We have just completed our 2008 trip to deliver wheelchairs to the children of Vietnam and as usual we came away with so many good feelings and memories of faces that photographs and paintings cannot do justice. Those of you who have supported this project and these children and their parents, are miracle workers beyond your wildest dreams. Your dollars make it a bit easier for families that have so little in their lives. Our website has been updated, so you can now share in the memories of us that have made this particular trek to Southeast Asia. To remind you once again that website is: www.vnvetsforkids.org.
This year’s team was Ron Hunt and Jimmy Thompson, who are now residing there in Vietnam, Jim Cook, who has been a major factor in setting up this project and of course, Corbin Cherry, whose drive and devotion has kept this project going for the past three years. This year, while in Ho Chi Minh City, we visited a new wheelchair factory in the south, visited an orphanage, where we spend time helped feed, talked and played with the 20+ severely disabled young boys residing there and then spent Thanksgiving evening enjoying a bit of turkey.
We then headed north to Hanoi and there met up with Jimmy Thompson, who now resides in Hanoi, Phạm Văn Thiệp, the manufacturer for our wheelchairs and also the Director of the Orthopaedic Technical and Rehabilitation Center (OTRC) and Phan Thi Minh, a representative of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs. Both Thiệp and Minh had been helpful in locating the children who need the wheelchairs.
On December 2nd, we departed Hanoi at 7am for Ninh Binh Province, which is about four plus hours south of Hanoi. There we met with the province leaders and had the wonderful experience once again interacting with the children. One of our team members was about to break into tears and one of the other members ask him what he was thinking and he said, “This is so great, but it never gets easier and what makes me tear up in to see the expression on the faces of the parents”. It is so true because they can hardly lift their children and being able to push them is so much easier. After the ceremony in Ninh Binh, we drove for another four hours to Vinh, where we spent the night and met with the representative of the Ministry of Labor who took us for a wonderful seafood dinner on the beach nearby. The following day, after four hours of driving even further south, we arrived in Ha Thinh Province and there we were greeted by hundreds of children from a nearby school. We then repeated our presentation of wheelchairs and saw so many thankful and joyful faces. It is very difficult not to cry, so we don’t even try anymore. The timing here was perfect because it was the International Disability Day. The script was already written.
