Volunteering in Ho Chi Minh

One of my aims for our big trip was to spend some time in the one spot volunteering. I chose Vietnam simply because I enjoyed my short trip there in 2008, knew it would be a good place to be for a month and I thought Rob would enjoy it too. (We were also very lucky to have kind friends living in Ho Chi Minh that put up with us for the month! Thanks again Tim and Steph!)

Prior to organising my volunteering and even leading up to it, I was not sure what I wanted to do exactly. I didn’t set out to work at an orphanage and was not sure what I could offer. Now that I have finished my volunteering, I really hope I provided something of value to the children, teenagers and young adults I worked with.

I organised to volunteer at an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh after corresponding with a Professor at one of the city’s universities. I had gotten in contact with him after discussing volunteering with a Vietnamese attendee of the International Social Work Conference I attended in 2014. The Professor knew the Director of the Orphanage and arranged a meeting with her for a few days after my arrival in HCMC.

After the meeting I was still not sure what I would be helping with but the next day I turned up and was led to the church next door to the orphanage. I was not clear on why I was going there. It turned out that by being led from place to place by one of the teenagers was how I to figure out what the routine of the orphanage would be.

Most mornings I would go straight over to the pavement in front of the church where the children would play. Sometimes they would just stand at the fence and watch the world outside go by. (They do have excursions outside the orphanage but aside from these they spend all their time inside the orphanage’s walls.) After this they would have a drink and some of the teenagers/young adults would head upstairs for school.

The classroom was where I found myself at 8:30am on my first day. Apparently I was going to be teaching English to student’s aged 13-21! Not something I have trained in or felt like I would necessarily be very good at. “That’s okay,” I thought, “I must be here with a teacher who speaks Vietnamese or how else will I communicate?” I was wrong in two ways! A teacher with some English would be there most days (but not my first days) and I did find many ways to communicate. On a few occasions, I was lucky to have the assistance of an older student.

Initially I thought, “They have made a terrible mistake! Do they think I am a teacher?” However, I decided to give it a go for a few days and then I could always ask to assist with something else. A few days passed and I felt I could rise to the challenge and hope that my students would get something out of my classes. At first it was difficult to tell what each student already knew and they varied so much in age, maturity, attention spans and capability. They were a little bit shy at the beginning and mainly just stared at me but I think I grew on them! If nothing else, they enjoyed the games I made for them and loved singing songs. It was a challenge making up educational games with limited resources. (One problem was that the fan would blow away most of what we tried to use. However, if we turned it off it got far too hot.)

Making a shapes game

After the morning class the students had lunch at 10:30. Staff and volunteers had lunch from 11:30-12:30. Then it was time to rest until 2pm! (A wise move due to the heat.) Every day I walked past the cats and kittens that lived at the orphanage. They got the leftovers from lunch.

 

Cats in their usual hangout

At first I accompanied my students to lunch, unsure what I was really meant to be doing. I did this a few times and although they were happy to see me there, I felt I could be more use somewhere else. It was then that I started to visit one of the rooms upstairs that some of the other volunteers were in. It was a room for the babies and young children mostly confined to a cot due to some form of illness, disability or special need. There were a few babies with hydrocephalus (fluid build-up in the brain), some with cerebral palsy, some with epilepsy and other things. I came here for 1-2 hours on most days and played, sung and cuddled the babies and children. I discovered one boy who was completely blind was in desperate need of some sort of audio stimulation and really enjoyed more upbeat songs like Mario Kart, The Simpsons and Postman Pat! A typical day of volunteering involved singing Twinkle twinkle, Insy Winsy Spider, Open shut them, Five little ducks and the Rainbow song multiple times a day with babies aged 6 months to adults 21 years.

In the afternoon I took two teenage boys aged 13 and one 21 year-old woman for reading class. These three, it appears, were chosen because they showed the most aptitude for reading English.

The kids and teens at the orphanage are incredible. It is amazing how they work together to get through their everyday routine. One teen whose legs are amputated at the upper limbs is helped up two flights of stairs in a wheelbarrow type fashion. Once at the classroom, all students are expected to make their way to their individual seats and desk. This is extremely physically challenging for at least half of the teens I taught. They are exhausted before the class starts and yet they are keen to learn and interact. Students that have difficulty with a cup of water are helped by another student. When I cannot communicate something to a particular teen or them to me, another usually came to my aid.

Some of the wondeful students and me

It was rewarding working out what each individual enjoys most. One of the older girls, really a young woman, loves “once I caught a fish alive” and another (I think slightly younger) loves to be twirled around in a dance. One of the younger boys who I was told had psychological problems, was enthusiastic about learning anything new and learnt very quickly. I wondered how much more he could do with the right supports in place. (Unfortunately, that is true of most children there. Although I have found there are a few good programs in place.)

I have also been fortunate to see the commitment by many of the staff members who work long hours with many more tasks they can fit into that time. Although it is clear that some are overworked and in serious need of a break, many still have a smile for a child or arrange something fun to keep them occupied.

Monday mornings were playtime for many kids at the orphanage. Firstly the group would sing songs and dance in a undercover outdoor area. The chicken dance was hugely popular and they also had eating contests (which maybe sounds odd, but it wasn’t). Then it was free-playtime. Every playtime was different; sometimes I would be hanging on the swing with a toddler or playing catch with a teenager or trying to stop a little girl from getting in the way of the plumbers.

One playtime sticks in my mind. I went to visit three children (perhaps aged around 8) who were positioned against the wall in their wheelchairs to watch the everyone else. A carer motioned that I should come closer to one particular girl. When I got there she didn’t react initially but soon we were dancing to the music. Shortly after that the boy behind her put up his leg in the air and waved it up and down, laughing. Nothing like a song to reach through numerous barriers at once.

Many of the children at the orphanage had special needs and of these several were affected by dioxin (see our previous related post). Two of older babies with hydrocephalus had shunts inserted into their heads but many others had not received the crucial medical treatment that could improve their lives. The prognosis for many was grim and this was very sad.  

During my month volunteering I tried to find out what the future possibilities were for those at the orphanage. I heard about a few of the toddlers getting adopted during the time I was there. Some of the other volunteers told me how there is policy change in the pipes that should mean that children with special needs and older children are more likely to get adopted than is currently the case. Some of the staff at the centre grew up themselves at the orphanage and have evidently worked hard to get where they are now. Unfortunately many of the children will not be able to find the support and opportunities they need to gain independence and an increased quality of life. From what I know, many will move to institutions for their adult lives.

There are a few positive social initiatives I heard about during my volunteering time. The best ones, in my opinion, teach skills that increase the opportunities available to someone. “Teach Me to Fish” run by Kids With No Borders is one such project. It provides scholarships to support orphans when they leave an orphanage at age 18. Scholarships support them with continued education, specifical vocational training, health care and other everyday living necessesities. Koto, another program, is based on the idea that learning should be passed on: "Know One, Teach One." It gives disadvantaged youth in Vietnam the chance to train in hospitality.

Colourful dress

Another aspect of my volunteering was meeting some great people. There were quite a few volunteers either living in Ho Chi Minh or those that regularly returned to the orphanage. Some split their time by their country of birth and Vietnam. Near the beginning of my time volunteering we took a lunch time trip to a nearby temple. It was a big celebration with lots of food, colourful dress, music, readings and many offerings. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we never found out what the festivities were about! 

Music and ceremony

I enjoyed my time volunteering and learnt a lot from everyone there. It was great to see the student’s progress. The month went by very quickly and I found it very hard to leave. I hope I made some sort of difference by volunteering. In a discussion with one of the other volunteers who had come back for a third year, she said that she thinks of her work there as planting a seed. For her, this involves spending time with a child and joining in a smile with them. I feel like the students gave me so much. Hopefully I too planted some sort of seed.

The War Remnants Museum, Ho Chi Minh City

Can't imagine what it would have been like to see these Hueys coming at you 

The War Remnants Museum exhibits the horrors of war in Vietnam's recent past with a message to never to forget the long lasting and devastating impact of war. The Vietnam War (as we refer to it) is known more locally as the American War, and really was a continuation of hostilities of the First Indochina War that the Northern Vietnamese saw as a colonial war, originally resisting French occupation and trying to reunify Vietnam as a communist state.

Kat spent a short amount of time in Ho Chi Minh in 2008 and the War Remnants Museum was the standout experience of her time. It is a powerful museum that exhibits some of the horror of the war and the continuing impacts it has on those involved. Most people know that as technology had improved, the horrors of this conflict was better documented than prior to this time. However, for us, nothing really compared to the photographs and stories shared in this museum. Two particular things stood out.  

From French photographer Huet

Requiem exhibit

On the top floor there was an exhibit called "Requiem" (Tim Page and Horst Faas brought it together and have a book of the same name, and we should credit the book itself here). This description from the exhibition itself puts it better than we could summarise:  

"....Between the height of the French Indochina War in the fifties and the fall of Phnom Penh and Saigon in 1975, 135 photographers from all sides of the conflict were recorded as missing or dead. This exhibition is a memorial to those men and women, and in many cases it includes the last photographs they took...."

Not just the last photographs they took, but ones they took moments before their own death, the words "last roll of film" give an extra definition to the full stop at the end of the caption.  

Capa stepped on a landmine after this "last frame"

This was truly a moving exhibit because it focused less on "we this..." and "we that..." but really just allowed you to see people and their experiences with a journalistic and artistic eye.

It's hard to pick a favourite (even the term doesn't fit), but some punched harder than others.  This image from Eddie Adams is of a South Vietnamese colonel threatening a Vietcong prisoner.  He would have only had seconds to take this photo, and didn't know until after it was developed what significance it had.  If you actually want to know what happened next, the photographer talks about it in this Youtube video.  

Eddie Adams' photograph of South Vietnamese colonel and a Vietcong prisoner

It has been a little harder to find online copies of North Vietnamese photographers.

Shadows of war (Dinh)

We don't want to diminish the other parts of the museum, for they too have a very significant and important message, and leave one feeling quite worn out, horrified, sick and generally disgusted that we as humans continue to do this to each other. An interesting element of the exhibitions was the use of language to show perspectives of history. In several places "American War" was used or "Vietnam War" (with apostrophes) to intimate how many view the atrocities that occurred here. It actually used to be called the "Museum of American War Crimes" among other names, which gives you an idea of the tone of the place.

Self-immolation as protest

The long-lasting impacts of Agent Orange

The other major element of the museum that stood out was the section dedicated to the horrific "Agent Orange".  Rob knew very little about the use of dioxin during the war or its devastating impact on land, crops and people generations later. Kat's knowledge was based on her last visit however the depth of information actually makes a second visit worthwhile. Dioxin can cause debilitating disability for millions of children and families, even now.  The vestiges of this insidious weapon are still felt in the Vietnamese (and to a smaller extent American) communities today, and there are still sites that have not been cleaned or treated since the anti-communist presence in the 70's. Particularly striking was the below letter to President Obama written in 2009 which shows how the devastating impact continues in second generation victims. This letter was exhibited after hundreds of photos of adults, children and babies affected by dioxin and asks if the President could spare some time trying to address this “forgotten problem”.

Letter from a second generation victim of Agent Orange to President Obama

Questions of accountability for actions of war and responsibility for the consequences loomed large during our visit. This article provides information on how 40 years post-war the U.S. has begun decontamination of the worst affected areas in Vietnam. This marks the countries first direct involvement in decontamination and is expected to take four years.

Parts of the exhibition showed the incredible skill that people with disabilities due to exposure to war chemicals have developed. For example, one story told of a man who could write with his feet. Seeing such stories and photos, especially those that involved children, Kat considered what impacts of war would she see when she began volunteering at an orphanage in the next few days.

The displays also made us think about what supports are there for victims of dioxin and how these differ between countries. For example, the article mentioned earlier compares the compensation which American veterans exposed to Agent Orange receive ($1,500 a month) to Vietnamese families with disabled children (just over $5 a month). Court cases and pleas to both the US government and chemical companies from Vietnamese victims have not been successful, whereas U.S. veterans' cases have. 

The direct and indirect effects of dioxin will continue to be felt by many Vietnamese now and in the future. It is obvious that a huge undertaking is needed to improve the lives of those with disability in Vietnam by providing better supports. Whilst the decontamination project is significant, if long overdue, it is only really part of the picture.