Child-Care Center Serves Vietnamese Community

A Vietnamese community agency has opened a child-care facility in Garden Grove aimed at freeing parents on welfare to find and keep jobs and to teach their youngsters in English and Vietnamese.

The Phu Dong Early Childhood Development Center is the first center to offer Vietnamese language and cultural instruction in addition to English. Organizers say it is a first step toward serving some of the estimated 5,000 Vietnamese American families on public assistance in Orange County.

“There aren’t any centers that focus on culture and language, so we’re very happy to have this,” said Julie Nguyen, the program’s child-care manager.

The center was named for a Vietnamese hero of legend, Phu Dong, a 3-year-old boy who, it is said, ate a sumptuous meal and instantly metamorphosed into a colossus who saved the community from the ravages of war and natural disaster in 2000 BC.

The service, free to qualified low-income families, was established with a two-year $190,000 state grant by the Vietnamese Community of Orange County Inc., a Santa Ana-based nonprofit agency that has helped refugees since 1979. It offers job training, English and citizenship classes, and works extensively with Vietnamese seniors. It also operates a clinic.

The center, which can serve 36 children, has three classrooms, art and play rooms stocked with crayons and blocks, and a grassy playground. There are four bilingual staff members.