A ROW Team Is In Vietnam!

– October 7, 2010

Drew is heading up a ROW team visiting Vietnam and the team has arrived safely and is starting the process of visiting orphanages and finding new places for ROW to be a blessing to the people of Vietnam.

Please check back regularly as they will be sending in daily reports via ROW Radio and as more information and/or pictures are available they will be posted here!

A Message From ROW Team Member Freddie Davis:

In 2005 a group from ROW traveled to Vietnam. The trip itself takes approximately 24 hours of travel. Once arriving you experience the challenges of weather and culture. Vietnam is one of the poorest cultures in the world. The average income of the greater population is around $2 per day! With that comes the difficulties of just survival.

There are many typhoons and rainy seasons. Flooding during these times cause labor delays, rice field destruction and home destruction. In 2005 we happened upon a family that had just lost their home to the typhoon season. The walls of their home were now just a pile of bricks. The husband worked to deliver products from the arriving boats if there was anything to deliver. He owed the government for his house that “was no more”. ROW was able to rebuild this home and give the family hope for survival!

Travel in Vietnam is mainly by bicycle or motor bike. The cost of a bike is around $70 and a motor bike from $600 to $1200. Instead of lines of cars in traffic you see wall to wall motor bikes and hear the beep beep of the horns warning of the approaching bike traffic. Faces are covered to protect from the elements and polution of exhaust fumes. Even in rainy weather the bike traffic continues under ponchos. There is no school bus system, so students need bikes to get to school. This is a big financial need for the orphaned children and poor villages.

Streets are lined with vendors of every kind selling whatever from soup, vegetables, bike parts, etc. Life is hard. More than eighty percent of the working force are women. The people work hard but seem to be determined to be happy as they just try to survive the heat or other elements. There are many orphanages supporting children that have lost their parents or are forced to be cared for by the government because their families cannot support them. If a child has a disablity, most families cannot support them so they are left on the door step of the orphanages for care. ROW has discovered that they can help meet the needs of these children by furnishing bikes, food, clothing, tutoring, washing machines and anything else that may be needed in these homes. We can give these children a hope for a future and help for daily survival.

A Message From ROW Team Member Charles Johnson:

When the ROW mission team traveled to Vietnam in 2009, we were all moved by one of the families that we met.  Working with the staff at Children of Vietnam, we were trying to identify a worthy candidate to be the recipient of a new house to be funded by ROW.  We drove through the streets of Danang, down narrow, winding roads, until we arrived the the family’s existing “house”.  What we saw was a rickety building; four corrugated steel walls and a roof, no door, and a dirt floor.  The family consisted of a young widow and her son who was about ten years old.  In addition to losing her husband a few years earlier, her daughter had also died about the same time.  

As our group approached the house with the Children of Vietnam group, we were introduced to the mother and her son.  We were all struck by the the look of utter despair and sadness on the mother’s face.  As we looked around their house, we noticed that one of the front walls consisted of a stack of bricks.  One of our team asked about the bricks and she told us that when she and her son were out walking, if they found a brick, they would add it to the stack with the hope that one day they would have enough to build a nicer home for themselves.  As bad as their plight seemed to be, they held on to the hope that a better day would come.

Just a few days after we returned home, a large typhoon hit the very same area where we had been working, the area where the mother and her son lived.  We continued to think about them and pray for their safety.  We got word from the Children of Vietnam that they were safe, and the work began on their new house.  

Fast forward to October, 2010.  A team from ROW was preparing to return to the same area, including three members from the 2009 team.  We were all anxious to see their new house and see them.  We drove up to the same property, but what we saw this time was the new home built with funds from ROW.  More importantly, we saw the mother waiting on the front porch to greet us.  She looked like a different person.  The look of despair and sadness had been replaced by a beautiful smile, a look of joy.  We learned that here son was doing well in school.  She proudly gave our group a tour of her new home.  As we were saying our goodbyes, one of our team went to her to shake her hand and wish her well.  As he did, she burst into tears, tears of gratitude and joy.  That better day that they hoped for when they added another brick to their stack had come, thanks to the work of ROW.  Their hope had not been in vain.

A message from ROW Team Member Melissa Johnson:

I sometime forget how blessed I am. After coming to Vietnam and meeting my sponsored child I don’t think I will ever be able to forget. Phuong is a beautiful 19 year old young woman who has lived in an orphanage for 18 years due to the death of both of her parents. She has studied hard and, despite the difficulties of growing up in an orphanage, she has done what only 25 percent of college applicants in Vietnam have done — she has passed her entrance exam to qualify for admission to Vietnam’s universities!! She now has hope for a university education and reaching her goal of becoming an architect. There are still a couple more hurdles in her way before she can obtain her dream of a better life — the cost of the university and a place to live. Because she is over the age of 18 she must leave the orphanage where she has grown up and without a sponsor to help her pay for the cost of a university education she could end up working in a menial job and never reaching her dream and breaking out of the cycle of poverty that so many in Vietnam face.

I am so unbelievably honored and blessed to be Phuong’s sponsor and having met her face to face was truly a joy! Words cannot describe how it felt to have her grab me and hug me, thanking me profusely. Her gratitude was beyond my wildest imagination.

Phuong is only one of thousands of children in Vietnam who need someone to sponsor them. These young people can have their lives truly transformed by a sponsor’s generosity. These disadvantaged students have overcome many challenges through their sheer determination. They are wonderful, intelligent, hard working young people and with the financial help of a sponsor they can continue their education. Students that are eligible for a university scholarship come from these groups: children of poor families living at or below the local poverty level; children who are orphans or street children or those living with only one parent or relative; and students whose parents have a health or disability problem and cannot work.

The amount of a scholarship depends on a student’s individual need and the cost of his or her college tuition. A scholarship typically covers university tuition and may cover expenses such as books, transportation, and a small stipend for food. Scholarships have allowed students to attend universities to study in areas including banking, tourism, engineering, foreign languages, teaching, sanitation, construction, chemistry and the arts.

This is truly one of the most rewarding experiences I have had in my life. Knowing that my small scholarship amount will change her life and seeing her face and meeting her have changed my live! I hope and pray that you will consider having your life changed too! 

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