Our expedition is over - most of us are home now and going through some culture shock and of course dealing with jet lag. For such a huge group, we were an amazing team that worked hard with an exhausting schedule in just 8 short days. We want to thank all those that have followed our blogs, donated money, toys, stickers, hats, t-shirts and everything else. Your generosity is amazing and so much appreciated.
Here are our final numbers
over $53,000 raised and priceless in-kind donations
350 children & 40 chaperones went to camp (including transportation, lodging, meals & clothes) to see the ocean and have fun! (they traveled by bus up to 14 hours to get to camp!)
250 bikes given to every child in our scholarship program in 5 different towns
10 kg. of rice, 10 kg. of dried beans, 5 kg. of sugar, 1 box of instant noodles and some candy :) to 280 families (that's enough to feed a family of 4-6 people for a month!)
700+ "fun bags" given to school children in 5 different villages - the fun bags were 100% made with donations of toys, clothes, stickers and drawings (mostly from school children in the U.S.)
350 "fun bags" given to all the children that attended camp.
2 new houses started in Rach Gia (Kien Giang)
2 houses renovated in Tan Hoi Trung (Dong Thap)
1 new house started in Tan Hoi Trung
1 house renovated in My Hiep (Dong Thap)
1 new house started in My Hiep
2 houses renovated in Sa Dec (Dong Thap)
....all in 5 days
*we also funded the construction of 2 new houses (1 in My Hiep and 1 in Sa Dec)
for medical check ups, dental exams & fluoride treatments:
in Rach Gia (Kien Giang - day 1 - 82, day 2 - 275, day 3 - 182, total= 539
47% were treated for parasites, 100% of the patients work and live in the garbage dump
in Tan Hoi Trung (Dong Thap) day 4 - 277 total (192 under age 18, 2 needed follow up)
in My Hiep (Dong Thap) day 5 - 313 (203 under age 18, 5 needed follow up)
in Sa Dec (Dong Thap) day 6 - 231 and 7 kids at our orphanage
in Saigon - District 7 day 7 - 91 girls
...a grand total of 1458 patients in 7 days
with your continued support we are convinced that we are at a place where we can continue to develop plans for more preventinve health care, and sustainable health care.
$1600 in scholarships given to 21 winners from the "My Vietnam" Art Contest, 9 honorable mentions received special prizes
after flying thousands of miles to get to vietnam we then traveled:
120 miles via plane to Rach Gia (Kien Giang)
70 miles from Rach Gia to Cao Lanh (Dong Thap) by bus and two ferries - 6 hours
10 miles from Cao Lanh to Tan Hoi Trung (Dong Thap) by bus and tuk tuk - 1 hour
15 miles from Cao Lanh to My Hiep (Dong Thap) by bus - 45 minutes
25 miles from Cao Lanh to Sa Dec (Dong Thap) by bus and one ferry - 1 hour
85 miles from Sa Dec to Saigon/HCMC by bus - 4 hours
15 miles from edge of Saigon to our hotel by bus - 1 hour
75 miles from Saigon to Long Hai (for camp) by bus - 3 hours
80 miles from Long Hai back to Saigon by bus - 3 1/2 hours
*our bike team traveled 100 miles from Cao Lanh to Saigon in 12 hours and survived!
30 prints from the winning entries of the Little Red Fairy "My Vietnam" Art Contest auctioned off during our last day for a total of $6,670 to fund a boys scholarship program starting this fall...
We're already looking forward to the next expedition (i think!)...thanks again for all your support! More pictures will be posted soon!
THANK YOU for being the Catalyst for positive change for the children of Vietnam!
