Special Projects
January/February 2009
Urgent needs and special opportunities present themselves on each trip, and we reserve some money to address them.
Enjoying the ride!
Push-Cycles
On the Fall, 2008 trip we bought five push-cycles for people who can’t get around by themselves, usually due to amputation, stroke, polio or congenital disability. This time we bought five more, again for people in Long Thoi town. They were received with much happiness. These self propelled vehicles make a great improvement in the quality of life for the recipients and for their families. Our cost: $144 each.
Hospital Stove
Old stove
Members of the Hoa Hao, an indigenous Vietnamese religion, cook and provide free rice for poor patients in the traditional medicine hospital in Ben Tre, as well as for poor patients in the provincial hospital down the road.
New stove
They had seen us on a TV news story about the coir spinning machines, then found us and asked if we could help them build a new stove. We went to the hospital to check it out and found the large brick wood-fired stove almost unusable. We gave them $574 to build a metal reinforced brick and concrete stove and to buy rice, and a few weeks later attended the dedication party for the new stove. Our cost: stove, $433, and 350 kilos rice, $141.
Ngo family
This family was referred to us by the youngest child’s teacher. The father is blind and the mom is weak from chronic illness. The parents and the two older kids all sell lottery tickets to support the family and to keep the youngest daughter, age 13, in school. We paid $115 for a new roof for their house so they could stay dry in the rainy season.
School sidewalk
While we were distributing school clothes at the elementary school in Tan Thanh Tay, the school principal asked if we could help build a concrete sidewalk from the school gate to the main building so the kids wouldn’t have to walk through mud in the rainy season. We agreed and a two by twenty meter concrete sidewalk was built. Our cost: $86.
Thuy's ceiling before roof repair
Thuy
August/September 2008
We always budget some money for urgent and special needs that present themselves, and we’re always glad that we did. This trip gave us more than usual.
Mobility at last!
An excellent opportunity which fits right in with our mission presented itself. The Peoples Committee in Long Thoi town told us they have five people whose legs are paralyzed or amputated and asked if we could buy push carts for them. These are three wheeled vehicles with a seat for one and a steering wheel on a shaft which is pushed back and forth by hand to move it. There is also storage space at the back and a sun/rain cover. As well as providing general mobility, these carts will allow all five people to earn money. They will be able to move around town and sell lottery tickets, a popular occupation for poor students and for adults that do not have, or can’t do, other work. We researched it and found that the carts are made in Saigon and cost about $150 each. We ordered five and had them delivered by boat. We will ask the Peoples Committees in other towns if they have people who need these.
At one of the schools, a teacher asked us if we could help an eight year old girl, one of her students, who has kidney disease and will die without help. We asked for more information and the teacher immediately hopped on her motorbike and went to the girl’s house. This is typical of teachers in Vietnam – concern for their students well beyond the classroom. The next day the girl, Nguyen Thi Ngop Giau, showed up at our house with her mom and dad. We gave them $60 to go to Saigon for another exam and referred them to Miss Yen, our heart surgery coordinator. Yen had her examined at one of the pediatric hospitals in Saigon.
Giau with her mother and teacher
We found that because the parents are very poor, they were only able to buy medicine when their daughter became extremely ill with a lot of pain. Her condition had steadily deteriorated because she did not have consistent medication. Yen will find financial help for the medicine, and the doctors say they may be able to keep her alive until she is strong enough for kidney transplant, but the outlook is not good.
After giving out exercise books and clothes at an elementary school, we noticed one of the students leading her mother across the schoolyard. On inquiry, we found that the mom, Nguyen Thi Kim Nam, is blind. She has two children, a girl in grade 1 and a boy in grade 5. Her husband operates a small river ferry. He earns about $1.25 a day when he works, doesn’t work often and drinks a lot. This family is in extremely difficult circumstances. We bought three sets of clothes for Kim Nam, two sets for each of the kids, and shoes for all. We also arranged for one of our helpers to buy and deliver rice to the family each month.
While we were there we heard about a house in Tan Phu Tay that had burned a few days ago. When we arrived we found the family living in a temporary house built by neighbors of bamboo with wall and roof panels made from water coconut fronds. The family, mom, dad and a ten year old girl who is in school, has 1500 square meters of land, and makes a living growing bananas and then drying them in a brick kiln and selling them to a wholesaler for packaging. The kiln, inside the house, was the source of the fire. They had very little to start with and had lost almost everything. The mom could barely hold back her tears as we talked to them. We gave them three million dong, $181, to rebuild the kiln so they could continue to produce income, and an individual visiting us gave them an additional $120.
We were originally referred to 16 year old Cuong by Miss Yen, and have been helping her with school and living expenses for two years. Each year the top students in each subject from each province in the south go to Saigon for a competition, and this year Cuong won the top prize in literature. We bought her a bicycle to make it easier for her to go to school.
December 2007/January 2008
Ly learning to read and write
Update: Last March we built a compassion house for a family of five, all illiterate, and arranged for a tutor to teach the 15 and 16 year old girls, both named Ly, to read and write (see the May 23, 2007 dispatch). The older girl, now 17, got pregnant, married and stopped taking lessons. The younger Ly, now 16, got embarrassed being alone with her tutor, a young man recently graduated from college, and was about to quit as well, so the tutor’s mother took over instruction. Progress is slow, but she is learning to read and write.
Mrs. Ty is 70 years old, and we built a compassion house for her in 2005. When we visited her we found that she was sleeping on the floor and her roof needed repair. We fixed the roof and bought her a bed, mosquito net, blanket and pillow. $184.
Mr. E’s 28 year old son (see business start-up report) has cancer. We gave them $62 for transportation to and a doctor visit in Saigon.
Duyen enroute to Saigon for examination
Duyen is a 13 year old girl in Tan Phu Tay. While distributing school supplies, board member Phuong noticed that Duyen had a large growth on her cheek. On inquiry we found that she had a similar growth and one eye removed when she was an infant, and that her remaining eye was unstable. We took her to Saigon and had her examined by an ophthalmologist and a neurosurgeon. They decided that surgery to remove the growth was too dangerous, and on their recommendation we bought her eyeglasses and medicine to help stabilize her remaining eye. She now finds it easier to read and do her schoolwork. $159.
Cuong is a 16 year old girl that was introduced to us last year by Miss Yen, our heart surgery coordinator. At that time she was living with her mother and her grandfather on the outskirts of Saigon and had just quit school because her family could not afford to pay for it. Her mother is a tailor but frequently can’t work because of headaches caused by a head injury. Since then her grandfather has died and Cuong and her mom have moved to Can Tho, the biggest city in the Mekong Delta. Yen helped Cuong get into school and she is now the top student in her class. We hope to be able to continue to help Cuong through high school and university. We gave Yen $187 to pay for Cuong’s school expenses and to help her with clothing and food.
Thanh Thanh starts school
Mrs. Seo, 87, lives alone with her developmentally disabled 60 year old son. We bought them two beds, two mosquito nets and two reed mats. $47.
Thanh Thanh is a seven year old Khmer (ethnic Cambodian) girl, also introduced to us by Miss Yen, living in Soc Trang. She had never been to school. Her dad speaks a little Vietnamese but her mom only speaks Khmer. Her dad asked us to help her go to school so she could write a letter and read the newspaper. With our help, she started school last year and is now in grade 1. We gave Yen $125 to help Thanh Thanh for the 2008 school year.
March/April 2007
More special needs than usual came to our attention on this trip.
Miss Yen, our heart surgery coordinator, introduced us to three people. We met the first when we went to the hospital to see Xuan Trang, our current heart kid. A man was standing at the entrance to the hospital in tears and asking us for money. Yen later told us that his son had recently had heart surgery, but was still in ICU and was expected to be there for a while. The family had sold their land and all their possessions to pay for hospital costs and were at their wits end. We gave him $200.
Danh Thi Thanh Thanh is a 7 year old Khmer (ethnic Cambodian) girl living in Soc Trang province in the Mekong Delta. She has never been to school. She had heart surgery in Saigon in March, and has returned home to live with her father, a fisherman, and her mother, who sells fish in the market. They do not have their own home and can’t afford to send Thanh Thanh to school. We gave Yen $2,000,000 Viet Nam Dong ($125 USD) to buy school supplies and pay school fees for Thanh Thanh to go to school for one year.
Tran Ngoc Cuong is a 15 year old girl who also had heart surgery recently. Her father abandoned the family and her family recently moved to Binh Chanh, a suburb of Saigon, where they rent a small room. Her mother, a tailor, was able to earn enough to pay for food and school. A few months ago her mother became sick, was unable to pay school fees, and Ngoc Cuong had to quit school. We gave Yen $125 to buy school supplies and pay for school fees for one year.
Phuoc My Trung’s main street has been resurfaced (a three year project) and is now a good quality road. The downside to this is that traffic can now drive fast on it and there is a lot of speeding, especially young men on motorbikes. Since the road was finished in April, there have been several serious accidents, including two deaths. One of the accidents was a high school girl walking home who was struck by a motorbike. She had serious brain injuries and was taken to hospital in Saigon. The family is very poor and the teachers from the high school were asking for money to help. We gave the family $240 to help pay hospital expenses.
$100 for 10 months tutoring for two sisters, age 15 and 16, who can’t read or write. See the May, 2007 letter in the Dispatch section for details.
$19 for textbooks, school supplies and a white ao day (Vietnamese traditional dress, used as a school uniform in high school) to a girl on the verge of dropping out of school.
$7 to buy two sets of clothes for Luan, the heart patient that we were unable to help.
$59 to buy blankets for 35 elderly people in Tan Phu Tay.
July/August 2006
Board member Phuong gives 2 blankets to Miss Tu
Dang Thuy Tu is 78 and lives in Tan Phu with her daughter, who is in her forties. The daughter is mentally ill and can’t contribute to family income. Her other daughter lives in another province, is also poor, and can’t help her either. Tu makes brooms and sells about one a week for about 25 cents. She occasionally catches fish in a nearby canal, and neighbors help her with food.
Last year a Saigon company built a compassion house for her, but the construction was not particularly good. When we got there the house was empty except for a tiny brick stove in one corner of the back room, a few kitchen items and some rice and a few bananas.
We bought six wood beams to repair her roof, a bed with reed mat and foam mattress, two blankets, a mosquito net, two large earthenware jugs to hold rain water, and some rice.
Miss Phung gathering broom straws
Vo Thi Phung, 52, lives in Thanh An and takes care of her 14 year old granddaughter Ngan. Phung makes brooms and sells about 10 a month for about 25 cents each. Ngan goes to school in the afternoon, and every morning she bicycles about 10 miles round trip to work in a coconut candy factory wrapping candy. She earns about 62 cents a day.
They have been living with friends who offered them enough land to build a house. Phung went to Saigon to do domestic work and earned enough to build a foundation and tile floor. This arrangement left her granddaughter alone, so she returned to the countryside. We bought her wood beams, bamboo rafters, coconut palm panels for a roof and walls, a bed, two blankets, a foam mattress, a mosquito net, and some rice.
Our cost for both families: $203.00
January/February 2006
While distributing notebooks and pens at the schools, we noticed that many of the students don’t have adequate school clothes. Some of the poorest kids only have one set of clothes and sometimes come to school with their clothes still damp if they need to be washed during the week. We bought 90 sets of school clothes – white blouse and blue skirt for the girls, white shirt and blue pants for the boys – for kids in six elementary schools. The vender sold them to us at cost as an act of charity for average price $2.46 each.
High school girls wear a white Ao Dai, the traditional Vietnamese long dress. We purchased material and hired a tailor to make Ao Dai for seven high school girls for about $6.50 each.
July/August 2005
Miss Thuy’s son, Cu, is planning to go to Malaysia on a three year labor contract to work in a clothing factory. They needed $1,072 as deposit to the labor export company. The Vietnamese government gave them an interest free loan of $631. Miss Thuy borrowed $126 from friends and we gave them a grant of $315. For the complete story, see the Dispatches section.
June/July 2004
Nguyen Van Pha
He is a 14 year old boy living in Phuoc My Trung with a painful and debilitating illness. He has joint pain so severe that he often can't go to school. We paid for a doctor visit for diagnosis - he has degenerative joint disease - and an initial supply of medicine. $35.00.
He is 37 and lives with his wife, age 25 and two five year old twin boys in Phu Hoa, Cho Lach Dustrict. He is severely crippled - his right leg withered, or maybe never grown, with his knee permanently up against his chest. She is chronically ill and weak, Phuong thinks with a liver disease. He takes a small boat out on the canals to catch fish to eat. The roof of their house is generally in bad repair and now has a large hole in it from a cooking fire. We bought them some new woven coconut frond panels to repair the roof, $27.00, and are making our first venture into raising chickens. We purchased 40 chicks, 2 chicken houses, food for the chicks and then enough unhusked rice to get them to market size, about 4 months, $32.00. On our next trip we will check up to see the results and would like to give additional assistance to this family, possibly with the purchase of a cow.
Le The Doi
She is a 60 year old woman living alone in Thuy Bang, near Hue, who was referred to us by a hotel clerk who we've known for about four years. She is not in good health and can't work. We have asked the person who referred us to think of some way she can earn income if we get her started. In the meanwhile, we purchased rice for $6.00.
