Today, we had the absolute pleasure of visiting Vina Capital in the morning. When we researched the companies, we would be visiting, Vina Capital interested me the most because of its healthcare-related work. From the start, I found the work extremely interesting and captivating. Vina Capital has many extremely amazing programs that are greatly helping Vietnam. The first program we learned about was Heartbeat Vietnam, which is focused on helping children with heart defects receive the care they need throughout the nation. Heart defects can greatly harm someone’s life, and without the proper screening, it is hard to recognize them. Vina Capital works to help screen and treat heart defects but especially works to help the ethnic minorities in Vietnam who live in extremely rural communities on their own. These communities often do not have the money or the technology to perform these tasks, so Vina Capital works to assist them in the treatment process. Another program they have is developing and running outreach clinics throughout rural Vietnam to help treat those in need who do not easily have access to healthcare. They also run a program to help develop clean drinking water for children so they can develop healthy lives while avoiding the sicknesses that contaminated water can provide.

Vina Capital is not just about healthcare; however, learning about its broader mission fully sold me on their efforts and made me want to even help them. Vina Capital is focused on assisting Vietnam in developing and growing so that there are happy, healthy communities nationwide. They believe that by helping the women and children of communities then they will be able to grow and develop because these are the hearts of the communities. Women do the majority of the work in Vietnam when it comes to raising children, cleaning, cooking, and supporting the family, while men statistically cannot even compare. Vina Capital wants to educate women on many things, including higher education, and important things for daily life, such as their rights and being smart with their money. Some rural communities face extreme challenges, including cases of early or forced marriage. Vina Capital is working to combat these issues through education and support for girls, helping them envision and pursue brighter futures. Practices like these set back these communities as a whole and force the women in the region to live awful lives of abuse. Mr. Rad Kivette from Vina Capital even told us of his interactions with a fourteen-year-old girl who had already suffered from two failed pregnancies and one successful one. This shows how awful the conditions can be in these rural societies for women and exactly why Vina Capital needs to work to elevate and teach these girls so they can grow up to be successful and help shape their community into a better place for all members.

I believe that Vina Capital is truly doing amazing work, and the only way they can improve upon it is to continue their ambitions and to continue their efforts to protect and support the women and children of Vietnam. If they continue to raise up these rural communities, more and more families will be able to live happy and healthy lives while still embracing their great cultures. The presentation also made it seem like Vina Capital was extremely successful in its healthcare-related programs in comparison to its programs supporting young girls. This disparity between the two makes me hope they can address this and continue their work to help the rural communities, because no one deserves to go through what some of these girls have to endure. Overall, I hope that Vina Capital continues its truly life-changing work, and I am really excited to keep up with their work and to see the amazing change they are having on Vietnam over the years to come.