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: info@streetsinternational.org
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!”
