July 2014 Vietnam Trip Report
This summer, we again travel to Vietnam to visit the children. We visited 6 orphanages. We awarded the children who did well in school last year with gifts and treats for all the children, After many years of visiting Thien Binh, the children was happy to see us and called me “chu Thang” which was a very warm feeling. It is a privilege to be part of the children’s lives. After many trials and thanks to Kathy, we were able to install Skype with audio at Thien Binh, now, the sponsors can communicate with their children directly. Kathy also brought gifts from her family and friends to donate to the children.
At Thien Binh, there are 2 deaf children, Sen and Hieu. Sen is one of our sponsored children. We took Sen to Photonak for screening, the good news is that her hearing can be restored with the best hearing aid. The cost for the hearing aid is $5300 which includes life-time guarantee, and 6 month of training and learning. In addition, one new baby, be Tuyet, was born without rectum. We took her to a children hospital in Saigon, and she was diagnostic with other medical conditions, hydrocephalus and no hip bone. The surgery to remove water from her brain was done to prevent brain damage. We are raising fund to help be Tuyet with other surgeries; http://www.youcaring.com/nonprofits/gift-of-hearing-and-gift-of-life/206373
We received good news that a charity group has agreed to sponsor 35 children from Tu Hanh which bring the total number of supported children to 60. At Diệu Giác, the number of orphans remains the same. The total number of sponsored children is increased to 75.
We also traveled to Pleiku/KomTum to visit our sponsored orphanage, Mai Am Guise. This place is hard to reach, it took us 2 full days on the road to travel and return. The children are very timid and not use to have visitor. We are currently sponsored 6 children from Mai Am Guise and the wish of the director is to increase to 12 children.
We also visited 2 orphanages, Mai Am Rosa in Hoc Mon and Pleiku, that are not sponsored by H4VO. The orphanages have about 75 children and are managed by Da Minh Catholic Church; they are potentially our next sponsored orphanage. The orphanages include many minority children from Pleiku and Komtum. They also have a vocational training center in Ho Nai for 33 children.
And most of all, we would like to thank all of you who have been supporting H4VO mission for all these years. Without your support, none of these successes would have been possible.
Sincerely,
H4VO 2014 Newsletter
The 2014 annual report is now available.
Help an orphan overcome medical issues
H4VO is working with Thien Binh orphanage to help an orphan with medical issues. She was diagnosed with multiple health issues: Hydrocephalus (water in the brain), no hip bones, only one kidney, no anus, and all critical tubes merged into one. The brain surgery is most critical and was successfully performed. The second surgery with external anus was done, and she recovered well. There are multiple surgeries to correct the other issues over one year. The estimated costs for all procedures is $5000-$10000.
Here are some of her photos
Second Annual Spirit of Christmas
H4VO gratefully express our appreciation to Villa Song for hosting second annual The Spirit of Christmas fundraising event, benefiting H4VO. The event was held on December 7 with Ms. Van Nguyen and Bich Dung as representatives for H4VO. Some children from Thien Binh orphanage were also present to greet guests.
With the success of last year’s event at Villa Song Hotel, Ms. Quoico established the English program at Thien Binh orphanage. The children excel in English at school and are much more confident with speaking English. If anyone visits Thien Binh, please check out their English skill. I cannot wait to talk to them this coming summer. We would like to shout “thank you” to Ms. Ines Quoico of Villa Song Hotel and Ms. Nhan Nguyen, English teacher.
We would like to duplicate the English program at other orphanages. Ms. Nhan has agreed to teach at another orphanage. Hope and future for the children are our goals. Please donate to support these programs.
KIND Gala fundraising event
KIND Gala on November 22 was a huge success! It was a joint fundraiser of VNHELP and Hope for Viet Orphans (H4VO).
Besides raising funds for programs assisting children in Vietnam, the two co-founders – Thu Do of VNHELP and Thang Tran of H4VO – officially announced the incorporation of H4VO into VNHELP. H4VO has become an affiliate of VNHELP and will continue to focus on programs helping Vietnamese orphans. Thang joined the VNHELP Board of Directors earlier this year; his first initiative is to merge the two Sponsor A Child Programs for consistency and resource sharing. In their opening remarks, the two leaders believed the combined strengths will triple or quadruple the impacts of their programs in Vietnam.
KIND stands for Kids In Need of Dreams.
Here are some photos from the event.
Our trip to Vietnam this summer
This summer, we again travel to Vietnam to visit the children. We visited 6 orphanages. We awarded the children who did well in school last year with gifts and treats for all the children. Please read our trip report here.
The drawing below by an orphan at Mai Am Guise and was given to us as a gift during our visit (click on the drawing for larger view).
Here are some photos from our trip.
Villa Song is helping Thien Binh orphanage with iPads
Villa Song is spearheading a program to provide Thien Binh with 15 iPads for reading and learning English. Some of the funding came from this past Christmas fundraising event (also hosted by Villa Song), and had been used to purchase 4 iPads. H4VO also donated 2 additional iPads to Thien Binh.