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Not sure how to begin this first journal. Yes I'm back in Vietnam! Joining our GIBTK team is 19 teens from Sage High School. Sage is a private High School located in Newport Coast, Calif. The school itself is spectacular. On my first visit being shown around, my first thought as I entered each room was WOW! I was told the student their were special but I could not have guessed how special. These kids did research on VMN, from foods, to wars, places to visit to sites to see.
Those of you who know me, know I can talk, especially something Im as passionate about as our work. These teens asked questions that I had to say "let me think about that before I answer... " They're questions had depth. The few days we've been here I have seen a true sense to not only experience but to serve.
Today's note is Written by Sage student "Lily"
"Today, me and a group of high school students from California visited homes in the countryside of Da Nang. While we were there, we constructed a wheelchair for a paralyzed woman named Uyen Nguyen. She is 75 years old and very frail. I was shocked to see how small she was-there was only bone. Her family has little money for food and expenses. Uyen's daughter moved away from her husband in order to take care of her parents in their old age. She provides for the family of five by working on a rice farm that is owned through sharecropping. But, it sometimes isn't enough. To try to make ends meet, she goes door to door and buys recyclables from her neighbors, which she later uses to sell in the city for scraps of money. She earns $4 every four days, which she must make stretch for the whole family.
The daughter dropped out of school in Grade 8 in order to provide for her family. At the age of 14, she began a full career. Because she was denied the opportunity of an education, she can't get a higher paying job. She has two children, a nine year old girl and a seven year old boy. They attend a local primary school. She hopes that her children will have a better future and receive a higher education. She wishes that they will not be living the life that she has now. Together, they lives in a small stone house that Uyen built with her husband in 1973.
The daughter must remain there to take care of Uyen because of her tragic accident. Four months ago, Uyen fell and broke her femur. However, a stroke made her too weak to get surgery. Since then, she has had to be carried around everywhere. She lost all of her independence and dignity. For four months, she remained in that house with no ability to move. Each day, she had to be carried from her bed to the chair and to the bathroom.
Her life was made so difficult from that one fall, and there was nothing that she could do about it. She was helpless in a village that did not have the resources to support her. When we came into her home with the wheelchair, Uyen was overjoyed. This one chair was going to change her whole life. We wheeled her out into the yard and neighbors came over to visit. She had the biggest smile on her face, and later on started to cry. It was such an emotional time for Uyen and her family. It was going to make the entire family's lives easier and make the woman so much happier.
I am so honored to be a part of this group. Giving It Back to kids is such an honest and whole-hearted organization with an amazing impact. They care about so many people along the way and create a community of people working toward a better future. They inspire and empower individuals to chase their dreams and create their own paths.
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