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December
2002
Leaving
broken hearts in Vietnam De Vets provide medical care; ISD 719 classes
join cause
By Holly Nordvick
Staff Writer
Chuck
De Vet has a broken heart.
He and his daughter Annetta of Prior Lake recently returned from a second
trip to Vietnam as founding members of the newly organized Humanitarian
Services for Children of Vietnam. While there they did all they could
to help. But Chuck confessed that at the end of the day it can be discouraging.
“You’ve done so little,” he said. “It just breaks
your heart that you are driving away from them rather than staying and
helping them.”
Making connections
Since the last time Humanitarian Services for Children of Vietnam was
featured in the Prior Lake American, the De Vets have made some progress.
Most notably, they were contacted by the Catalyst organization, which
also does humanitarian work in Vietnam. The two organizations held a joint
fundraiser on Dec. 6 in St. Paul. Although Chuck and Annetta De Vet were
in Vietnam while this event was planned, they were home in time to attend.
Chuck’s wife Patty and the three members of their board of directors,
Kathe Abrams, Connie Ceminsky and Roxie Svoboda, did much of the preparation
for the event. “We showed up and looked pretty,” Annetta said
with a laugh.
They were also contacted by a group of teachers from WestWood and Grainwood
elementary schools who were interested in “adopting” a school
in Vietnam. Students at Grainwood have already sent pictures, letters
and artwork to students in Vietnam and the De Vets brought artwork and
photographs back from Vietnam for students in Prior Lake. Grainwood has
plans to get involved in the same way after the holiday break, and both
schools are tentatively planning fundraisers sometime in the spring.
Michelle Ellingboe, student council advisor at WestWood, said she and
co-advisor Kirsten Lien mentioned the project to the WestWood Student
Council after they learned of Humanitarian Services for Children of Vietnam
and the work in Vietnam. Craig Olson, Prior Lake Senior High School’s
principal on special assignment, sent an email to District 719 schools
suggesting that it might make a worthy project for students.
“It kind of warms your heart and soul that you can be doing so little,
and yet [so much],” Ellingboe said.
Tasha Roggow, art teacher at Grainwood, said the project is so new students
and teachers are learning what best to do as they go. Once the holiday
season is over, the students will begin working on the project in earnest.
“I think it’s really good for them to learn about a different
culture,” she said.
Students at Prior Lake Senior High School also decided to pitch in and
help. The Synergy group recently raised $570 to help children in Vietnam
get an education. It costs $12 for a Vietnamese child to attend school
for a year.
The De Vets are planning their next trip to Vietnam for sometime in March
or April. In the meantime, they have offered to speak to anyone who would
like to find out more about what they are doing in Vietnam. They are also
continuing to gather donations and searching for people with medical background
who would be willing to make the trip with them and donate their services
to help improve a child’s life.
One item that is particularly helpful is donated hearing aids. These old
hearing aids can be turned in for credit on new hearing aids that are
used to help bring sound to the ears of a Vietnamese child.
Down to business
The De Vets stayed about five weeks working on a variety of different
projects. Their first two weeks there were spent with group of volunteers
from Project Vietnam. This group was made up about 100 members that did
a variety of medical work, including 89 cleft palette and eye surgeries
in five days. “They really worked hard,” Chuck said.
Among those patients were 13 children from the Hoai Duc District Center
for Disabled Children that received hearing aids. The De Vets had identified
this group as one of their projects on their previous trip and when asked
what they most needed, staff had mentioned hearing aids. On their next
trip the De Vets hope that four of those children will be able to have
surgery to help them hear.
Most of the team traveled to a very poor area, Hoa Bihn province, about
60 miles from Hanoi. While part of the Project Vietnam group worked in
a hospital, the rest traveled to a different area each day to provide
medical care. “It was incredible how they would descend on just
a small area and they would see over 400 people a day,” Chuck said.
“These people, many of them had never seen a doctor.”
People with medical problems would come from miles around, some of them
carrying a sick or crippled. “People would literally come in wheelbarrows,”
Chuck said.
Unfortunately, as hard as they worked, the team was not able to help everyone
that needed it. “They might have to get turned away with no medical
care [at the end of the day],” Annetta said.
The people are so poor that even the simplest things are greatly appreciated.
Annetta described passing out toys to the children and how their faces
would beam when they received a sticker, toy car or bouncy ball. “The
smile on their face is just incredible,” she said.
The children are ecstatic to receive gifts like these – even if
they don’t know what they are. Annetta described how she had to
show children how to push a toy car along the ground or how to make a
bouncy ball do its stuff. “Even the adults would watch and go, ‘Whoa,
look at the bouncy ball,’” she said.
She told how pleased the children were to receive plastic rings that someone
had donated. Annetta even gave one to a wrinkled old lady who asked for
one using motions. “She was so proud of it,” she said. “She
was showing everyone her toy ring.”
Chuck walked around shaking the children’s hands – something
they are unused to doing in Vietnam. Some of the children were frightened
but soon caught on and would return to shake his hand over and over.
He told how one little girl, about 4 years old, came around the corner
with a pencil, a single blue crayon and some candy she had been given.
When Chuck reached out his hand to shake hers in the American manner,
her eyes grew sad and she obediently began to hand back her newly acquired
treasures. “She thought I was taking back that stuff,” he
said. “My heart almost broke.”
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