A Mission of Love, Hope, and Faith

CANADIANS HELPING KIDS IN VIETNAM INCORPORATED

- A Mission of Love, Hope, and Faith -

THE BIRTH OF CHKV

Chau Pham: Co-Founder of CHKV; Director of Missions

To help others understand why CHKV was born, I decided to share with you my personal story of running as a five year-old child refugee from my birth country of Vietnam, of finally finding a new home in Canada, and of the decisions I have made as a result of my life experiences.

Born in 1978 in the midst of great turmoil after one of the most devastating wars in Vietnam, my parents, in hope of a better future for me, made an incredibly difficult decision to help me escape from Vietnam, a decision that ultimately changed the course of my life.  At age five, I fled my country in the middle of the night and then survived nine horrific days on the South China Sea, to land in a refugee camp in Thailand without my parents. Here I was diagnosed with tuberculosis and subsequently denied entry to Canada when Canadian immigration officers came to interview anyone interested in coming to Canada. Each day as I went to take my medication at the Red Cross station in the camp, I began to see clearly that the doctor treating my TB was holding all the keys to my future.  He had the power to cure my contagious disease, to end my ostracism by everyone in the camp, and to assure Canadian officials that my lungs were clear of tuberculosis. Finally, after almost two years of treatment and long days and nights in this very poor camp, the Canadian government returned to interview more refugees and the immigration officer issued a long awaited permanent resident document that allowed me to come to Canada.

With this life-saving decision by the Canadian government came two very important decisions in my seven-year-old mind that I have never forgotten…

I would do all I could every day to become a doctor helping to improve others’ lives, just as the doctor in the camp had changed mine, and I would never forget that it was the people of Canada who first offered me a new home in their wonderful country with good health care, the education I needed to become a doctor, and a new mom whom I met the day I arrived.

Despite my difficult early years, I had two births, two moms and a dad, so many new freedoms I could have only dreamed of having in Vietnam, and could come away from all of this thinking that life is still beautiful and that it is now my turn to serve to improve the lives of others in Canada and in my birth country as well. My second chance at life and my rebirth in Manitoba, Canada, and a newly adopted mom, provided me with the confidence, the tools, and the opportunities, to attain my profession, and to serve others here and abroad. Becoming a doctor was my way of saying thank you to the generous people of Canada and also as a way to give back to the disadvantaged children of Vietnam that I had left behind.

I realize now that children are not just born from a woman’s womb but also from a big heart. My adopted mom not only opened her heart and world to me but she showed me the meaning of selfless and unconditional love when she made the unimaginable decision to sponsor my family and reunite me with my birth parents and brothers. Growing up with my adopted mom and my biological family gave new meaning to the “modern family unit.” In making the full circle of my life, I returned to Vietnam in 1993 at age 15 with both my biological and adopted moms to see the country of my birth and my humble beginnings. From what I saw then, I could begin to relate to the many underprivileged children who could easily have been myself and who desperately needed those same opportunities for acceptance, good health, a safe place to live, education, economic security, and leadership for better tomorrows.  Canada has many times been selected as one of the world’s best countries in which to live. We therefore as a nation have an immense moral obligation to share our knowledge, our skills, and our wealth with those in so much need. Canada has a reputation for sharing and service and in keeping with my new Canadian identity, our charity, Canadians Helping Kids in Vietnam Incorporated was born in 1995.    

On November 27, 1995, in my new home in Canada, I sat with my adoptive Canadian mom, Darlene Lindsay, and another refugee, Tam Nguyen, from Vietnam, discussing what we could do for the many highly disadvantaged children and families in Vietnam.   Knowing this was to be our focus, we very quickly said let’s just call our charity, “Canadians Helping Kids in Vietnam,” and from then until now we are a registered charity in the Province of Manitoba, with the Government of Canada, and with the Government of Vietnam. My mom Darlene is the Chair of our Board and my mom Thu is now the Director of our Education and Family Support Program, the largest financial component of our work in Vietnam.

OUR CHKV GOALS REMAIN THE SAME

We work every day to:

1. Offer monthly support for impoverished families trying to provide good health and education for their children
2. Improve health care delivery in that country through medical and dental missions.
3. Provide bicycles for students to travel to and from the often-long distances to school.
4. Respond to emergency requests arising out of natural disasters and other situations.

CHKV has built nine schools in Vietnam to offer educational opportunities for thousands of Vietnamese children, but because health is the biggest factor in measuring the quality of every life, we have also made medical service another big focus of CHKV. Most people in Vietnam are born into a country where daily they experience incredible shortages of everything and it is difficult for children to dream about what they want to be when they grow up, if they need to focus on becoming healthy enough to reach adulthood. If we can help these children to grow into healthy educated adults, the reward for them, and for us, will be the contributions they will some day make to the communities from which they come.

OUR MOST RECENT 2016 CHKV MISSION

This past February 2016, I led another medical team as together we conducted a learning symposium at the An Giang Provincial Hospital in Long Xuyen, Vietnam.  After an initial needs assessment was conducted with the physicians at the hospital, I assembled a team of Canadian specialists to offer lecture presentations on the requested topics, followed by several hands-on clinical training scenarios at skills stations using equipment brought by the Canadian team. The scope of the teaching symposium focused on adult and pediatric trauma and cardiovascular resuscitation as well as obstetrical emergencies, women’s health, and point of care ultrasound.

The Canadian team members volunteering their time and expertise included the following:

Department of Emergency Medicine Faculty:

• Dr. Chau Pham (EM)
• Dr. Christian La Rivière (EM)
• Dr. Dave Easton (ICU/EM)
• Dr. Lisa Bryski (EM)
• Dr. Hareishun Shanmuganathan (EM/Peds EM)
• Dr. Aaron Webb (PGY-5 EM)
• Dr. Anne Sutherland (PGY-3 EM)

University of Manitoba Faculty: 

• Dr. Stasa Veroukis (Peds ICU)
• Dr. Stephanie Johnston (Obs/Gyn)
• Dr. Joanna Webb (CCFP)

Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society (STARS):

• Brent Bekiaris (ACP)
• Sarah Painter (BN)

Victoria General Hospital Nurse & CHKV Administration

• Darlene Lindsay (CHKV Admin)
• Thu Pham (RN)
• Tieng Pham (CHKV Volunteer)

Our paediatric ambassadors

• Louie Webb
• Gabriel La Rivière
• Sébastien La Rivière

The local hospital in the City of Long Xuyen, Vietnam, with the support of An Giang province, invested in Telehealth in order to allow rural physicians in the province to learn from our presentations and to observe the various simulation codes. Throughout the two-week mission, approximately 130 Vietnamese physicians from across the province were actively involved in the symposium, and many more were most appreciative of the valuable learning experience available through Telehealth. The teaching symposium was approved by the Minister of Health in An Giang province and participants were expected by their local team lead, to partake in a pre and post test process with formal evaluations arising out of the learning objectives presented by the Canadian team. At the end of the symposium, the Canadian team donated the majority of the medical equipment it brought to the hospital in order that local physicians could sustain their learning and education. Of the four medical missions in Vietnam in which I have been involved, feedback from the administration and physicians in Vietnam, and from the members of the Canadian teams which participated in earlier missions, indicated that the hands-on learning and the relevant presentations in both English and Vietnamese resulted in the highest levels of new learning during this 2016 mission.

At the same time the charity was operating the medical symposium, it also delivered on some of its other CHKV projects.  Members of the Board of CHKV and all of the medical mission team presented each of 100 students in Vietnam with a new bicycle to facilitate attendance and encourage effort at school.  As well, the CHKV mission team presented six months of financial support to another 100 families approved under CHKV’s Education and Family Support program.  For a low-income family to be approved for this ongoing monthly support, at least one child in the family must be an active student in a school in Vietnam.

Although the hectic schedule of the mission was intense for the team, physical exhaustion was quickly replaced with sheer joy and exhilaration. Along with the exuberance that came with the new learning experienced by the Vietnamese physicians, came many more very emotional moments including when the team witnessed the young students riding off on their 100 new bikes, and when a very grateful parent or guardian received a year’s financial support for their child’s education. The team also had the opportunity to visit three very impoverished families in their homes and this insured for the charity and for the Canadian medical team that their work and the support of Canadian sponsors was definitely most worthwhile and greatly appreciated.

A TRUE PRIVILEGE TO SERVE WITH MUCH GRATITUDE

I am a product of the accumulated generosities of others who have helped me along the way from a malnourished and sick refugee child to the woman that I am today. With this group of supporters, I have been given the privilege to serve my patients in Manitoba, and to serve along side my fellow humanitarians who contribute to the success of Canadians Helping Kids in Vietnam as we work to improve the lives of some of the world’s poorest children and their families. Now as a blessed mom to two loving boys, I hope my life example may help to encourage our sons and other young people to pursue their own unique dreams, and to find the pillars of support required for their journeys.  I believe that wherever and in whatever capacity we serve others, we can accomplish a great deal to raise the quality of life and to fill lives with the promise of a better tomorrow.

To our fellow Canadians, first of all on a personal note, thank you for welcoming me to Canada and for all the opportunities you as a Canadian, have provided for me to reach my own goals. In any personal journey, one requires the support of many others, and this is so apparent when I look back on all who have walked and still walk with me daily.  I would not be here today without my parent’ sacrifice to help me flee Vietnam, without the opportunities provided by my Canadian mom, without the daily support and unconditional love of my husband, my family, my medical colleagues, my friends, and the many Manitobans who have supported our charity’s work in Vietnam as donors, fundraisers, family sponsors, mission team players, and more.

Thank you as well for the tremendous support you have given to CHKV, by attending our fundraising events to help us build schools, by sponsoring desperate families in Vietnam, by donating funds to our Biking on a Child’s Future campaigns, by supporting our medical and dental missions to improve health care delivery in Vietnam, and by responding to emergency needs in that country. Thank you as well to those who have donated your skills, products, and financial resources to help us in our work in Vietnam and here in Manitoba.

The success of this 2016 mission and of CHKV’s work over the past twenty-one years would never have been possible without the tremendous supports so willingly provided by so many individuals including each team member who covered their own travel costs and all of the generous donors who made it possible for the team to bring back medical equipment for teaching. Throughout the mission, the charity and the medical team participants knew that no work could ever proceed without the tremendous support offered by generous individuals and organizations in Manitoba and Canada. We were all very proud to be Canadians doing our part to offer never-ending support for the less fortunate in so many far off corners of our world!

All of us at CHKV are well aware that we could not have done what we have in Vietnam, without you. It has been an immense privilege to serve with you. In service we stand together, as CHKV and all of you have been honoured in our work for others.

Chau Pham, MD

CHKV Director of Missions, Team Leader Medical Mission 2016

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

• 2016 Mission Team Members (as listed above): Thank you for taking that leap of faith, love, and hope, to follow me across the world in order to share your compassion, knowledge, and skills with those much less fortunate.

• Our mission team blogger extraordinaire, Sarah Painter, for giving life and permanence to our mission experience through your creative writing and memoirs.

• Our mission team photographers, Christian La Rivière & Dave Easton, and camera man, Quoi Huynh, for this beautiful keepsake that will be forever cherished.

• CHKV charity board members: A true privilege to serve alongside all of you as humanitarians to raise the quality of life and to fill lives with the promise of a better tomorrow.
• Chair: Darlene Lindsay
• Honourary CHKV Ambassador: Tam Nguyen
• Vice Chair: Thu Pham
• Secretary: Signe Jewett
• Treasurer: Melanie Ngo & Kim Vo
• Director of Missions: Chau Pham
• Director of IT Services: Christian La Rivière
• Director at Large: Trinh Nguyen
• Advisory Committee: Jeff Bharma & David Binda

• CHKV supporters and family sponsors over the past 21 years: you are the lifeline of CHKV

Special mentions:

• The An Giang Retirement Teacher's Association & Thanh Nguyen for your generous commitment to helping CHKV with our work in Vietnam

• Michael Dunbar and Darlene Lindsay for the generosity of their time in proof reading our reflections

Donors for the 2016 mission: Without your support, this mission would not have been possible.

Department of Emergency Medicine	University of Manitoba Sim Lab	STARS
Sonosite Canada	Health Sciences Centre Foundation	Bayview Construction
Making Roots Montessori Inc.	Errol & Grace Fitzell	Raymond & Matilda Rempel
Cheryl ffrench & Chris Sathianathan	Marilynne S. Keil	R Ludba
Donna Clark	Barbara Poustie	Faisal Siddiqui
Dale & Hien Warkentin	Pearl Toews-Neil	Ryan & Rosalind Toews
Hanh & Franz Rempel	Ken & Carmel Wiebe	Sherrise & Hung Trinh
Jon Bellas & Hang Trinh	Douglas  & Sheryl Klassen	Hong Penner
Joel Nkosi	Alan Mart	Thanh & Te Trinh
Randy Guzman	Bryce Makar & Deb Evaniuk	Rick & Gladys Derksen
Wes Palatnick