HelpVN

2006-10-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

Bcc: Subject: upcoming Vietnam trip Feb. 24-Mar. 11Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 14:02:05 -0700Mime-Version: 1.0Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowedX-OriginalArrivalTime: 13 Oct 2006 21:02:08.0664 (UTC) FILETIME=[D8711980:01C6EF0A]Dear friends of Vietnam project,As you may already know in 2007, we are planning 2 trips to Vietnam: one from Feb. 24 to Mar. 11 and the other from Oct. 27 to Nov. 11.For those interested in coming with the team in February, please start to send your application form to EMAS (www.cmds-emas.ca) and $1,200 to EMAS for the expense of the trip. Please contact the travel agent: May at 604 738 2883 to arrange the flight ticket. Please note that the team has to meet in Saigon Vietnam on Sunday Feb. 25 and working for 2 weeks coming back to Saigon Mar. 10 in order to leave VN on Mar. 11. You can go early and come back later if you wish, please let May, the travel agent know. The cost is roughly $1500 via Eva air, if you want to go deluxe (recommended) the cost will be around $150 more. And please let me know if you are planning to come! We will have a meeting re. the details soon. I will need to have a copy of your passport. Please tell your friends about the trip and invite them to come. At the same time, please do some fundraising, if possible. We need more money for the trip in Feb. since we do not have a major fundraising event for it.I am looking forwards to hearing from you.God bless,Fr. Tien Tran

2006-10-26T11:04:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,We are in the process of planning for the trip in Feb. 24 to Mar. 11. So far we have about 10 people expressing the interest to come. Please let me know asap whether you are coming or anyone you know may be interested in coming. We were hoping to have a fundraising in Nov. or Dec. to raise money for the trip but it's to rush to do it. Besides, we could not book the singers and there are not enough volunteers to put it together. So we do not have one after all. However, we do have some money from the fundraising event in Sept. and from my chuch. We still have to push and support the Rotary Opera (The Magic Flute). Please help selling the tickets ($125/$175 each) by calling David Neima at 604 5213232. And please do some more fundraising from your church, company, friends... so that we have more to help the poor in Vietnam.For those who are coming in Feb., please go to the website: www.cmds-emas.ca to register for the mission (Vietnam Project), send $1200 for the trip expenses, and fax a copy of your passport to me: 604 9391749; and contact the travel agent: May at 604 738 2883 to arrange the flight. We are to pay for the ticket ourselves and then after the trip send the invoice and a cheque for the airfare to EMAS to receive the income tas receipt (the amount will be reimbursed to you). Most of the group will be leaving Vancouver on Feb. 24 and come back to Vancouver on Mar. 11. If you want to go early or come back later, please arrange it with May.We will have a meeting re. the trip soon, once I know who is coming. Others, please pray, spread the words, and support any way you can to make the trip a success.Looking forwards to working with all of you on the Feb. trip.God bless,Fr. Tien Tran

2006-09-21T14:39:00.000-07:00

November, 2005 TripOur last trip was with a team of 26, including several Vietnamese nationals who worked with us for the entire trip. We thank God for blessing us with a wonderful expedition. On our first day in Saigon, many of us went to see the statue of the Virgin Mary in front of the cathedral, which had begun to shed tears the day before. A large crowd was present, praying publicly in the square and we joined in prayer, with the local people. We divided into two teams and held 12 clinics in different locations throughout Vietnam. In total, team members and Vietnamese volunteer doctors saw 5,000 patients during those two weeks. We're especially thankful to our dental team of Tim Tam, Tam Do, Andrew Chan and Elaine She, who performed countless surgeries on many poor patients. We had three dental assistants who did hygiene training as well as surgical assistance: Michelle Buckley, Nguyen and Pamela Bryson-Weaver.

We worked in outreach clinics, organized by the St Paul sisters, in two locations outside of Danang. One clinic had to be cut short as we were caught in a typhoon, which was very exciting! We also did a clinic in the countryside outside of Hue, which we reached by boat due to flooding. We still saw 650 people that day with the sisters of The Visitation. We spent another day outside Hue with the Kim Long sisters and 14 local doctors that they had recruited to work with us. One day of clinic was cancelled by the local health authorities, so half of the team went shopping and the rest went to La Vanh on a day of pilgrimage and prayer. We also held clinics in the Can Tho area and the entire team held two very busy clinic days near Cam Ran Bay, seeing 1,000 patients each day. We were organized into three groups, dental, eye and general medicine. We were very grateful to have our first optometrist this year, Vanessa Luong who did a tremendous amount of work. We gave away over 3,000 pairs of eyeglasses this year! I must mention our medical team, anchored by three GPs: Lynette Penner, Faye Chow and Joanne Do, who did terrific work and made the trip enjoyable and fun. We were blessed by the assistance of Therwat Fera, a repeat team member who is a respirologist, and his wife Demitra. Therwat is always fun and always has a lot of energy! We donated three microscopes this year, but only received them on the last days of the mission due to customs problems. Our installation team of Dieter Howald, Michael Crean and Chau Ngyuen worked hard in the camps and really responded well to the frustrating delays. We especially want to thank Dieter for staying an extra four days to install the ceiling-mounted scope in Can Tho. We want to express our thanks to our translators, without whom the rest of us would be useless: Rose, Stacey, Kim, Trung, Paul (who doubled as a team leader) Fr Tran (also had a dual role) and Fr Long, who not only translated but brought his guitar! Special thanks to Tito Inga who ended up spending his two weeks in Saigon with a leg infection, while praying for the rest of the team.

Our days were hectic, starting with mass, sometimes as early as 4:30 a.m., followed by breakfast. We then had devotions and singing on the bus, on the way to the outreach camp. Most of the team members took turns leading the devotions and we were all pleasantly surprised at how well they did! We managed to have a few sessions on the beach as well. This year was made especially memorable by Tam and Joanna Do who were on the trip for their honeymoon! We tried to set up some of the other team members, in order to have another honeymooning couple next year, but nothing yet!We plan to return to Vietnam in the second week of July, 2006 for two weeks. We will be working in Saigon with a local group of Christian doctors who have organized clinics for immigrant workers and AIDS patients. We plan to have outreach camps at 10 or 12 locations, and also intend to conduct cataract camps as well as dental camps. We need GPs, dentists, ophthalmologists, optometrists, nurses, and translators. We can accommodate any specialty through our relationships with the universities in Vietnam. We have daily mass, but attendance is not required. However, attendance is required at daily devotions. We are a Christian group and foster a Christian atmosphere, singing hymns on our bus rides and having regular prayer. Non-Christians who would be comfortable in this atmosphere and who agree to come to daily prayer are welcome to join our team, depending on the need for their skills, and the team leader's permission. Like all EMAS teams, we follow Christ's example in our service. A true desire to serve the poor and to help the local care givers is absolutely essential for anyone wanting to come on the team. This is a hard working team, but we also try to have fun! We aren't a tour group and our activities are carried out at the discretion of the local health authorities, who have cancelled some of our activities in the past, at times without warning. So flexibility is a must. If you would like to support us in prayer, please let us know. We also need financial support and we need more volunteers for the next trip. Yours in Him,David NeimaDavid Neima MD, Vietnam Team LeaderEmail: dneima@hotmail.com

Friday, November 25, 2005
Dear friends of the Vietnam project, Greetings from Coquitlam, BC! I hope everyone is doing fine and is busy in works and service of others! As you know, we just came back from a medical mission to Vietnam. It was certainly a success! So far, it was the biggest team we have had in 11 years: 26 people! It was the first time that we divided the team into two groups to work in different places in Vietnam. Group 1 went to the Delta (Long Xuyen) and Bamethuat; group 2 went to Danang and Hue; then we joined up in Nha Trang for the last leg. All together, we saw around 5,000 patients on this trip! It was certainly a record so far. We also gave and successfully installed three microscopes, at Can Tho, Banmethuat, and Nha Trang. Our thanks to Dieter and Chau who stayed behind a few days to finish the installation. This time we have a few people from the United States who promised to do more when they return to Chicago, to raise funds and invite more people to join the team; our thanks to Paul Dinh. We also have Father Long Vu from Calgary, joining the team and he also promised to do more in Calgary to get the people there involved, our thanks to Father Long! We had the largest dental team with us this time, our thanks to Dr. Tim Tam for recruiting them. A few team members are still in Vietnam visiting family and relatives and will return in a week or so. Thank you so much for being a part of this wonderful project, to help the poor in Vietnam. For now, have a Holy Advent Season and a Blessed Christmas! Yours in Christ, Fr. Tien Tran

2005-06-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

2005 - GENERAL HELPS : HELP THE POOR

‘Help the Poor’ trao tặng xe đạp cho học sinh nghèo tại Việt NamSunday, June 26, 2005“Help The Poor” trao tặng tám chiếc xe đạp cho tám học sinh nghèo tại Việt Nam hôm 5 tháng Sáu, 2005. (Hình: Hội Từ Thiện Help The Poor.)Nguyễn Trung TínNgày 5 tháng Sáu năm 2005, tại chùa Vạn Thạnh, Việt Nam, một buổi lễ đơn giản nhưng cảm động đã được đại diện của chương trình “Ánh Sáng Linh Phong Tự,” thay mặt hội từ thiện “Help The Poor,” trao tặng tám chiếc xe đạp cho tám học sinh nghèo ở xa trường học.Các học sinh này được tuyển chọn bởi các thiện nguyện viên của chương trình “Ánh Sáng Linh Phong Tự.” Ông Ngụy Như Bàng và Huynh trưởng GÐPT Nguyễn Minh Trí đã thay mặt hội trao món quà nhỏ này. Phát biểu trong buổi lễ, một phụ huynh xúc động: “Món quà với một người trung lưu Việt Nam thì không là bao, nhưng với một học sinh nghèo thì đây chính là phương tiện giúp em đi hết con đường học vấn của mình.”Mỗi xe đạp trị giá 430 ngàn đồng Việt Nam (khoảng $30). Cả hai chương trình “Help The Poor” và “Ánh Sáng Linh Phong Tự” đã kết hợp thực hiện vài dự án về giáo dục và y tế tại địa bàn ba tỉnh Khánh Hòa, Ninh Thuận và Tuy Hòa. Trong đó đáng kể nhất là 2 dự án “Lập quỹ lưới an toàn cho bệnh nhân nghèo cần tiếp máu khi cấp cứu” và “Cung cấp học bổng và trợ giúp những học sinh nghèo.” Mỗi dự án tính ra cần đến khoảng $10 ngàn cho một năm nếu được triển khai đầy đủ.Quý ân nhân muốn tham gia vào hai dự án đặc biệt này có thể liên lạc với Help The Poor tại Hoa Kỳ qua số 12019 Garden Grove Blvd., Garden Grove CA-92843, điện thoại: 714-537-3701, email info@helpthepoorvn.oag hay tại Việt Nam, thông qua Bác sĩ Trần Lâm Cao, 97 Trần Quý Cáp, Nha Trang. Ngân phiếu và tặng dữ xin đề “quỹ cấp cứu/VN.” Những chi phiếu gởi đến Help The Poor nếu cần giấy trừ thuế xin ghi rõ, Hội sẽ gởi lại ngay sau khi nhận được quà tặng.Ðược biết trong tháng 4 năm 2005, suốt hơn năm tuần lễ làm việc trên 10 thành phố tại Việt Nam và cả Campuchia, “Help the Poor” đã quan sát, nghiên cứu trợ giúp khẩn cấp cho nhiều dự án liên quan đến y tế và giáo dục. Nhưng theo lời Hội, để tiến tới thành lập những dự án có tính cách chiến lược lâu dài, Hội cần được tiếp tay của ân nhân khắp nơi.

2005-06-26T21:46:00.000-07:00

2005 - EDUCATION: CON RONG CHAU TIEN VIETNAM SOCIETY

A non-profit and non-political organization, formally founded in December 2001 in British Columbia, Canada, and run by overseas Vietnamese who care for their countrymen.

The Society's only goal is to help improve the lives of Vietnamese people in Vietnam by providing them with opportunities to acquire more knowledge. On the individual level, this would translate into a higher self confidence and self esteem, an enhanced work productivity, and ultimately a better life - financially and intellectually. All the above are basic ingredients to build a healthier society in Vietnam.To reach that goal, the CRCT Vietnam Society will initiate various educational projects aiming mainly at developing the mind and the knowledge of our countrymen.

Tri' Viet is the first long-term project to be carried out under this goal. With this project, CRCT Vietnam Society plans to build a web-based knowledge booster center dedicated to share, as much as possible, knowledge and technologies to Vietnamese in Vietnam.

2005-06-26T21:12:00.000-07:00

2005 - Health: EMAS - MEDICAL AID FOR VIETNAM

MAF-VN is a charitable organization which provides free medical care for the poor in Vietnam. Our goal is twofold: 1- to equip the rural hospitals and local medical clinics with equipment and transfer needed skills so that they can treat the poor in rural areas more efficiently and less costly; 2- to provide first hand medical treatment to the poor patients, especially by doing cataract surgeries.

MAF-VN was formed in 1995 in Vancouver by Father Tien Tran and two ophthalmologists, Dr. David Neima and Dr. Hugh Parsons. We are working under the sponsor of Evangelical Medical Aid Society, a registered charitable organization in Canada. In the past 10 years, we have made more then 10 trips to Vietnam, 1 main trip each year. We have worked in Ninh Binh, Ha Noi, Hue, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Banmethuot, Saigon, Can Tho, Vinh Chau, and Rach Gia. We have equipped the hospitals in Hue, Da Nang, and Nha Trang each with a Phaco machine for cataract surgeries and have funded and done hundred of cataracts for the poor in these areas. We have also worked with the sisters of different convents who run medical clinics to treat thousands of patients under their care.

In the year 2003, we had a team of 20 medical people and volunteers going to Vietnam in August to work in Rach Gia performing 100 cataract surgeries, in Can Tho working with the Providence Sisters to treat poor patient in the far and remote area Cu Lao Gieng, in Bien Hoa with the Dominican Sisters, and in Hue with the Sisters of Visitation and the Sisters of Immaculate Heart of Mary. In these places we had family doctors working with local doctors doing primary care and giving out needed medication. There was also an eye team treating eye patients and giving out needed glasses.

We are planning another annual trip in the first two weeks of October 2005. This time we will go to Banmethuot, Can Thi, Hue, and Vinh.

For more information regarding our works and organization, please contact Rev. Tien Tran @ frtran@hotmail.com or Dr. David Neima@ dneima@hotmal.com