From 20th to 23rd January, Hearts For Hue in collaboration with The Bamboo Project implemented a successful voluntourism project in the household of Mr Tran Ba Vac. Mr Vac and his family of three all have mental illnesses. They live in Huong Van Commune, 30 minutes from Hue City, and have been a part of Hearts for Hue’s animal raising program since 2015. In the past, Mr Vac earned a meager living by acting as a daily contractor and harvesting plants for other farmers, earning approximately 80,000 VND (4USD) per day. Since joining Hearts For Hue’s project “ To ensure the long term community integration of Thua Thien Hue Social Centre patients”, Mr Vac has first received 50 chicks under sponsorship of The Australian Government which he raised at his house. In December, Mr Vac has received more 50 chicks from The DOVE Fund. With the income he receives from the sale of these animals, Mr Bac is now very happy and able to provide a stable, healthy and more varied diet for his family. However, due to lack of funding, the quality of his chicken shelter was not sufficient to raise very healthy chickens, or to enable him to expand his raising scale, as it was a makeshift structure using random scrap material.
Understanding the difficulty that Mr Vac has been facing daily, 15 international volunteers from The Bamboo project gave him a hand to build a brand new chicken pen. Over three hard-working days, the volunteers built a brand new 3m x 4m roofed and concreted chicken shelter from the ground up. The volunteers also went even further in their efforts, building a concreted washing area for the family and re-painting their doors and windows just in time for Vietnamese New Year.
Understanding the difficulty that Mr Vac has been facing daily, 15 international volunteers from The Bamboo project gave him a hand to build a brand new chicken pen. Over three hard-working days, the volunteers built a brand new 3m x 4m roofed and concreted chicken shelter from the ground up. The volunteers also went even further in their efforts, building a concreted washing area for the family and re-painting their doors and windows just in time for Vietnamese New Year.
The Bamboo Project have been coming to Hue to volunteer for one year now, however the January experience was undoubtedly the project which brought the greatest impact on the local community. There was not a dry eye in the house as the group handed over the chicken pen to Mr Vac and his family, who were overwhelmed with the support they had received and excited about how this new shelter can enable them to increase their livelihoods in the future.
Hearts For Hue would like to say thank you to the Bamboo team, Vietnamese volunteers and local authotities who made a success for this program.
Mr Tran Ba Vac