Hi friends and sponsors

Xin chào

Lots of good news!

What we achieved in 2011.

One of our friends, David Penalver, is an architect who visited the orphanage. He helped the community design a new cottage for live-in carers and disabled children in the high-care category. These are children with severe brain/neural damage or genetic defects.

One wheelchair bound young man at the orphanage asked for a chance to attend school. The Friends are now looking at funding his education at a special school where students have residency and receive tutoring in computer use, so that he could teach others at the village and orphanage.

Semester scholarship payments were sent to our sponsored women students. Students returned receipts and progress reports.

Fundraising for the orphanage playground was completed, payment sent and play equipment ordered. Installation is expected at the end of the year.

Where is Huong Phuong?

A few people have asked me, “Where is Huong Phuong village”?

You can get quite a good aerial of the village using Google Earth. The nearest market town, Ba don, is 7km to the east. The nearest administrative city and transport hub is Dong Hoi, about 40km east. The nearest World Heritage “must-see” places for visitors are the imperial palace in Hue City and the river caves at Phong Nga.

Huong Phuong is in central Vietnam. Half-way between the big lump in the north containing Hanoi and the big lump in the south containing Saigon. The central narrow strip is only about 40km wide. Huong Phuong is just north of the former DMZ and 119 men from this village alone were killed in 1974-6. The same number died in the next village. Many elderly women are war widows.

Many of the children with severe genetic defects at the orphanage are likely to be war damage. Collateral. Also not far from the village is the local American War cemetery.

We asked Sister Tuyen whether everyone is still angry? “No”. Why not? “Is not good for your health to feel anger”.

What happens next?

With more supporters, we now hope to begin raising funds for a medical clinic. We also need all students on our list – both current and hopefuls – to be sponsored for tertiary study. This will improve their effectiveness  in serving the poorest communities with medical and pastoral care. So please contact us if you can help. Your donations are doing good work already.

Don’t forget, this is the fund where EVERY dollar you donate goes to direct assistance in Vietnam.

See you soon

hẹn gặp lại

Peter Kabaila