Dear Friends,

I would like to share with you some of my work and experiences from the five weeks of apostolic work in Vietnam in January and February of 2001.

Three days after arriving in Vietnam, I took a two weeks road trip to the Highland regions to visit the mountain tribes where 211 children are currently receiving financial support from Viet Toc Foundation for schooling. Often, I had to travel by motorcycle and on foot. I spent the majority of time visiting schools and visiting with families and their children. I also met with the local contacts to discuss ways to most effectively finance the children's schooling. We agreed that, since most of the families are struggling to meet their most basic needs, of food and medicine, only certain families can afford to let the children go to school. Therefore, only the children in these families are the first beneficiaries of our program. We also set a goal to increase the amount of scholarships for this new school year and the years to follow, by the will of God, and with your help.

In addition, on this trip, God led me to visit three pockets of hill tribes lepers located deep in the woods; where no one would expect to find anyone living. Being ousted from their villages because of their illness, a few families gather in some distant areas and try to make their living. Many men that I met no longer have a full set of fingers or toes. They leaned on crutches to come out to meet us. Many children are among them, so beautiful, so gentle, who were mostly very shy, some even scared, at our presence. They showed us some children, as young as one year old, with signs of leprosy on their skin. Lack of food, of water, of proper hygiene, of medicine, and so forth are all factors that contribute to a worsening of their condition. These were only some of the small colonies of lepers that I encountered; there are certainly many more. I pray that we be able to do something for them.

Besides visiting and living among the mountain tribes people, I went to two distant areas in the Mekong Delta region to bring monetary relief to the victims of the past floods. The six hundred families that we met lost almost everything during the flood. They are still struggling and will be fighting hunger for the next couple of months, because the flood waters have destroyed their crops, their main source of income.

I thank God for a safe journey, and an accomplished mission that some friends of mine and I have made. I also want to thank you for your prayers and support, which is very much needed, to love and serve our sisters and brothers in need whom God has sent our way. Please be assured of our prayers for you and your loved ones.
May God bless you and yours always.

Sincerely yours,
Rev. Vang C. Tran, CSsR