Xin chào

What’s been happening?

Highlights of the last few months have been:

1. Visit by Sisters Huong and Tuyen. They combined direct fundraising for their convent. They also spent a week at St Lucy’s School for the Disabled in Sydney observing how disabled children are taught in Australia. They travelled around a bit, viewing the bewildering differences between their home country and Vietnam.

2. Meeting with our Board. Let me introduce our Board to you: Peter Kabaila (Sec), Hung Nguyen (Pres & Vice Pres), Minh Tiep Tran, Loan Tran, Nam Long Quach, Clive West and David Braithwaite SJ. Hung has many years experience in managing charitable projects to aid development in Vietnam. Minh and Loan operate a local business. Nam works in the public service and Clive is a retired government lawyer. David organises Vietnam trips each year for Aussie volunteers. Our wide range of experience and shared concern for assisting development in Central Vietnam makes us a good team.

3. Sam, our volunteer web-master, set up Paypal for our web site so that people could easily make secure donations online.

See you soon

hẹn gặp lại

Peter Kabaila

Xin chào

What we’ve just done

Just back from Vietnam. Funding highlights were:

1. Students received their February 2012 tertiary scholarships, thanks to our Australian scholarship sponsors. Grants are arranged by written agreement with our project partners, the women’s monastic community of Huong Phuong. A typical example of a funding contract is in the Policies section of this web site.

2. Village medical clinic funding of medicines for the poor (12-month trial basis). Plus a motorbike for patient outreach.

3. Orphanage duck farm expansion to purchase 200 more ducklings. The farm is well-established and provides eggs, income and nutrition for the orphanage.

4. General fund items such as: supply of musical instruments at the orphanage; student library materials; help to a deaf/mute single mother, who came to the orphanage and gave birth to a lovely baby boy.

Thanks  to contributions of friends, these works could be carried out.  I also had three personal adventures:

1. Visiting the family home of Dr Yen, the clinic doctor.  The family are poor. This proved to me that if someone is exceptionally talented, with hard work they can overcome a poor childhood and graduate from medical school.

2. Riding a motorbike 500km through Vietnam (It’s easy-  it’s not as if there are any road rules).

3. Recovering from a foot injury. This provided insight into the needs of the village medical clinic, which combines western medicine with traditional healing.

Sometimes local priorities are a complete inversion of our funding priorities. An example was the medical clinic. Local priorities are: 1. Make it beautiful and impressive (“dep”). 2. Fill the building with high status hospital machines (to attract prestige customers). 3. Provide basic health care for the people. Our priorities start with basic health care, then “maybe” some machines, then beauty last.

Discussions with our project partners underline the absolute need to specify projects in detail and then check implementation on the ground. The playground is now installed (see under completed projects).  We had a 2-day negotiation with the sisters about providing a soft surface under play equipment. On arrival we found hundreds of square metres of  hard concrete paving blocks were laid under the play equipment.

“Why no soft landing surface underneath?” we asked at our funding consultation. “Oh, we don’t need it. Some children are very naughty. They play in the sand and get dirty. Some children have maybe something wrong with their brain. They put the dirt in their mouths. They will be alright. We have mats that we can put under equipment.” Every possible story, except the real reason, which was that sand was deemed “khong dep” (not beautiful).  Acres of concrete paving would be “dep” (beautiful, impressive).

After many gentle and unsuccessful negotiations, it was truth time.  Vietnamese women are very strong. They will not budge easily once they have taken a position. I sat down with Mother Superior: “You signed a contract. You took money for the playground. That included money for soft sand under play equipment. Our sponsors’ concern is preventing further brain injury of children, not things such as beauty (showcasing the orphanage). There is no compromise on this. If you don’t do this, then give the money back”. Once it was crystal clear that no story could sway us and that there might be withdrawal of funds, the whole thing was suddenly no problem. There was a 5-minute site inspection and a few mobile phone calls. Within an hour, sand was delivered and was being spread. By the end of the day, the whole playground had effortlessly moved.

Such discussions with our project partners underline the absolute need to:
2. Design and specify projects in detail.
3. Have signed finding contracts in place.
4. “Ground truth”: check implementation on the ground.

What’s coming up

What’s coming up now? We have a privately funded visit by Sisters Huong and Tuyen, on a cultural immersion trip to Australia. We need discussions with our project partners – the monastic community at Huong Phuong. They will consider what staged level of support they will need for things like:

1. Computer training.
2. Library room.
3. Water filtration plant – business enterprise for the orphanage that employs disabled people and provides better water (and better health) for the village.
4. Basic medical equipment selection, specification, procurement and supply.

We will then set up funding agreements and deliver support. All funding to be staged and conditional on targets being met.

See you soon

hẹn gặp lại

Peter Kabaila

Xin chào

What we’ve just done

The last few months have been busy and people have been helping.

Our vital education fund sponsors have been supporting scholarships for women, traineeships for people with disabilities and internships for medical centre workers. Dr Jide has advised on how to launch the medical centre fund. Annabel edited the web site text. Ben is having a look at the official policy background. Sam our web master has regularly updated the web site and provided counselling about what works – and what doesn’t – over a cup of coffee.

Tien Cao, visiting from Huong Phuong via New Zealand, helped host three very local fundraising events – street party, market stall and a sponsors’ dinner. He also put many nights into compiling an audio CD of field recordings and a DVD of photos of Huong Phuong to music. If anyone missed out on the DVD and wants one, please email. Thanks Tien, and thanks for sponsoring the first medical centre internship.

What’s coming up

What’s coming up now? We need to have discussions with our project partners – the monastic community at Huong Phuong. They will consider what staged level of support they will need for things like:

Women’s education.
Disabled people’s education.
Village library/student study room.
Village medical centre.
Chicken farming.
Orphanage staff training.
Local village business enterprises.

We will then set up funding agreements and deliver support. All funding is intended to be staged and conditional on targets being met.

See you soon

hẹn gặp lại

Peter Kabaila

Xin chào

ATO endorsement as a tax concession charity

This October, Friends of Huong Phuong Orphanage Inc. received ATO (the Australian Taxation Office) endorsement as a tax concession charity (charitable institution). The endorsement can be verified online using the ABN at www.abr.gov.au.

Sorry folks, but this does not yet mean that donations are tax-deductible. For that we first need Ausaid endorsement. As part of the setting up for Ausaid endorsement, we are preparing a policy for ethical standards. Thanks go to Cathy Blunt, for providing the policy template and to Ben Holmes, who did volunteer English language teaching for a year in Vietnam and is now fine-tuning the policy.

Web site building continues

How can you “build” a structure that exists only on the internet and not in the physical world? Easy, just get help from our friends Annabel, who edited the web site text, Sam McKeon, who did the updates. Also Ian Melville – based in the beautiful NSW town of Lockhart – who kindly worked up a sound recording from Huong Phuong into separate tracks.

18th women’s tertiary scholarship

Welcome to the Mulcahy family, our 18^th sponsor for the women’s tertiary scholarships. Luyen, who is studying pre-school teaching at Da Nang, now has two years of sponsorship, which covers half of her study costs.

What happens next?

We are expecting Tien, our first visitor from Huong Phuong village. Via New Zealand – it’s complicated! Tien will be helping explain our work to local people in Australia. He might also find out about fund raising.

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

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

Xin chào

Association registration.

Our inaugural committee meeting by telephone conference was on 1 June 2011. The Association was registered the following day. This means that the fundraising group became a separate legal entity. To maintain registration, financial records require to be audited each financial year and an annual report is lodged with the Territory government. Costs of registration, annual document lodgement, financial audit etc were donated.

Charity account

A charity account was opened at St George Bank. This type of account has no bank fees. The account does not allow electronic withdrawals or electronic transfers into other accounts. Withdrawals are restricted to manual type with 2 committee members to sign as a safeguard.

Every dollar that comes out of the account is for taking to Vietnam for specific assistance. This direct-funding model distinguishes us from the big, corporatised charities (they cost money to operate).

A funding agreement and cash receipt form is used for each of our development projects. The idea is to for funders and recipients to see financial transparency and accountability.

Web site.

The web site domain name registration, hosting and extensive design work were all donated by Sam McKeon in Canberra. Thanks Sam!

Orphanage Playground.

Play/exercise equipment for St Vincent Diem Orphanage for Children with Disabilities was designed and costed.  The play/exercise equipment project provides a colourful, easy to comprehend project, with immediate results (“low-hanging fruit” project). Each year of fund-raising might include one project of this category. Playground installation scheduled for December 2011.

Women’s tertiary study sponsorship scheme.

Our university study scholarships scheme for women in Vietnam has had amazing progress. In our 6^th week since registration, we had 7 sponsored scholarships. For a bit of extra support, I bought 2 good second-hand laptops at Canberra computer fair for delivery to students. One went to students at Hue, and the second went to students at Nga Trang.

The study scholarships project is an investment in “human capital”. It is long-term and has potential benefits for a large number of poor communities in central Vietnam.

Please ask your friends to sponsor a woman to study at university in Vietnam. All the details are under “Assist” in our web site. I am happy to talk to anyone about funding or part-funding, sharing sponsorship costs or ideas for fund raising.

See you soon

hẹn gặp lại

Peter Kabaila

In June 2011, Friends of Hướng Phương Orphanage Inc. was registered as an Association with the aim to:

Work in partnership with Huong Phuong Orphanage and village community, as well as surrounding villages, to achieve a better quality of life for all, with a focus on children with disabilities.

Friends of Huong Phuong Orphanage Inc. is an Australian charity that works in partnership on a diverse number of community development projects in Central Vietnam. We work with the local community on livelihood projects which enable the community to sustain an income, such as the rice harvester project and chicken farming project. We also facilitate adult education projects which enable carers to better meet the needs of disabled children. We are currently focusing on the establishment of a medical clinic which will focus on treating people with disabilities.

In October, 2011, Friends of Huong Phuong Orphanage Inc. received ATO (Australian Taxation Office) endorsement as a tax concession charity.

Projects include:

Playground (indoor and outdoor) for the orphanage,
Women’s tertiary study scholarships,
Support for Aussie volunteer groups,
Design of special care unit for live-in carers and severely disabled babies,
Starting up a village medical centre,
& more!

You can assist these community projects by donating here.