In this essay, Diep My Tam Xuan tells us about her experience volunteering with VRE, and how she got to better know her country.

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ALTHOUGH I’m Vietnamese and have lived in Vietnam my entire life, I’ve never been to my country’s rural areas – that is, until I traveled with VRE on its medical mission to the Mekong Delta this fall.

I got up early, piled into the van with the other VRE volunteers, and we were on our way to villages in the Tien Giang and Ben Tre provinces. After we left Ho Chi Minh City – where I’ve lived since attending university -- it seemed like endless, narrow, empty roads connected one town to the next. We drove past vast wet rice farms, boundless mangrove forests and flimsy clay homes. Everything felt so isolated, and I kept wondering how people could live under such circumstances, lacking information, schools, medical care, and even electricity.

Our mission was to provide students who attend schools built by VRE with medical check-ups. But I wondered how much VRE would really be able to help these people.

We arrived at the first school, which looked new and firm compared to the villages' other more ramshackle buildings. In no time, I realized that students were the same everywhere – in this tiny village, as well as in HCMC and my hometown of Nha Trang, located on the central coast. I caught their curious eyes and innocent smiles when we arrived at the schools, where the doctors and nurses set up shop. The students looked bright and carefree in their school uniforms of blue pants, white shirts and red scarves – the same uniforms I wore. They waited eagerly for their turn to be examined by the doctors, and to get a small donated gift consisting of notebooks, pens, toothbrushes and toothpaste. These things, though rather insignificant to me, brought big smiles to their faces.

One of my responsibilities as a volunteer was entering the students’ medical data into my laptop, creating a record of the student’s health. (As we treated about 600 students in Tien Giang and 400 in Ben Tre, this was no small task). The children gathered around me to see what I was doing on my laptop. Some even asked me to teach them how to key in the data!

When I asked students about their new school – recently built by VRE -- they all answered that they liked the new building, new tables, chairs and blackboard. They also told me would go to school more regularly because their friends were attending more regularly. Additionally, the children who received bicycles seemed even more excited and determined to go to school, because they no longer had to travel long distances by foot.

It didn’t take me long to realize that the children weren’t the only happy people -- their parents and their teachers were also pleased. The new school and the medical check-ups made them feel more secure about their children’s future. And the work made me happy. I enjoyed working with VRE’s friendly and enthusiastic members, seeing the joy on children’s faces as they lined up for their physicals, and hearing them laugh as they played in the schoolyard.

On the trip, I learned more about the villages we were visiting in Tien Giang and Ben Tre. I knew that most people were farmers and fishermen, and that their trades depend largely on the tempestuous weather. According to the reports given by the town leaders, most people there live near the poverty level, and struggle to earn their day-to-day living. For them, spending money on education and health care for their children is a luxury that they rarely think of or even imagine. Its only thanks to recent encouragement and support from their community that these families have started allowing their children to attend school, rather than work. They’re starting to realize that education is the most likely way to help their children escape from poverty.

After working together with VRE on this medical mission, I fully appreciate what the organization has done. I sincerely believe that they have created opportunities for these children, and that if VRE continues its work, Vietnam’s children will have a better chance to learn and be healthy. And maybe, by taking specific action now, someday poverty will be avoidable.

We accomplished a great deal during the mission and I can’t wait for another opportunity to participate in another project with VRE.