Japanese students visit Hold the Future, Centre for disabled youth Hold the Future, a Centre offering disabled youth a chance in life, recently was graced with a visit from three very enterprising budding young economists from Japan. These lovely Japanese students were on a fact finding mission. Attending the Faculty of Economics at Chuo University they were collecting data and impressions for their... Read more→

A visit by the DPO of Hoài Đức A friendly visit by a neighbouring saw the chairman Ngūyền Hồng Hà pop in for a chat. Unofficial, but still welcome. For the VSO volunteer an added bonus was that his English was excellent . Hà chatted about his work as an English teacher and his contribution towards the well-being of disabled people. He is disabled himself being physically disabled. However,... Read more→

At a recent meeting in Hanoi discussing the BUILD project funded by Irish Aid this thought went through my mind. Quick bit of background about the project, BUILD is being developed by IDEA and VSO. It’s main focus is to provide skills training and mentoring to enable disabled people find employment. It also aims to provide capacity building to Disabled People Organisations. It was an interesting... Read more→

During the Vietnam War, also called the American War if you are Vietnamese, one of the weapons of mass destruction was the dumping of herbicide across large areas of Vietnam. This herbicide, deriving its name from the orange markings on the drums the chemical was shipped in, was sprayed in an effort to defoliate the landscape so that the American Forces and its allies could more easily spot the enemy. In... Read more→