Kim Hastie, head of scholarships programs for VRE, journeyed to Vietnam on a medical mission in August 2009.

It was an eye opening, informative and moving experience. We visited schools in Tien Giang and Ben Tre Provinces, including one with 700 students (grades 1-5) in Tan Dien that VRE helped build. I was heartbroken to witness such poverty and limited access to healthcare.

As part of VRE's medical mission, children who do not normally receive annual checkups were given dental, eye and medical exams. VRE's honorable board member, Truc To, taught tooth-brushing lessons to children after their dental checkups. The community was grateful for the check-ups and the medicine we provided.

Our journey to the next schools was by means of a rickety, wooden boat to an island in the Tan Phu Dong district. When you live on an island, you certainly are more isolated and have less access to basic services. We provided medical and eye exams at Phu Tan, which has 140 students and received funding from VRE for construction, and later at secondary school with 270 students. We were given a warm welcome by local authorities and schoolchildren. It was really sad to see that many of the kids had ripped shirts, holes in their pants and no shoes.