Vietnam Healing Foundation

The squalor and lack of elemental help for wheelchairs and such that disabled veterans of the former South Vietnamese armed forces are forced to live in by their conquerors is and should be shocking.

Last February, I posted an email from a very caring Vietnam veteran friend, who served as a photographer, of his trip to South Vietnam to investigate and help the plight of severely disabled veterans of the South Vietnamese armed forces, “Forgotten South Vietnamese Allies.”

DelVecchio, Del as friends call him, is returning soon to South Vietnam. He is carrying no other agenda than to help these tormented men. With the help of other volunteers, the Vietnam Healing Foundation, a tax-deductible charity, has been formed.

A wheelchair cobbled together from bicycle parts costs about $100. Several months’ of relief from bare subsistence can be had for $36. Please see, for example, these two case histories and photos, for the need.

Aside from our collective voluntary amnesia about our responsibilities toward former allies, the Vietnam Healing Foundation faces another major hurdle: The Hanoi regime does not permit the sort of giving to these veterans that allows the accounting required by major foundations, necessary to get their support. The funds must be sneaked into the country and distributed in cash to individuals in need. All a donor can rely upon is the honesty of the Vietnam Healing Foundation. I know these people and can vouch for that.

Meanwhile the official Vietnam Red Cross Society recently kicked off a new campaign to help similar veterans in need, but all the aid was restricted to 8 Northern provinces. Donors include the Red Cross Societies of Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Spain, Norway and the United States, plus the Ford Foundation and the Belgium-Vietnam Friendship Association. (Source is offline now: July 5, 2006, Vietnam News Briefs)

Please HELP: contribute and spread the message of worthy need.
Contributions can be sent, and questions can be asked, to:

Mailing Address:
VHF
c/o P. TRAN
P.O. BOX 40151
RALEIGH, N.C. 27629
Phone: 919-872-2343
Fax: 919-882-1201

vnhf@yahoogroups.com