What captured my heart…!!!

Journal by Linda Shaul, Giving It Back to Kids’s board member.

Many people have asked me why I keep coming back to Vietnam.  Aren’t there other countries to visit and groups of people to help?  What is so special about Giving It Back To Kids that has captured my attention and passion for over ten years?

Previous to meeting Robert and Dorothea I had the privilege of serving on multiple medical mission trips in Cuba and South Africa.  They were great experiences, but after returning home something was missing.  I wondered how the people we helped were doing and if what we did actually made a difference.  Because there was no real follow up, I never really knew for sure.  

After my first visit to Vietnam I clearly saw Robert’s vision and how the staff grew and made sure it happened.  When he thought about opening a children’s home, he decided it would be a home.  He would ask himself, if this was my child what would I do?  They needed immunizations, maybe braces or glasses, to learn how to swim or tutoring.  It was going to be different.

If I was going to do my own NGO, this is how I would do it.  It had to be relational.  Everyone matters and their success matters.  Making sure all the needs are addressed, in the moment, in the crisis and in the future.  Growth and opportunity for students, patients, staff, or recipients of all kinds of aid from wheelchairs, compassion homes, heart or orthopedic surgeries, water filters, bicycles.

When I give a bicycle that student no longer has to walk two hours each way to school, even on a day with bad weather.  And I know who he is and his circumstances.  We may let him know if he studies hard and passes the University exam, he can have an opportunity to attend a school that he never dreamed would be possible.  The same is true when a Compassion Home is given.  What else do they need?  A water filter for clean drinking water?  Staff is checking on all the needs.  Then the important part is the follow up.  It is the relationships that make all the programs so very special.  The staff cares and follows up.  It is a big job, but that is what makes a difference.

There are so many examples of the relationships, and I will share a couple of my favorite.   My first was a young girl born with club feet who had sat looking out her window all day because it was painful to walk.  Robert told her we could have her feet corrected and asked what she wanted to do after being able to wear shoes for the first time.  She answered, “I want to dance.”  A year later she met us at a hospital where some children were getting ready to have their own orthopedic surgeries.  Her brother brought a radio, and she danced for Robert in the hospital.  There was no one that wasn’t crying.  It is a memory I will not forget.

The next one happened on this trip.  A mother and her son who has had two heart surgeries, came to say thank you.  He was 10 and is now 16.  They traveled over nine hours on a bus to say, “thank you for making it possible to save my son’s life.  You are his mother now too.”  He is in 10th grade and the staff asked him what he would do when he finished high school.  He said he would just work on the farm or do manual labor to help the family.  It was explained that GIBTK would help him continue school or an advanced trade school so he would be able to help his family in the future with a better job.  His mom had tears of joy, he had an expression of wonder.  Would it be possible to have a different future?  After lots of tears, hugs and rest they returned home on another 9 hour bus ride that night, with a new hope in their hearts.  

Returning to Vietnam after a long time I was able to meet in person many of the young women that I first met in our homes for children.  They have graduated high school, some university, married and have had or are expecting their first babies.  I played with a beautiful, healthy 6 month old boy and received big hugs from his mom.  I met the husband of another young woman in the labor room where she was getting ready to have her son (born the next morning).  It was important for her to see me while I was here in VN and she asked me to come.  The next young lady and her husband shared dinner and their excitement at their baby girl that would arrive next month.  Finally I had dinner with another sweet girl and her husband, both who had graduated through GIBTK programs.  It was so great to have time to visit with all of them.  To see them happy, successful and healthy makes me smile.  They used their opportunities for a better life and continue to reach out and help others in many ways.  So very proud of each of them.

The key element to all of the above success, is our staff.  I cannot adequately tell you how amazing they are.  They work here because they have the hearts to want to make a difference.  The only way to really understand all they do to make the magic happen is come and see yourself.  You will never forget Vietnam, once you have seen it through Giving It Back To Kids eyes.  It captured my heart on the first visit and I am privileged to work with the staff each day from the US.   I will return again and again.  So I don’t say goodbye any more.  I say until next time….
 

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