Day 4: Today, we switched our schedule around and got to sleep in a bit before embarking on our site visit before lunch. During our visit, Rad Kivette, the CEO, thoroughly explained the many issues that rural Vietnam faces, particularly those affecting girls in these farming areas. In these small villages, girls are often abused by people in their lives and feel they have no way out. Rad spoke about how Vina is working to show these girls that they do have a way out and that what is being done to them is wrong. Vina works closely with the government and their donors to implement projects that help these seemingly helpless girls, showing them that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that they have the power to change their terrible situations.

Here in America, we face similar problems; however, in Vietnam, half the time, the offenders don’t even know that what they are doing to these girls is wrong. Due to centuries of abuse, these offenders feel that their actions are just an unfortunate cultural norm. In America, if people find out about someone committing these atrocities, they are alienated from society and arrested. However, this is not the case in Vietnam. Luckily, Vina is working to influence these villages and girls by establishing girls’ clubs in rural high schools to teach them about sexual safety and the laws regarding it.

Apart from addressing the abuse of young girls, Vina also focuses their efforts on providing cancer and heart surgeries for impoverished children in developing villages. Every year, Vina grants funding to villages across Vietnam to perform over 1,000 heart surgeries for impoverished children. Along with these surgeries, they are also in the development stage of a cancer outreach program designed to do the same thing. Overall, the work that Vina does is something that should be replicated worldwide by non-profits.