SHORT AND SWEET FINDING AUTHENTICITY NORTHERN GEMS ...

CE
OPPOSITE PAGE
The fl agship
restaurant KOTO on
Van Mieu is a place
where customers
can enjoy delicious
Vietnamese and
European food.
RIGHT
Jimmy Pham,
founder and CEO of
KOTO International,
is passionate about
helping the street
kids in Vietnam.
Australian Jimmy Pham’s KOTO
journey began in 1996, when
he returned to his country
of birth, Vietnam, to discover the despair facing
Vietnamese street and disadvantaged youths.
“The kids slept in trees so they didn’t get beaten
up on the streets during the night, and had skin
ulcers from having to wash near sewerage outlets.
They’d been forgotten by society and had no one
to turn to,” says Pham who founded KOTO and
today is the CEO of KOTO International.
To help the children back then, Pham started
handing out money for food and shelter to six
teenage street kids but within two weeks, that
number ballooned to 60. “Word got around that
someone was giving out money, so of course
people came from everywhere! But then they said
to me that they didn’t want to go on relying on
handouts,” Pham recalls. The kids instead told
Pham they wanted help gaining skills so they could
work and support themselves.
Pham realised that he needed to provide the
children the ability to be self-suffi cient and,
with his tourism background, knew there was a
demand in Vietnam for well-trained hospitality
staff. “Hospitality skills, such as interpersonal
skills, English, hard work, discipline and the
ability to deal with people from a wide range of
backgrounds are all transferable skills. So even if
the kids didn’t stay in hospitality, they could go
and do something else.”
CATHARINE NICOL
MAY | JUNE 2011 17