Closing Ceremony Highlights HOPE

Project HOPE volunteers concluded their participation in Pacific Angel 2010 during a ceremony recognizing the joint and combined humanitarian assistance efforts provided to the Tan Thoi and Truong Thanh communities in Vietnam from May 10-17, 2010.

Operation Pacific Angel 2010 included more than 50 U.S. uniformed service members working alongside the Vietnamese military, non-governmental organizations Project HOPE and East Meets West Foundation and local health care professionals to provide medical care and training as well as engineering expertise.

During the closing ceremony, members of the mission planted a tree and held a ribbon cutting at the village medical clinic where U.S. Air Force engineers completed construction renovations. Project HOPE was prominently mentioned during the ceremony by top U.S. and Vietnamese officials. Plaques cemented to the ceremonial tree bases at the Tan Thoi village elementary school and the Truong Thanh health clinic also mention Project HOPE’s contributions to Pacific Angel 2010 and the “spirit of our growing relationship.”

U.S. Ambassador Michael W. Michalak spoke of Pacific Angel’s contribution to 15 years of normalization of relations between the U.S. and Vietnam. "The fact that our two countries are here in the Cuu Long Delta working together to learn from each other to make ourselves better medical professionals and engineers is an excellent example of how far we have come over the last 15 years," he said.

Project HOPE is now focused on its participation in Pacific Partnership 2010, scheduled to take place May through September 2010. Vietnamese (tiếng Việt), Cambodian (Khmer) or Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) speaking health care providers are encouraged to register as volunteers on the Project HOPE Web site. We are always looking for indigenous speaking volunteers. Interested volunteers please also contact Matt Peterson at mpeterson@projecthope.org or Fred Gerber fgerber@projecthope.org for additional information.

4,600 Patients Treated in Six Days

Project HOPE volunteers are always expected to get to work quickly and manage long, hard hours. Vietnam was no exception. Working alongside U.S. Air Force medical personnel, Vietnamese military and civilian health provider counterparts and fellow NGO humanitarians from East Meets West, HOPE volunteers concluded their health care and health education mission.

In just six short days, the small medical task group of about 50 accomplished a lot.

Patients treated – 4,601
Total patient encounters – 7,822
Women’s health – 419
Dental encounters – 2,621
Dental exams – 603
Family practice – 2,729
Pharmacy – 16,199
Pediatrics – 2,028
Optometry – 1,763

Project HOPE volunteers will return to Vietnam at the end of May onboard the USNS Mercy as part of the Pacific Partnership 2010. Check back for updates.

Meet the Pacific Angel 2010 Volunteers

In early May, five Project HOPE volunteer health care providers travelled to Can Tho, Vietnam to support Operation Pacific Angel 2010 at the Tan Thoi and Truong Thanh Villages in the Phong Dien District, Cuu Long Delta area.

Dr. James Honl is an experienced HOPE volunteer who served onboard the USNS Mercy in Indonesia in 2005 after the tsunami. While in Vietnam, he performed optometry training and mentoring while also seeing hundreds of patients each day.

Bich Nguyen, a nurse midwife who volunteered for HOPE during Pacific Angel 2009, participated again this year. Born in Vietnam, her language skills helped her lead HOPE’s midwife team. Bich earned a huge following among her Vietnamese counterparts during last year’s operation. She developed a reputation for calmness and patience under pressure for teaching and coaching younger and less experienced midwives.

HOPE’s other two nurse midwives were first time HOPE volunteers. Noreen Prokuski, from the University of Illinois and Anika Phillips from Vanderbilt University worked alongside Bich and the Vietnamese nurse midwives and woman’s health providers performing examinations, education and prescription writing functions.

Dr. Charles “Fritz” Craft, a dentist is a US Air Force reservist who lives and works in Cambodia performing health humanitarian assistance work joined the volunteers as Project HOPE’s Medical Director. Dr. Fritz plans to volunteer again during next year’s health operations in Vietnam.

Project HOPE volunteers will return to Vietnam at the end of May onboard the USNS Mercy as part of the Pacific Partnership 2010. Check back for updates.

HOPE Volunteers in Vietnam

Five Project HOPE volunteers participated in Operation Pacific Angel 2010 with the U.S. Air Force, providing health care training and mentoring to local counterpart health care providers in Can Tho, Phong Dien District and Cuu Long Delta areas of Vietnam from May 10-17.

Project HOPE’s tailored medical team helped support the overall health operation of the mission by providing family practice, dental, optometry, pediatrics and women's health care services and training. This is the second year that Project HOPE volunteers have participated in the Pacific Angel mission.

Check back for more on the volunteers.