Introductory Letter

Dear Friends:

During the past few months, we have been promoting the activities of Vietnamese Charitable Association (VCA) in Hung Hoa. We are proceeding with our mission to serve and care for the handicapped, the sick, and those who have been rejected by society or oppressed by their communities because of their Christian spirit. These are the first steps of our service plan to the Highlands of Vietnam. Through your generous donations, these plans can be continued. We convey your compassion through activities such as providing wheelchairs to the handicapped, helping local communities by drilling wells, supplying threshing machines for farmers, and giving bicycles, blankets, mattresses and mosquito nets to the poor. We would like to report about these mission activities.

Sister Thuong is visiting and comforting the poor and the disable in the diocese of Hung Hoa, Viet Nam.

Twelve members of our organization visited and consoled the handicapped at Tuyen Quang, Yen Bai, Phu Tho, and Ha Tay. We presented gifts of love to 84 handicapped individuals, including children, adults and the elderly, regardless of their religion. The Highland people live a tough life, barely managing to earn a meager living on 0.2 acre plots of land provided by the government. They are rarely able to produce enough food for a whole year. Their primitive tools put them at a disadvantage as well. Because of poverty, most family members from young to old, have to work long hours to earn their daily meals one way or another, but still they often go hungry. At dawn, many six-year-old children remain at home to baby-sit their younger siblings while parents go off to work in the fields. There are no schools for the children because their parents have no money for school fees. In the evenings, the children go to church for religious education; however, we are faced with great difficulty in teaching them because most of them cannot read.

The greatest hardships are faced by families caring for handicapped members. Although some children are born handicapped, many are born healthy but later become paralyzed due to polio, lack of medical care, malnutrition, and diseases. The primitive conditions in which they live and the lack of available medicines also contribute to their suffering. We visited hundreds of families in need, and we cried when we observed human misery beyond our imagination. We saw starving, emaciated people and those suffering from multiple handicaps including paralysis, mental retardation, hearing and visual impairments. In this limited space, I am unable to express everything that I would like to say about the needy and impoverished families we served.

To all of our generous benefactors who have kindly helped us to provide love and comfort to those who are handicapped, both physically and spiritually, please accePhu Tho our sincerest thanks and deepest appreciation in the words of our Lord: "When I was hungry, you fed me; when I was thirsty, you gave me drink; when I was sick, you took care of me…"

Gratefully,
Therese Nguyen Vinh, RDC