Hoi An

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Not sure if my last entry got published so apologies if I'm repeating what you've already read!

First thing is that my yahoo e:mail has been struck by a virus and I can't access anything - so if anyone has sent an e:mail in the last 10 days I apologise for not replying! My new e:mail address is [e-mail].

Second thing is that I've decided to extend my stay in Hoi An by 2 months. I'm doing some volunteer work with an Australian woman, Karen Leonard, who runs a charity for kids in Hoi An. Which means I'm not going to Japan - but I can always do that another time!

Karen has her own music school in Melbourne but spends about 6 months a year in Hoi An running a number of initiatives to help the kids. Her main objective is to break the cycle of poverty in Hoi An by providing the poorest kids who, for various reasons, are not getting an education. Either they can't afford to go to school or are sent out on the streets to sell.

She currently has about 100 kids and their families on her 'books'. Her funding comes mainly from family and friends and Australian tourists who have either heard about her work or see what she's doing during their stay here. Hoi An is a very small place and tourists will often approach us to find out what we're doing when they overhear some of the conversations we are having during a coffee or lunch break!

Karen knows that in order to break the cycle she has to get the kids into the school system from a very early age. The first stage of the process is to make sure the parents have the means to generate their own income - Karen will help them with this. She will then pay the kids school fees from age 4/5 right through to year 12.

She has also set up her own school for the older kids (11 - 16 years) who have either never been to school or been out of the state school loop for too long. Plus she has set up an evening school to teach these kids English.

Many of the older kids who come from the islands (16 years plus) and who are in full time employment in Hoi An have never had a basic education. Many of them are being exploited by their employers and are working in extremely bad conditions - ie long hours and low wages. They often have nowhere to stay at night so they either sleep on the streets when they've finished working or on the concrete floors of the bars, restaurants or hotels they are working in. These kids are too old to go back to school but can attend the evening English school when they are not working. With good English the kids are pretty much guaranteed a better job particularly with the increasing number of tourists coming to vietnam. The goal of many of them is to get a job in one of the large tourist resorts in Hoi An where working conditions and salary are much better. These English classes are voluntary but they are always full.

The teachers are all Vietnamese so I'm working with the kids either before or after their lessons to improve their pronounciation and conversation skills. They are all beginning to speak English with London accents - ha!

I'm also helping a couple of the kids with one to one English lessons during the day.

One of them, Sinh, is a very talented artist. His mother committed suicide when he was 6 months old. His aunt tried to look after him and his brother, but was so poor she couldn't cope and put them both in an orphanage. Sinh had to leave the orphanage a few months ago when he reached 18. He is now living with his very old and very poor grandparents. Karen plans to adopt Sinh.

She has been working with him since he left the orphanage to help him set up a business selling his paintings. He has just been given a place to paint and display his work in one of the restaurants here which is owned by a friend of Karen's. While I'm here I'll help him to set up in the restaurant each day and because of his limited English will also help him answer any questions from customers about his work.

Karen also has some families who desparately need medical help. For example, she has one family of 8 (mum, dad and 6 kids) who all have TB. They are so poor that they've been selling the (extremely expensive) medication that Karen has provided in order to feed the kids. Sadly, they all need to get better at the same time to prevent them reinfecting each other - both the mum and one of the son's have already been very close to dying. We've now hopefully fixed the problem by providing them with food to sustain them in the vital first 3 months when they must take the medication at the same time every day. They live about 6km outside of Hoi An and I am going to cycle out to them at 9.00am every day until I leave to ensure they are taking their medication properly.

I am also helping a friend of Karen's in Hoi An to assess the needs of an adult disabled and homeless shelter. The centre is very clean and the 84 residents look happy and well cared for, although they only have 8 staff (4 of whom are disabled residents!) and therefore some of the more severely disabled never have the chance to get out of their beds, which is very sad. So it's not been difficult to see what they need - more staffing, staff training and some basic equipment like wheelchairs. Unfortunately, we have to be a bit cautious in helping with equipment as in the past it's had a tendancy to go missing!

This is all keeping me very busy, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm making some really good friends here, both Vietnamese and ex-pats.

But it's not all been work. Karen received an invitation from the Australian Navy Defence Attache to a cocktail party on HMAS Newcastle which is currently docked in Danang and she took me as her guest. Neither of us had anything to wear so we spent a manic day running round having dresses and shoes made (it's so cheap to do that here). It's the first time I've been dressed up in about 6 months and was a real treat. We were piped on board when we arrived and had a great time meeting the ship's captain and his officers!

Anyway, just so you know I'm not getting above myself, tomorrow, Sunday, I'm taking 50 live chickens via local ferry boat to 5 very poor families who live on one of the islands off of Hoi An. I won't be wearing my cocktail dress for the occasion!

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