| HOI DUC-ANH ORPHANAGE _________________ From Vietnam Veteran Joe Rokus' of the 'Phu Lamers' account in recently published book on the Vietnam War (details how to buy this book soon). Edited from special Chapter sent to AVI to share with other orphans: THE HOI DUC-ANH ORPHANAGE, PHU LAM'S CIVIC ACTION PROJECT, PHU LAM ADOPTS HOI DUC-ANH Hoi
Duc-Anh is now a school for the blind and that the school has been in
operation
since 1975. Some details about this school are available on a web site
of the
Royal National Institute for the Blind in London, England. This site,
which is
intended to provide "Information for Professionals Working with
Visually
Disabled People", lists hundreds of organizations around the world that
are
working on behalf of blind and visually impaired people. Of the six
organizations in Vietnam, two are in Ho Chi Minh City and the other
four in
Hanoi. The following information is provided for the organization now
operating
at 185 Cong Quynh Street, District 1, the same address shown on
adoption papers
from Hoi Duc-Anh from April 1975. THE
BLIND ASSOCIATION OF HO CHI MINH CITY 185
Cong Quynh Street, District 1 Ho
Chi Minh City, Vietnam Tel.:
84 83 96697 Activities:
Education including the teaching of Braille, Braille library, School
for blind
teenage orphans. Vocational training and creating employment for the
blind. Plan
for Rehabilitation and Vocational Center for the Blind. .. As
indicated above, in 1975 the Vietnamese authorities effectively banned
the Cao
Dai religious sect, which had operated Hoi Duc-Anh. Consequently, it is
almost
certain that The Association for the Protection of Children was
dissolved not
long after the take-over, probably in 1975...
The history of the Phu Lam communications base and the
several thousand
Signal Corps men who served there is made up of many facets - some
happy, some
sad. Hoi Duc-Anh is part of the former. The men not only accomplished
the
military mission they were called upon to perform in an outstanding and
professional manner, but they often went beyond the call of duty, such
as in
their support of the Hoi Duc-Anh Orphanage. In reflecting back on what
the Phu
Lamers actually accomplished some thirty or more years ago, at the top
of the
list must be the processing of countless messages that played a vital
role in
the conduct of the war. However, maybe in retrospect, what they did to
help the
kids at Hoi Duc-Anh, who were among the most innocent victims of the
war, turned
out to be at least as important as their primary military mission. We
will never
know exactly how the lives of the kids at the orphanage were changed
because the
men at Phu Lam cared about them, but there can be no doubt that that
change was
a positive one. |