A long overdue update on Thao

A lot has happen in Thao's life since I last wrote an update. Just one day before Thanksgiving Thao had her first surgery. A balloon was placed in her neck. The surgery was a complete success and Thao was sent home earlier than expected. Over the past two months Thao has visited the Hospital each week to have saline injected into the balloon. Increasing the volume in the balloon will cause Thao’s skin to stretch. After a few months her scared skin will be replaced the “new” skin from her neck. They will first replace skin up to her mouth. After a few months another balloon will be placed in her neck. Once enough new skin has grown they will stretch the skin up to her eyes. It is also possible that a few months after that they will place a balloon in the back of her neck and remove the scares on her scalp.
It’s amazing to see how quickly the balloon has grown and how well Thao is taking to the treatment. She is a resilient child and has an incredible ability to focus on the results of the treatment and not on daily difficulties she faces due to the treatment. Her positive and infectious spirit has not only helped her get to this point, but has helped those around her support her. Just by looking at her photos you feel her energy and excitement as she embarrasses the possibilities of life.
Host family Hanh and David have done such a great job with making Thao and Cong adjust to their new life. They have introduced them to their friends and family, School, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas as well as taken them to see sights around their home. Without Hanh and David’s kindness and hard work Thao and Cong would not be in America and Thao would not be receiving these life change surgeries. We are ever thankful for their kindness and caring.
Hanh and David have been keeping an excellent photo journal for Thao. Here are some photos from their journal.

Before surgery Dr. Vu examines Thao and makes marks on her neck which will help guide him during surgery.

Thao wanted to see what Dr. Vu had drawn on her neck. She pointed to the camera and then to her neck. Once a photo was taken she was able to see where the balloon will be implanted.

It's been two weeks since Thao's first surgery. She's doing fine and not feeling much discomfort. She's adjusting to her reduced neck mobility and is slightly annoyed that she can't easily write in her journal. She still has the stitches under her chin but they should be removed in a week. Then she'll start her weekly doctor visits to add fluid to stretch her skin.

Santa meets Thao at the Christmas tree farm. Before she met him she said that anyone can be Santa, all they need to do is wear the suit. This Santa seemed to impress her though; she gave him a hug before leaving.

Thao watches a video while Shriners Hospital staff injects more fluid into the skin expander. This is now a weekly procedure. Thao says it doesn't hurt at all and is just a little uncomfortable. Dr. Vu told her that when the stretching is complete, the stretched skin will cover up to above her mouth. After it heals, then another expander will be implanted in her neck and filled again to create enough skin to complete the skin replacement up to her eyes.

Thao is very emotional when she is given her first birthday cake for the first time in her life.

She has doctor's order for a home teacher. The concern is that children may bump into her and cause the tissue expander to pop out of place. So she has an at home teacher 30 min /4 days a week for 3 months. Thao has benefited from home teacher a great deal. Because she has one on one attention and the program is adjusted to her beginning English level. When she was going to classroom, it was just too advanced for her.

She is very responsible and hard working student!!

Blowing her own "balloon", Thoa hams it up a day after her third saline injection. It is a painless procedure which she as become comfortable with. She has given the little "baby" under her chin a name, it's Allison

Thao shows off a new outfit and Portuguese handbag that was mailed along with inspirational messages to her from and admirer (Amazin Le Thi). The skin expander is growing weekly and Thao says little Allison is doing well.

Language Link and The Friendship Home

Viet Anh and Tuan Anh are two boys who are living at the Friendship Home III in Hanoi. The Friendship Home is a foster home for children who come from families facing many difficulties. These difficulties may include the loss of one or both parents, parents with mental or physical handicaps, or extreme poverty. More than 90% of the children come from homes that have been affected by a parents drug use. Many of these children have been living in the Friendship Home for over half of their lives. Some of the children are able to visit their families from time to time.

The Friendship Home is a government sponsored center, but the funding received is only enough to cover the basic necessities. HSCV has been working with and making in-kind donations to the Friendship Home since 2003. Our donations have included; bicycles for the children to travel to school, helmets for the children and staff, fans, refrigerator, blankets, kitchen cabinets and sink, new shoes and clothing.

For the past year HSCV volunteers have been donating their time to teach the children English once a week. The classes are voluntary for the children to attend. Most of the children have enjoyed working with the teachers and learning English. It has also provided a great opportunity for the children to bond with their caring teachers.

Language Link is a professional Language Education Center located here in Hanoi. This year Language Link donated 3 scholarships to HSCV. These scholarships will give 3 children the opportunity to advance their interest in learning English. Here is what HSCV volunteer and teacher at Language Link said in an email about the boys first day of class:

"Viet Anh and Tuan Anh did very well at Language Link yesterday. They were scared at first but I separated them, and they quickly made new friends with some nice kids during a grammar competition. They were both able to help their teams and left quite happy. It was nice to see them in a real learning environment. Their eyes nearly popped out of their heads when they saw the school's computerlab."

We are so pleased with Viet Anh and Tuan Anh's eagerness to join the children at Language Link. This is the frist time they seen class rooms with adequate supplies and computers. We are hopeful they will see this course as a great opportunity and use it to create future opportunities for themselves.

HSCV owes thanks to Jim for approaching Language Link about sponsorship and to Language Link's willingness to give back to the community.
We are hopeful this is the beginning of a long friendship.
~ Annetta

Donate to HSCV just by searching

What if Humanitarian Services for Children of Vietnam earned a penny every time you searched the Internet? Or how about if a percentage of every purchase you made online went to support our cause? Well, now it can!

GoodSearch.com is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up!

GoodShop.com is a new online shopping mall which donates up to 37 percent of each purchase to your favorite cause! Hundreds of great stores including Target, Gap, Best Buy, ebay, Macy's and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, you’ll be supporting your favorite cause.

Just go to www.goodsearch.com or click the link below and be sure to enter Humanitarian Services for Children of Vietnam as the charity you want to support. And, be sure to spread the word!

Power for the children in Trung Gia

The 2006 - 2007 school year was Tesseract School of Eagan's 4th year participating in HSCV's Sister School Program. For the 3rd year their Sister School was Trung Gia B Primary school. Trung Gia is located in Ha Noi's Soc Son District. Soc Son is the northern most district and also Hanoi's poorest district. The cost of living is much higher for families living in Soc Son then for living just outside Hanoi City in provinces such as Thai Nguyen. This higher cost of living makes it very difficult for families to make ends meet let alone keep their children in school with proper school supplies.

The majority of this year's donation was used to repair a broken power line that was dangerously close to the children's toilet. At the end of last school year the poles that had been supporting the power line gave way. The only solution the school could afford at that was to use a few bamboo poles and the wall of the children's toilet to prop up the weakening power line.

Thanks to Tesseract School students hard work and kindness, the students of Trung Gia B no longer have to worry about the power line when they use the toilet. Their donation was used to purchase a new power line and make necessary repairs to the poles that hold the line out of harms way. In addition the newer power line provides the school with more power which has increased the output of the lights. The students now have a more suitable learning environment

The remaining donation was used to purchase school notebooks. These new notebooks will quickly be put to use by the students.


To show their appreciation the students of Trung Gia sent letters and drawings to their Sister School in America.

"Soc Son, December 10, 2007

Dear my friends,

My name is Hoang Than Hoai, I am 7 years old. I am a student in grade 2B at Trung Gia B Primary School. We received your letters and photo last time an we were very happy. We would like to say thank you so much for your kind help. Over your letters, we know much more about you. Do you know, I really like drawing and the outdoors. I wish that we could study and play with all of you. Together we will try to study well!

Goodbye my friends,

Hoanh Thanh Hoa"

"Trung Gia, December 13, 2007

Dear HSCV and my friends,

My name is Nguyen Thi Thuy and I am studying at grade 4A5 at Trung Gia B Primary school. I am very happy and excited to by your kind help. You have helped us to fix our power line and now we have enough light to study by. This will help us study better. You also help us with new notebooks to write! I write this letter to say thank you so much for your help!
Yours,

Thuy

Nguyen Thi Thuy"

Journey homeschool co-op - Sister School in the News

This is the Journey Homeschool co-op 2nd year participating in HSCV Sister School Program. Recently Star News interviewed Stacy Manning the founder of Journey Homeschool co-op. Below is an abridged version of the article.
The full article can be found at http://erstarnews.com/content/view/1763/141/.
For more information on HSCV's Sister School Program visit http://www.hscv.org/sisterschools.htm


Homeschool kids take on poverty in Vietnam

Tuesday, 18 December 2007

by Bob GraweyStaff writer

Three years ago if someone would have told the Journey homeschool co-op kids they would be buying shoes for Vietnamese children who had to walk to school, they may have scratched their heads, wondering what that person was talking about. And if the kids, who range from 2 to 12 years old, had been told they would put electricity in a school on the other side of the world, they might think that person was crazy. But that is just what happened to this small group of kids in an area homeschool co-op that started with just five families. It was the beginning of a budding friendship between two groups of children, one large in numbers and very poor, and the other group small in size, but willing to do what they could to help meet the others’ need.

Stacy Manning of Zimmerman started Journey homeschool co-op in 2003. A year later she was driving home in a snow storm and listening to a radio interview. The young woman being interviewed, Annetta De Vet, was telling how she and her father, Chuck De Vet, started Humanitarian Services for Children of Vietnam (HSCV) after the two of them vacationed in Vietnam. They found a high degree of poverty in the northern part of the country, but few agencies or organizations that were reaching out to help meet the needs the people had.

When De Vet mentioned they had started a sister school program, Manning became even more interested. She does social work outside of homeschooling and the idea of helping the Vietnamese children through the context of school intrigued her. Manning saw the sister school concept as a great opportunity for the co-op kids to become more aware of the world at large, so she presented the idea to her co-op.

“I said, ‘You know, our kids can make a difference. We need to teach them that even though they’re kids from small town Elk River, Minn., or Otsego or Zimmerman, they can easily make a difference in a family’s life on the other side of the world,” Manning says.

The families were reluctant. At the time there were just five families in the co-op, but they decided to try it anyway. Chuck De Vet visited the co-op to tell the students about Vietnam, the children there and he brought farming implements to show the kids how Vietnamese farmers harvest rice.

“He told them how schools are run in Vietnam, and that the kids have to walk to school, many of them without shoes. By the time he was done,” Manning says, “all our kids were ready to put their shoes in a box and send them to Vietnam.” De Vet’s presentation was eye-opening for the co-op kids in other ways, too.

The sister school, Tan Minh B, grades three through five, is located in Soc Son District which is the northernmost district of Hanoi, Vietnam. The average monthly income for a family is $20 - $30, depending on the quality of the rice harvest, Manning says. Sending a child to school costs $2 a month, but since education is such a high priority, parents will go without food in order to send their child to school. If there is more than one child in a poor family, parents must decide which one will go to school and who will have to miss out on an education.

One Vietnamese student wrote to the kids in the co-op saying because they did not have electricity, they had to collect glow worms to put in eggshell containers so they could study. And the school, which Manning says is not much more than a shell of walls, has no glass in any of its windows. During winter conditions, students can only stay at school a few hours because of the cold.

Manning says the co-op students got excited about helping the Vietnamese kids in their sister school after learning more about their situation. To help alleviate some of the conditions the Vietnamese kids were faced with, the Journey homeschool kids began efforts to raise money for school supplies, food for families, and money to send more kids to school than what Vietnamese families could afford.

American funds can also provide a year’s worth of rice to a family for just $100. A Vietnamese child can go to school for a year on a $50 donation. And orthopedic problems caused by rampant malnutrition in the region can be corrected with surgery for as little as $250. Other key areas where American funds can intercept poverty in Vietnam is building a new home for $1,400, or helping someone get needed open heart surgery for $2,700.

The co-op, however, focuses on school-based needs and the kids in the Tan Minh B School. Last year the small group raised $900 from various fund raisers. One of those was a garage sale organized and manned by the homeschool students.

The homeschool kids promote the efforts because they believe they can help.“I give my own money away,” 7-year-old Colin says, “and doing the garage sale. I’m glad we gave them money for lights (electricity). I would be scared if I didn’t have any lights.”

Some of that money last year was used to install electricity in part of Tan Minh B School. This year the co-op kids helped make a quilt which was auctioned off for $1,000. That should be enough to provide school supplies, food and other things like putting electricity in the rest of the school, and installing glass in all the school’s windows, according to Manning.

And 9-year-old Grace says people everywhere need help.“We help as many people as we can find,” Grace says. “We’d help people from any country that we can because it’s the right thing to do.”

Students exchange letters, pictures they draw and a lot of goodwill toward each other. It is those small gestures of goodwill that are making a much bigger impact in the lives of those in need. Grace seems to have the right idea when she says, “it’s the right thing to do.”

To become involved in HSCV’s sister school program, or to become involved in other ways to help Vietnamese families, go to www.hscv.org or hscv.info@hscv.org.

For more information on the Journey homeschool co-op call 763-633-1023 or email mfgarbinagirl12@aol.com.

A great year for HSCV

It's been awhile since we have updated our blog. We're sorry about this, but it was a very busy end to the year. 2007 was our biggest year yet, and we hope that 2008 will be even bigger and with your help it can and will be.
The main focus of 2007 was on our Wheelchair, Food Distribution, Educational Scholarships, Bicycle Donations and Orthopedic Surgery programs. Through these programs were able to touch and change the lives of many children and adults throughout Vietnam. We opened doors for communities as a whole, family units and individuals.
Official numbers will be reported soon but we are happy to announce;
4950 people received wheelchairs
Over 150 children received Educational Scholarships
141 families were supported with a year of rice
50 children received new bicycles
Over 100 children received life changing orthopedic or burn scar surgery
In addition to these large programs HSCV oversaw a few smaller programs. These smaller programs help insure less children fall through the cracks that can be found in many of the lager organizations.
We are happy to announce our first student is receiving a scholarship to attend University.
4 children received life saving surgery heart surgery. Our list of children needing heart surgery is long, but unfortunately we are only able to help a few children each year.
Our first medical case was accepted at the Shiner’s hospital of Sacramento California.
These are just a few examples of how HSCV has impacted the lives of individuals in the past year. We are truly thankful for all of the support we have received and we hope we can count on you to continue your support. Your support has come in many forms; monetary, in-kind, volunteering, networking, spreading the word, and interest.
From the HSCV, Thank you for all of your support and have a wonderful New Year!