![\"Sapa](\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Sapa-Ochau-Founder-Shu-Tan-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThis interview\u00a0is also personally important for me\u00a0because\u00a0I spent with Sapa O’chau my last New Year’s Eve. Not only\u00a0it opened my eyes to many problems ethnic minorities face\u00a0but\u00a0simply was the best stay\u00a0ever! And I’m not being paid to say this:).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Shu Tan is a Black Hmong girl from Lao Chai Village, Sapa, Vietnam. She had first hand experience\u00a0as a street peddler of handicrafts when she was 13. Determined to improve the lives of her community,\u00a0she helped to build the first ethnic minority owned homestay in Lao Chai village in 2009. She grew\u00a0Sapa O\u2019Chau from selling cafe tours in 2011 to the first ethnic minority owned international tour\u00a0operator in Vietnam in 2013.<\/p>\n
The main activity of Sapa O\u2019Chau<\/a> is providing customized and ready-made treks and tours.\u00a0\u00a0Sapa O\u2019Chau also runs a caf\u00e9 and handicraft\u00a0store. All the\u00a0money earned is reinvested in the\u00a0community.<\/p>\n [embedyt] http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qp1Ii8qBfwA[\/embedyt]<\/p>\n Shu:<\/strong> The goal of Sapa O\u2019Chau is to empower ethnic minorities living in Sapa district to have an education\u00a0and have sustainable careers. At the moment most of the income from tourism in Sapa goes to ethnic\u00a0Vietnamese or foreigners.<\/p>\n Vietnamese and foreigners own most of the restaurants, tour operators,\u00a0hotels and homestays in the region. Vietnamese tour operators usually choose Vietnamese homestays\u00a0to bring their customers to. This means that the locals do not benefit much from the large amount of\u00a0tourists that come to Sapa. Local women are therefore often selling handicrafts on the street so they\u00a0can support their families. Vietnamese language is not the native language of the ethnic minorities.\u00a0To gain access to employment, they have to learn Vietnamese and English.\u00a0This also means that the ethnic minorities have to overcome the language barrier to succeed in school.\u00a0Most children do not continue high school education as their families cannot afford it or they need manpower to tend to the farm, animals and\u00a0children. Girls are especially discouraged from education as they are married off young around the age\u00a0of 15.<\/p>\n Sapa O\u2019Chau aims to change the current situation and create opportunities for the ethnic\u00a0minorities.<\/p>\n Shu:<\/strong> Sapa O\u2019Chau empowers ethnic minorities in the region to help themselves. Its aim is to create\u00a0structural improvement of the conditions of local people, providing parents with work and children\u00a0with education. This is something that could not be done if Sapa O\u2019Chau was just a charity.<\/p>\n After\u00a0covering our costs all the money that is earned with our tours, treks, caf\u00e9 and handicraft store is\u00a0reinvested into the community. Because Sapa O\u2019Chau is owned and run by ethnic minorities it is an\u00a0organization that is culturally sensitive, working to improve living conditions for the Hmong, Dao and\u00a0other minority peoples without losing their cultural identity.<\/p>\n Shu:<\/strong> Sapa O\u2019Chau has proven its approach is successful. The money earned has been put to good\u00a0use. Sapa O\u2019Chau has trained 90 of its students to become tour guides and therefore having\u00a0sustainable careers. 63 students continue education and vocational training programs. 23 students\u00a0graduated from vocational training and college.<\/p>\n It has supported 13 homestays and even built one\u00a0ethnic minority homestay in Lao Chai. It has employed 28 trekking guides, while 21 of the trekking\u00a0guides working for Sapa O\u2019Chau have gone on to work at other tour operators. Sapa O\u2019Chau has 50\u00a0employees all ethnic minority except for 4 from Kinh majority. Sapa O\u2019Chau is operating at maximum\u00a0capacity with 35 high school students boarding at our boarding facility.<\/p>\n Sapa O\u2019Chau is also honoured to be one of the finalists for World Tourism for Tomorrow award 2016 and\u00a0longlisted for World Responsible Tourism award 2015. I’m also honoured to be named as one of\u00a0Forbes Vietnam 2016<\/a> 30 under 30 list.<\/p>\n Shu:<\/strong> Sapa O\u2019Chau plans to acquire a land and building of its own and employ 5 teachers. We plan\u00a0to house 80 students from the village, 40 high school age students so that they can attend high\u00a0school in Sapa town and 40 vocational students who have already completed their high school but do\u00a0not have a skill.<\/p>\n Currently, Sapa O\u2019Chau supports 35 high school students. We rent an old hotel for\u00a0this purpose and it is subjected to many restrictions imposed by the owner. The building is very old\u00a0and requires costly maintenance. This is a waste of investment as the building is not owned by us. Sapa O\u2019Chau plans to acquire a land of about 3000 square meters in Ta Phin village, Sapa.\u00a0It is estimated to be about USD32\/m2\u00a0, which works out to USD96,000. The cost of two-storey\u00a0buildings with total floor area of about 1,900m2\u00a0is estimated to be USD475,000.<\/p>\n The centre will\u00a0consist of core buildings for classrooms, administration, dormitory, dining, kitchen, handicraft room,\u00a0music room, computer room, and library. These will occupy a floor space of about 6,699m2 and land\u00a0space of about 609m2. These facilities will support the existing 35 students as they move into the new\u00a0centre. As Sapa O\u2019Chau recruits new students and reaches 80 students, it would require additional\u00a0dormitory and classroom blocks. These would require a floor space of 658m2 and land space of 329m2.<\/p>\n Shu:<\/strong> The success of our vocational program would be measured by the percentage of our vocational\u00a0students who are able to obtain employment within 6 months of graduation. The goal is to reach 80% The success of our high school program would be measured by the percentage of our high school\u00a0students who are able to complete our program and continue to higher education. The goal is to reach\u00a080% of students continuing higher education.<\/p>\n Shu:<\/strong> SapaNapro is a Red Dao cooperative. It focuses on growing herbs sustainability as the demand for\u00a0herbal bath grows. Currently there are more than fifty families involved in sustainable herb growing.\u00a0The cooperative owns a herbal bath outlet in Ta Phin village.<\/p>\n To find out more about Sapa O’chau, visit their website<\/a> and follow them on Facebook<\/a> and YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sapa O\u2019Chau uses responsible tourism to empower ethnic minorities living in Vietnam’s Sapa district to gain an education and have sustainable careers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131,551,573,141],"tags":[507,1071],"yoast_head":"\nAnula:\u00a0What are the challenges that Sapa O\u2019Chau\u00a0is trying to address?<\/h5>\n
![\"Sapa](\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Sapa-Ochau-rice-fields.JPG.crdownload-1024x765.jpg\")
<\/h5>\nAnula: What is special about your approach to meeting challenges of ethnic minorities?<\/h5>\n
![\"Sapa](\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Sapa-Ochau-hiking-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n
Anula: What is the impact you have achieved so far?<\/h5>\n
![\"Sapa](\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Sapa-Ochau-workshop-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n
Anula: What do you need to help you be more successful?<\/h5>\n
![\"Sapa](\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Sapa-Ochau-schoold-children-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAnula: What does that success look like? Share your dream with us.<\/h5>\n
\nemployment rate within the first 6 months of graduation.<\/p>\n![\"Sapa](\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Sapa-Ochau-New-Year-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n
Anula: Which other person, company or organisation would you most like to\u00a0recommend to be interviewed for this series?<\/h5>\n
This article is part of Interviews with Social Entrepreneurs. If you would like to\u00a0be featured in this series, please get in touch<\/a>.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"