MEDICAL AID FOR VIETNAM
MEDICAL AID MISSION SUMMARY REPORT
JULY 27 – AUG. 10, 2008
Medical Aid Team first gatherng in Saigon
Once again, Medical Aid for Vietnam has accomplished another successful medical mission to Vietnam. The ever biggest team of 76 medical professionals and volunteers from Hong Kong, U.S.A., and Canada, joined by other 8 volunteers from Vietnam, spent 2 weeks (from July 27 to August 10, 2008) traveling and working in several provinces throughout the central and delta areas of Vietnam. The mission was divided into three smaller teams: Team 1 –The Delta Team – worked in Can Tho, Rach Gia and Long Xuyen; Team 2 – The Central Team – worked in Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An; and Team 3 – The Surgery Team – performed surgeries for the children at the Children Hospital 1 in Saigon. Together, Medical Aid for Vietnam mission served more than 8,000 poor patients.
Similar to previous medical aid missions, at the outreach camps, we treated poor patients, performed eye and dental check ups, gave out free medications, needed eye glasses, gifts of food and clothes and performed teeth extractions. Particularly, this year, we received a generous donation of medicines from CMMB (Catholic Medical Mission Board). These medicines were sent to our Chicago’s office and our team members were able to hand carry them into Vietnam and then distributed them to the poor and outreach clinics.
The Central Team, especially, had a memorable moment. We had the chance to meet around 30 children whom Medical Aid for Vietnam had sponsored for their heart surgeries at the convent of the Sisters of the Visitation in Bai Dau, Hue. What a better reward than to see these once ailing children now happy, in good health and living normal lives. Our team members were moved and touched by the children and their families. Our eyes met theirs that were filled with tears of joy and gratitude. Over the past five years since we started the heart surgery project, we have, in collaboration with other charitable organizations, sponsored more than 500 children of poor families for heart surgeries. This number sounds big, but unfortunately, it is barely a tip of the iceberg because the waiting list is just getting longer and longer every time. We needed to be more consciously active in our fund-raising efforts to support this life-saving mission so that more poor children would have a chance to a good heart and to live a normal life.
The Delta Team, on the other hand, visited an orphanage run by a Buddhist monk in Long Xuyen where we spent time with the children and had one unforgettable experience of our time. Members of our team bought and donated a ping pong table and an insecticide lamp.
At every site, as usual, we encountered people who suffered certain ailments and needed further medical attentions. In few instances, we were able to extend our help by arranging them to go to the hospital for surgeries or treatments, or by referring them to the Sisters whom we endorsed the money to care and then arrange treatments for them. In many other instances, however, we couldn’t offer any help because our fund was drying out.
Besides carrying out our main outreach medical mission works, Medical Aid for Vietnam also extended our hands to aid other less fortunate in places that we couldn’t reach out and launched a few new program initiatives:
- We collaborated with Dr. Liem Nguyen, Chief of Can Tho’s Eye Hospital, and his vision team to perform 71 cataract surgeries in Vinh Long. We provided all implants and funded all medical and post care expenses.
- We established and funded free medical clinics in remote areas. Our goal is to provide continuous and long-term medical services to the poor patients in remote areas by hiring local doctors to work at free medical clinics run by the sisters. To these clinics, we also provided medications and other necessary medical necessities. Hopefully, with generous supports, we will be able to establish similar charitable clinics to more places all throughout the countryside.
- We provided salary to hire a doctor to work on a continual basis at a charitable clinic in Pleiku, Kontum (Gia Lai Province) run by volunteers. We also provided medicines, medical supplies, crystalline lenses (implants) and fund for 50 cataract surgeries, and paid to send 4 local children to Hue Hospital for congenital open heart surgery.
- We donated 150 implants to support the ongoing cataract surgery program run by a Buddhist Monk, Thich Hanh Nghia, of Vu Lan Temple in Da Nang.
- We gave grants to 4 people to undergo a four-week chiropractics training and funded their free chiropractic clinic to serve the poor in Battambang, Cambodia.
We would like to thank all team members who have volunteered times, ability and talents and had worked tremendously hard to make this trip successful and memorable. We would also like to thank all the benefactors, whose generous contributions had made our medical missions possible.
Cataract Surgery in Vinh Long, Can Tho One of our Outreach Sites in Rach Gia
We are planning two Medical Aid for Vietnam missions in FY 2009:
- Feb. 07 – Feb. 22, 2009 and
- Oct. 24 – Nov. 08, 2009.
Join us in one or both of these missions, and/or tell those who might be interested. For further information, please contact: