Having made communication one of the Province’s priority missions, the Jesuit Vietnam Province has been sending scholastics to media outlets across the world for the Regency stage of their formation, during which they work for two or more years in a ministry. Stephen Tran Thien Kinh SJ and Anthony Nguyen Van Loi SJ are two of these Vietnamese scholastics.  They were assigned to Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN), the leading independent Catholic news source in Asia, where they hope to acquire skills in media that will prepare them for ministry in their Province.

Kinh and Loi began their Regency in mid-2013 with a six-month course in English.  Since then, they have taken courses in basic reporting, video production and editing. They have contributed to the Vietnamese language UCAN website and have been on assignment reporting and video producing in Thailand and Vietnam.

They recently produced their first video – on the children of Myanmar migrant workers in Mae Sot, close to Thailand’s border with Myanmar.  The migrant workers had almost no hope of schooling for their children but thanks to the initiative of a small group of migrant workers that responded to the need for education, the children now attend the Burma Labour Solidarity Organization School.

Kinh and Loi tackled this story at the suggestion of a professional trainer and were actively involved in every step of its production. In the course of developing this video report, they learned how to write a feature article, how to conduct an interview, take a picture, and shoot and edit a video.

Watch their video below.