“Letters From Vietnam, Part 4,” Hybrid Mom Blog, June 17, 2010
Thursday, June 17th, 2010
Hi All!
Sorry I haven’t emailed recently we’ve been traveling a lot!..Two days ago we went to an orphanage for kids that had lost their parents somehow or who had been saved from the sexexplained to me how one little girl and her younger sister were saved from a brothel house in Cambodia by ACWP but the org was unable to locate their older sister who is most likely still working for the sex trade…such a sad story!
These girls are so tiny..about 7 and 9 years old and are sold for around $200 or 300 dollars and then bring in around $50 dollars to their ‘pimp’ every time they have some sort of sex with a costumer…the majority of which are foreign, grown men…so frightening! For the orphanage, we funded and set up a mobile clinic right near them where we saw around 80 kids and had the doctors give check ups and prescribe them medicines along with a lot of vitamin C. Because the kids don’t have parents to keep track of when their medicines are taken my job was to help them read their prescription after they were given their medications…I had to learn some Vietnamese such as take 1 pill twice a day..etc. but it was fun and the kids would giggle at my broken Vietnamese!
Today we toured the local medical school hospital where the kids we have sponsored undergo corrective surgery. One of the doctors who volunteers at the clinics gave us a tour of the hospital…it was very crowded..most rooms had 3 or 4 patients with no air conditioning and definitely not the cleanest of facilities. We visited a room where all of the recovering kids stay…one kid had to have the bottoms of his legs below his knees amputated and the doctor explained to us how ACWP, our org. would sponsor him to have prosthetic limbs as he grows for the rest of his life. We gave each of these kids vitamin C gummy bears, crackers and a huge case of juice boxed milk…it was tough to see them in the childrens ward here but good to know that they will have a much better life now…
In our couple hours off we had for lunch today we toured the imperial city where the emperors lived and from which they reigned over the city. I took a bunch of pictures so I’ll send them all when I upload them but it
is very similar to the forbidden palace in China with very high walls and gates surrounding the city where the emperor and his wives would live. Because of the Vietnam war and the destruction, much of the imperial city is undergoing reconstruction still in order to restore it to its original state. In the afternoon today we went to another small clinic inside the city of Hue where we aided the doctors in giving Hepatitis B vaccinations to kids.
A local school was notified in advance to bring all of their 1st-5th graders there and each of the kids was given a vaccination for free. The kids were so grateful and it was great to spend time with them and teach each other how to count to 10 in our respective languages! Tonight we sat on the sidewalk at a local street venders food stand with a bunch of locals and ate a dish with barbequed meat on top of rice and noodles..it was delicious! Its tough here though since we’re told we shouldn’t eat any raw vegetables, ice cream, tap water, ice or anything that might have been washed by tap water so that we don’t get sick…who would have thought those couple of things would be so limiting!
Anyway, tomorrow we head to another mobile clinic outside of the city bright and early so I’m off to bed! I hope you all are well! I miss you and love you!! XOXOXOX
Katie
Hi All!
Today was another great day! We traveled to another remote village outside of Hue where we set up another clinic. While there I worked with a doctor and drew blood in order to take the patients’ blood glucose levels for them and then the doctor prescribed the appropriate medications. Today was especially interesting for a lot of the patients I saw with the doctor needed corrective surgery which the organization we work for works hard to fundraise money
We saw two boys whose testicles were in their lower abdomen still and hadn’t ever dropped. We also saw a baby whose arms were permanently twisted in an abnormal way and a few other cases that needed to be addressed. All of these patients, the doctor explained to me would get corrective surgery for free which the organization will pay for. It was a very uplifting experience to see the look on these childrens faces and their mothers’ when they were told they were candidates for the surgery. Pops, I also asked this doctor, who is a gastrointestinal surgeon in Hue if you could come volunteer and perform surgeries for these kids with him and see patients at the clinic and he said he’d love for you to come and said to contact him and the organization for more information so we’ll get on that when I get home!
A local school was notified in advance to bring all of their 1st-5th graders there and each of the kids was given a vaccination for free. The kids were so grateful and it was great to spend time with them and teach each other how to count to 10 in our respective languages! Tonight we sat on the sidewalk at a local street venders food stand with a bunch of locals and ate a dish with barbequed meat on top of rice and noodles..it was delicious! Its tough here though since we’re told we shouldn’t eat any raw vegetables, ice cream, tap water, ice or anything that might have been washed by tap water so that we don’t get sick…who would have thought those couple of things would be so limiting!
Anyway, tomorrow we head to another mobile clinic outside of the city bright and early so I’m off to bed! I hope you all are well! I miss you and love you!! XOXOXOX
Katie
Hi All!
Today was another great day! We traveled to another remote village outside of Hue where we set up another clinic. While there I worked with a doctor and drew blood in order to take the patients’ blood glucose levels for them and then the doctor prescribed the appropriate medications. Today was especially interesting for a lot of the patients I saw with the doctor needed corrective surgery which the organization we work for works hard to fundraise money for the doctors volunteering at these clinics write down the patients information and then tell them an approximate time when they’ll be able to have the surgery and where.
We saw two boys whose testicles were in their lower abdomen still and hadn’t ever dropped. We also saw a baby whose arms were permanently twisted in an abnormal way and a few other cases that needed to be addressed. All of these patients, the doctor explained to me would get corrective surgery for free which the organization will pay for. It was a very uplifting experience to see the look on these childrens faces and their mothers’ when they were told they were candidates for the surgery. Pops, I also asked this doctor, who is a gastrointestinal surgeon in Hue if you could come volunteer and perform surgeries for these kids with him and see patients at the clinic and he said he’d love for you to come and said to contact him and the organization for more information so we’ll get on that when I get home!
We had a couple of hours today in between the two sessions of patients at the clinic so we went to a nearby beach where tons of school children were playing in the water in their school uniforms. The little boys dug up sand crabs and gave them to us giggling.. sweet little gifts! haha…the water is totally clear on a white beach..its amazing what a paradise this place can be next to extreme poverty…
Tomorrow we’re off to a hospital to give Hep B vaccinations to kids which should be another great experience! Aunt Els, I will look into how you can sponsor a child..I’m pretty sure your donation you sent me has gone to sponsoring a child if not to the medications needed at our clinics, so you’ve already done a lot! thank you!
I hope you’re all well! I love you so much!! XOXOX!!
KatieE
Aid to Children Without Parents, Inc. (ACWP), formerly known as Aid to Refugee Children without Parents, Inc is a 501(c)(3) charitable, tax-exempt, non-profit organization. As a humanitarian organization, ACWP’s mission is to help disadvantaged children become self-sufficient through educational and vocational training, provide preventive healthcare services, short-term financial support, and emergency relief program.
If you’d like to donate to the cause and sponsor a child, please visit the website http://www.acwp.org/.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uftiFxJ_wHQ&feature=player_embedded
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