Friday, November 19, 2010

Vietnam Healing Foundation

The Vietnam Healing Foundation is a joint effort by American Viet Nam vets and the local Vietnamese community to provide desperately needed support to the many badly crippled South Vietnamese veterans still living in Viet Nam.  These men and their families lost the pensions and their properties when the communists took over the South, and were further subjected to official discrimination in employment and other things not only for the veteran himself, but also for his children and grandchildren.  Since that discrimination and their injuries keep most of them from any good employment, they and their families often live in deep poverty, lacking money for medical services, schooling for the children, decent housing, and sometimes even sufficient food.

These men fought for the preservation of a noncommunist government, often in tandem with American troops, and they have become among the war's longest suffering victims.  The overhead of VHF is about 5% at most, since everyone serving on the charity is a volunteer.  So the great bulk of every dollar contributed will go to buy rice or medicine or school fees for a very needy family.  Every contribution, whether $5 or $25 or more, will do some real good for those whose lives were so badly affected by our abandonment of the South.  Please consider a donation, even a little money will bring a lot of relief to people who live from day to day in awful circumstances.

 This man was an ambulance driver, who was blown up by a mine, losing one leg and his sight in the explosion.  When intereviewed and asked what he needed, his reply that if he could be sure of two bowls of rice a day and a cup of coffee once a week, he'd feel a lot better.  VHF got him his rice and coffee, which he enjoyed until passing away last year.  There are so very many like him still.  Del.

No comments:

Post a Comment