The past two days in northern Vietnam have been a flurry of activity. Yesterday, the VNHELP team in Vietnam started our day at 6:30 am and didn’t get back till 11:30 pm! We visited Nam Dinh province, a three hour drive from Hanoi, where we have a number of health projects.
The day began with a curb-side breakfast on our way to Nam Dinh. These past few days have been pretty cold in the north, so we sipped up warm “banh da ca ro,” a local specialty which consists of slippery rice noodles and seasoned fish in a veggie-filled broth. We cajoled the lovely ladies who run the little bistro into taking a picture. They were shy, but finally agreed to come out and even invited us to come back.
After that, it was straight to the Lien Minh clinic, which VNHELP constructed with the support of donor Mai Dolch. We are now focused on helping the Lien Minh clinic build capacity, and this includes strengthening the clinic’s OB/GYN and early child care, developing a community health workers system, and increasing staff knowledge. It’s one of our most ambitious health initiatives yet, and if we succeed, we plan to replicate this model at different clinics. To get this initiative on its way, we held a meeting with the various stakeholders involved. Patients of the clinic, physicians, nurses, current health workers, local leaders–you name it, they were all there. We can’t stress enough how important it is to get local input before jumping into a project.
By the way, did we mention how absolutely gorgeous Vietnam’s countryside is? This is a view from the second floor of the Lien Minh clinic. The serene view alone should cure a number of ailments, including headaches and urban fatigue.
On the way to our next stop, a wheelchair distribution, we got a flat tire! But thankfully, there was a tire repair shop nearby (actually, they are everywhere in Vietnam). While the repairmen patched up our tire, we got to play with his adorable son.
At the wheelchair distribution, we met a number of disabled but spirited people. The elderly woman in the picture below came with her nephew and was one of the wheelchair recipients.
Here’s VNHELP Executive Director Thu Do with a special tricycle (xe lac) recipient! (That’s volunteer project coordinator, Mr. Luu, in the background.)
While in Nam Dinh, we dropped by the home of Ms. Bui Thi Hoa. Ms. Bui Thi Hoa was a beneficiary of VNHELP’s cataract surgery program. When we asked her what difference the surgery has made in her life, she says she is happy she can now see all her grandchildren and great grandchildren growing up again.
We ended the Nam Dinh trip with a visit to a Catholic church. VNHELP works with a number of faith-based organizations in our projects, and we’ve worked with this local parish in wheelchair distributions, cataract surgery missions, and disaster relief. In countries where civil society is weak, like Vietnam, faith-based organizations provide incredibly valuable services. They are able to organize people in an efficient matter, are trusted by locals, and have a deep knowledge of the issues faced by the community. Of course, the faith-based organizations VNHELP works with never discriminate. You can be a professed Catholic or a practicing Buddhist–it doesn’t matter. We help those who need it.
When we visited the orphanage run by the church, it was almost too hard to head back to Hanoi afterwards. Who could say good bye to these smiling faces?
Stay tuned for a recap of our visit to microfinance projects in Vinh Phuc province next!