As we end the second half of the year, our wonderful volunteers on the ground in Vietnam have generously donate their time and effort to help make two recent disbursements on behalf of ATG to our supported orphanages and underprivileged children. We are so grateful to you, our generous donors and sponsors, for helping to make this happen! If you would like to continue to help us with aid to Vietnam and our other supported orphanages and groups of underprivileged children in Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines, please
visit our donation page.
Here is an account of the latest distributions from ATG Co-Founder and Advisor to Vietnam Ms. Aileen Nguyen.
Our First Disbursement Trip
Our volunteer Lệ Trần Thị and her friends organized the trip to a mountain village A Xan, a small village at the border of Vietnam-Lao 170 km from Da Nang, Vietnam. The villagers and the children are very poor. On this trip, Lệ and her friends distributed 90 packages of rice and other needed food items with funds donated by other sources. She also helped with distributions of 30 packages of rice and needed food items to the students from the small school of the village on behalf of ATG.
Lệ described the life of the villagers and these children as “very dark.” They live like wild animals in the desert with not much to live on.
Though the road from this location to Da Nang is only 17 0km or 100 miles, it took the group a whole day to reach the village because the road conditions are so bad and treacherous. The group had to get out of the truck to cross the creek and walk the rest of the way so the truck would be lighter. Some had to ride motorcycles.
At first, everyone was discouraged and tired on the journey, but their hearts were lightened when they saw how the gifts brought so much hope and joy to the people. Lệ told me that everyone worked hard in the field to raise food. She encountered a young mother with a one-month-old baby cradled on her back, working on the field.
We look forward to working with the volunteers to return to this village very soon. So many children who live in this mountain area near the border are in need of our help.
Our Second Disbursement Trip
Our new volunteer is Ms. Anh Tran, a good friend of mine who is also former ATG Board member Uyen Tran’s mother. On this second trip to Vietnam, she helped me coordinate with other volunteers to deliver the gifts of school supplies (uniforms, backpacks, milk and notebooks), to 260 students, including bicycles to select students from seven different schools.
One of these schools is in the mountain area 170 km from Da Nang, and two schools are in the far north outskirt of Hue. Needless to say, the students were very happy to receive the gifts. We are also very happy to see the ATG logo on the backpacks carried by the students afterward. From now on, we hope that the children will see the logo ATG on their backpacks as a reminder that we will be with them at school and that they are not alone.
