School and Undergraduate students to learn about themselves, their culture, and other cultures through compassion and understanding.  This program empowers young adults to think outside the boxes of their everyday life and explore the world around them through knowledge of different cultures.  Tinh has inspired young adults all over the US with his presentations.  Through his evocative storytelling and emotionally charge guitar playing, Tinh explains why education is an important ticket out of poverty for any cultures.  He leaves the students in awed and inspired.  He motivates even the most skeptics.

"ITNOH" is a bridge for students to connect to a larger purpose in life, their future and all those around them.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

"ITNOH" is a performance-based program targeted to Middle Schools, High Schools, and Undergraduate students.  It is designed to meet the following objectives:

1,  Encourage students to value their educational opportunities by contrasting experiences faced by their       counterparts in the developing world.

2,  Promote intercultural awareness and understanding.

3,   Challenge students to put their education to use through local and global humanitarian efforts.

4,   Cultivate non-violence and compassion.

Drawing on the Vietnamese-American refugee historical experience of war and relocation, Tinh, founder of the Village School Foundation (VSF) and nationally known guitarist and storyteller, utilizes art to explore these powerful themes, delivers a positive and hopeful message.  Though interactive musical performances, Tinh describes his struggles growing up in war-torn Viet Nam and his family's escape before the fall of Saigon in 1975 and eventual migration to the US to complete his education.  He provokes students to consider the transformative power of education by describing the social challenges that their peers face in Viet Nam, and through his experiences growing up in the rural village of Phan Thiet: for most Vietnamese children, education is a priceless one-way ticket out of poverty.  Tinh also encourages the students to consider the positive impacts of humanitarian efforts at home and abroad.  The performance prompts students to learn from historical conflicts of the past to find global non-violent solutions in the future.