Vietnam

[Orient]ation – Adjusting to life in Vietnam

Staff Story, Vietnam l

Image: [Orient]ation - Adjusting to life in Vietnam

by Donna May Lyons, Communications and Fundraising Assistant

Two of REI’s newest workers, Sarah and Samantha, began their [Orient]ation into Vietnamese life and culture just eight weeks ago. The two graduates of Northwestern College, Minneapolis, Minnesota are Resident English Specialists at Hanoi University in Vietnam. During the past eight weeks, Sarah and Samantha have made many adjustments to their way of living and thinking as they have experienced the vast differences between life in Vietnam and the United States.

REI-Vietnam Video: What it Takes

Media, Vietnam, Volunteer Story l

Image: REI-Vietnam Video: What it Takes

Watch a second REI-Vietnam video and learn “what it takes” to develop people in Vietnam.

Our REI-Vietnam team has put forth a real effort this year to capture the REI story in video. Take a few minutes to watch their video “What it Takes” and learn one practical way in which REI develops people in Vietnam: through training national healthcare professionals. REI-Vietnam’s volunteer doctors and surgeons talk about how and why they train Vietnamese doctors. They are building Vietnamese people to build Vietnam.

Click this link to watch the video!

REI-Vietnam Video: Why We Build

Media, Vietnam l

Image: REI-Vietnam Video: Why We Build

Watch an REI-Vietnam video and learn about their passion for developing Vietnamese people.

Our REI-Vietnam team has put forth a real effort this year to capture the REI story in video. Take a few minutes to watch their video about “Why They Build” to learn the philosophy that guides their development practices. This video is the first in a series of three videos that we will be featuring one at a time on the REI blog. REI-Vietnam is building Vietnamese people to build Vietnam.

Click this link to watch the video!

Serving Vietnam

Vietnam, Volunteer Story l

Image: Serving Vietnam

REI-VN’s visiting professionals return from another successful volunteer trip to Vietnam.

REI sends two types of people overseas: resident professionals, who live and work in an emerging nation long-term, and visiting professionals, who spend a few weeks in a country volunteering their skills and knowledge in their various fields to local professionals.

We would like to honor some of these volunteers, who just recently took a trip to Vietnam, facilitated by REI-Vietnam staff member Cliff. In October, Cliff took a team of six doctors specializing in gastroenterology (the digestive system), cardiology (the heart), pulmonology (the lungs and other respiratory functions) to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City for a two-week volunteer trip.

Breaking News: Vietnamese Patient Receives the Help He Needs Through REI!

Breaking News, Home Office, Local Testimony, Media, Vietnam, Volunteer Story l

Image: Breaking News: Vietnamese Patient Receives the Help He Needs Through REI!

Brian Teel, REI- Vietnam’s Director, just shared this incredible story of how REI was able to help this young patient receive the treatment he needed. Below is the email he sent to REI’s home team:

“Dr. Craig Johnson, a surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, USA and his daughter traveled to Vietnam last November with REI’s Pediatric Team as volunteers. In a most remarkable ‘coincidence,’ on this trip Dr. Johnson met Dr. Nhat, the head of Orthopedics at Hue Central Hospital.

“Dr. Nhat remembered Dr. Johnson from a special training program in the USA they both had received a couple of decades ago, and a budding friendship emerged. Soon Dr. Johnson became aware of a special case confronting Dr. Nhat – a young boy born without a left femur. This young boy made such an impression on Dr. Johnson and his teenage daughter that they returned to the USA determined to do something about the situation.