This project is located on the outskirts of Hanoi, 30 minutes from the city centre and is a privately run children’s centre for kids with intellectual disabilities include autism, down syndrome and cerebral palsey. They have 120 kids during the day from 8am until 4pm daily Monday to Friday. The centre is founding by a female doctor and psychiatrist Dr Lan who speaks fluent English. Many of the teachers speak basic English. The centre has 10 classrooms, a treatment room a small outside play area and a treatment pool. There are 56 staffs from security guards to cooks, nurses and teachers. The aim of the centre is assist parents in the education of their children, provide children with interaction with other kids and with the skills to make them independent within the society. Some are later integrated into mainstream schools.  Morning Star receives no government support and relies on funding from private sources. Many of the children that attend are from poor families and rely on the centre to provide fees free or at a reduced cost. Most activities done here are repetitive and basic and the classes are divided into ages and disabilities.

Morning Star receives medical volunteers, teaching volunteers and also welcome non-skilled volunteers to assist in the classes with the Vietnamese teachers. Volunteers will be assigned a class in which they will attend for the full month and assist the teachers with discipline, feeding, bathroom breaks, and with games and other activities. The centre has a lunch break from 11am until 2pm when the children have lunch and a nap. Volunteers can assist the teachers with the children and then go to a local internet café, go back to the guesthouse for a sleep, go for a walk in the local area. The guesthouse is located in a small laneway approx 1km from Morning Star with western restaurants, a large supermarket, several bakeries and many small Vietnamese food stalls nearby. As such, all meals can be arranged by yourself and the children’s centre can also provide you with a simple Vietnamese lunch for a nominal charge. It is easy to take a public bus or taxi into the city centre. Due to the disabilities of the children you will only be able to assist the local teachers, but there are opportunities to play and interact with the kids as well as teach English to the staff during lunch time.