Vietam

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I spent a few days in Vietnam seeking support for the Dreamaid Charity from the oil and gas companies there. The reception we got was very good from all the companies and we have been referred within their organisations. Fingers crossed!

I visited a Handicapped Handicrafts place where people with various ailments made the most incredible artworks. I bought a large eggshell 'painting' which I have had shipped back home. This is the kind of organisation which would be good to support with the Dreamaid Charity as these invalids are totally dependent upon their craft to eat.

An amazing discussion with a man working in Vietnam demonstrated the difficulties in this country. He told me of his personal work with deprived families in his spare time. One story was of a family that lost their father in a lightening strike and being unable to support her three children the mother was forced to send her five year old daughter out to the streets. At eight weeks old the girl had lost an eye after suffering an infection, he bought her a glass eye and supported her through education at the orphanage.

Some of these young people make beautiful handbags, paintings, cuddly toys and embroidery which there are unable to sell resulting in a stock pile of unwanted goods. Perhaps Dreamaid could be of assistance in widening the appeal of the products and enabling the stock to get to a wider market than just the expatriate people in Ho Chi Minh...

He told of another child that was taken from the orphanage by her mother to be sold for $150 and how they had eventually found her and brought her back to safety.

We are looking at ways that we can link the Dreamaid Charity with the support of large companies in the area to try to avoid this desperation occurring by allowing them to gain more from their skills.

I left Vietnam with a heavy heart knowing that there was so much to do but knowing also that we could help and in doing so bring to the market the kind of products that our buyers would get a special warm feeling from owning.

Best wishes,

Peter McAteer