Support a Family Affected by Agent Orange

Hello from Vietnam!

First, a quick introduction. As you may remember from my thank-you letter, my name is Ai Hoang and I am a Peace Fellow with the Advocacy Project (AP). I’m currently living in Dong Hoi, Vietnam for the next five months, interning for AP’s partner on the ground, the Association for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (AEPD). 

AP & AEPD are teaming up starting this summer to pilot a new program supporting Agent Orange families in Quang Binh province. The mission of our program is to help Agent Orange families become economically independent and improve their quality of life by focusing on the needs of caregivers as well as victims. You see, as war veterans pass away, the double burden of earning an income and taking care of their ill children often fall solely on the shoulders of aging widows.

My appeal was to help the family of Mr. Nguyen Van Xoan & Mrs. Pham Thi Do, whose children have been badly affected by Agent Orange. Both parents are in the picture and they’re trying their very best to take care of their children. When I went  to visit the family, Mr. Nguyen Van Xoan was away. But I was able to meet with Mrs. Pham Thi Do and her three children who were  affected by Agent Orange, Trung, Toan and Luyen. They will benefit from your generous donation.

My goal in visiting was  to help re-assess the family’s needs. Based on this, an outreach worker from AEPD will return to help the parents draft a business plan in order to ensure that the funding for the family is spent appropriately. We hope to make a lasting impact on each family with a small amount of funding. So, it’s very important that we plan accordingly to maximize our impact.  

When we pull up to her house, Mrs. Do is animated. She’s constantly moving around, running from the kitchen to the living room, pouring water and rushing Toan to go greet us. Trung, the oldest of the three, looks to us and smiles, “My mom is never still,” he explains. Mrs. Do is constantly up and moving because she not only gets up at five everyday to work the field, she also takes care of three children affected by Agent Orange. Mr. Xoan does his best to support his wife. But, there’s no denying the bond between the mothers and children in these families that our 2015 Peace Fellow Armando observed when he visited them last year. Click here to read AP’s profile on Mrs. Do’s family.

I witness this bond again for myself this time around as I go to take their family portrait. Mrs. Do lovingly uncurls her daughter Luyen’s hands every few minutes to stop her from cutting her palm. She continues to smile and repeats this process, never getting frustrated as Luyen tries to curl her palms up again a second later. 

The family’s needs have stayed consistent. They would like to purchase a new buffalo and cover medical costs for Trung and Toan’s blood transfusions. Toan, the youngest, is still building handicraft models that he sells to local schoolchildren and visitors. An AEPD staff member and I purchased three more from him that day.

Looking ahead, we will now help the family form a business plan and then assist them with the relevant purchases, which in this case is a buffalo and handicraft materials. This has now become possible because of your generous support.

I leave their home that day feeling immensely grateful for mothers like Mrs. Pham who never give up even when faced with so much hardship. These admirable caregivers need our support and we hope to be able to provide it so soon. If you’d like to learn more about the other families AP & AEPD are working with, please click here to read their stories.

Once again, thank you so much for your kindness.

Sincerely,

Ai Hoang, 2016 AEPD Peace Fellow