STREETS International: ‘Sustainable tourism at its best’

STREETS Inter­na­tion­al is a social enter­prise with a mis­sion to cre­ate a bet­ter future for dis­ad­vant­aged youth in Viet­nam via hos­pit­al­ity train­ing. If you travel to the lovely UNESCO World Her­it­age town of Hoi An, Viet­nam be sure to stroll by Le Loi Street to vis­it STREETS Res­taur­ant Café, and take part in its Oodles of Noodles experience. 

Writ­ten by STREETS Inter­na­tion­al founder Neal F Ber­mas, this post is sponsored by the pub­lish­er of The “Good Tour­ism” Blog.

Every nine months, STREETS recruits 25 pro­gram par­ti­cipants (called ‘Train­ees’) from all over Viet­nam for an 18-month life chan­ging jour­ney. The Train­ees come from poor rur­al fam­il­ies, isol­ated eth­nic minor­ity vil­lages, orphan­ages, and city streets. Some have even been res­cued from enslavement. 

At STREETS, Train­ees are provided dorm­it­ory-style hous­ing, food, all daily sup­plies, basic med­ic­al care, and super­vi­sion all at no cost to them. Their life at STREETS is rig­or­ously struc­tured to suit an ambi­tious hos­pit­al­ity train­ing and appren­tice­ship designed to launch them into pro­fes­sion­al careers as con­fid­ent, self-reli­ant adults. 

Over the 18-month pro­gram, Train­ees study Eng­lish, com­puter skills, life skills (e.g., food safety and hygiene, gender equal­ity, budget­ing, etc.), as well as the pro­fes­sion­al culin­ary and hos­pit­al­ity skills they will need to find jobs.

STREETS runs its own acclaimed res­taur­ant and culin­ary tours in which Train­ees can prac­tise their newly-acquired skills. Guests are delighted with the award-win­ning ser­vice and food, which is why the res­taur­ant is a tour­ist favour­ite, receiv­ing thou­sands of great reviews on Tri­pAd­visor. The menu fea­tures authen­t­ic Viet­namese and Hoi­An cuisine pre­pared from fresh loc­al ingredients. 

In addi­tion to being the first eat­ery in Hoi­An to be ‘No Smoking’, fol­lowed by ‘No Straws’ (or plastic), all of STREETS’ food waste is picked-up daily by loc­al pig farm­ers for their stocks’ even­ing meals!

STREETS also part­ners with tour com­pan­ies from around the world, such as G Adven­tures, to offer Oodles Of Noodles, dur­ing which guests learn loc­al noodle-mak­ing tech­niques and enjoy loc­al dishes. It rep­res­ents anoth­er oppor­tun­ity to meet the Train­ees as they lead these exper­i­ences and inter­act with tour­ists. No small ven­ture, more than 10,000 tour­ists par­ti­cip­ated in Oodles of Noodles one year pre-COVID.

STREETS has already gradu­ated more than 300 Trainees. 

All gradu­ates start their careers at top hotels and resorts through­out Viet­nam with­in 30 days of com­plet­ing the pro­gram. They work as chefs, cooks, serv­ers, and bar­tenders. Many are quickly pro­moted to super­vis­ory pos­i­tions. Their lives have been trans­formed in ways that no-one could have ever imagined.

In 2021, the world con­tin­ues to face the dire chal­lenges of the coronavir­us pan­dem­ic. Most of Viet­nam remains locked down. Dur­ing this peri­od STREETS has been forced to tem­por­ar­ily sus­pend operation. 

Rising to the chal­lenge, the small remain­ing STREETS team have cre­ated an emer­gency fund to sup­port STREETS gradu­ates, and oth­ers from sim­il­ar hos­pit­al­ity and culin­ary train­ing pro­grams for dis­ad­vant­aged youth in Vietnam. 

The STREETS Emer­gency Fund has already provided emer­gency sup­port dur­ing the pan­dem­ic for nearly 500 recipients.

Sup­port­ers can also pur­chase a cook­book and oth­er mer­chand­ise from STREETS’ online shop.

For more inform­a­tion about STREETS, please vis­it streetsinternational.org

STREETS Inter­na­tion­al
STREETS Res­taur­ant Café: 17 Le Loi Street, Hoi An, Viet­nam
STREETS cook­book and mer­chand­ise
Office: 16 Thai Phi­en Street, Cam Pho Ward, Hoi An, Viet­nam
Email: [email protected]

About the author

Neal F Ber­mas is a world trav­el­ler, glob­al cit­izen, and nat­ive New York­er with dec­ades-long expert­ise in the hos­pit­al­ity industry. With a “pas­sion” for hos­pit­al­ity, a “grow­ing com­mit­ment” to help oth­ers, and a vis­ion for how a social enter­prise “might be the most sus­tain­able mod­el to do so”, Dr Ber­mas moved to Viet­nam to found STREETS over a dec­ade ago. In 2018, CNN recog­nised him as a ‘Hero’ for his STREETS initiative: 

“Social enter­prises are a great sus­tain­able tour­ism mod­el to bring togeth­er the best of tour­ism, busi­ness, and char­ity. At STREETS, all activ­it­ies revolve around our core mis­sion to empower the lives of dis­ad­vant­aged youth. With love, respect, dis­cip­line, per­sist­ence, and cre­ativ­ity, STREETS has achieved that and more!”