Legacy Raised $15,000 for Vietnam Hospitals

Over the summer, Legacy, UNIS Hanoi’s new service-learning group, took action beyond Agent Orange. As global citizens, we felt that we had the responsibility to lend a hand to all of those in need. Legacy’s mission during the pandemic was to reach out to the local community, focusing our attention on regions heavily impacted by this coronavirus. We felt as though we were in a more able and fortunate position to help, which is why we created a campaign that would raise awareness and money for families and hospitals hit hard by COVID-19. We temporarily suspended all Agent Orange-related activities in order to initiation our COVID campaign, and until this pandemic has passed.

Our goal was to raise funds in order to provide frontline workers with the necessary resources to battle this virus, which included, but were not limited to: face masks and protective equipment. We believed that donating to these hospitals was the best alternative to our original plan. Not only would we be helping communities closer to home, but also made sure that existing donations were still going towards an important and anticipated cause. We have also provided masks and flat donations to less fortunate patients.

Firstly, we would like to thank all donors for the contributions you have made to our COVID-19 campaign. The money that we’ve raised, $15,000, has exceeded what we initially expected, and we only have you to thank for this. Originally, we planned for funds to go towards buying safety equipment, which would then be donated to hospitals in the United States. However, due to transportation restrictions, we were unable to execute such plans. Instead, we decided to focus our efforts on Quang Tri and Nghe An provinces. The reason that we chose these two regions is that they are not fully equipped to battle COVID-19, particularly being close to Da Nang, the place where the recent COVID-19 outbreak took place and also one of the poorest provinces in Vietnam. In addition to this, we found that these regions are often neglected – very rarely do they receive any support, which is especially needed with the high number of Agent Orange victims in the region.

During the trip, we visited five hospitals in the two provinces: Nghe An’s Children’s Hospital, Lung Hospital, and Cancer Hospital; Quang Tri Dong Ha Hospital, and Tuberculosis Hospital (Agent Orange and COVID-19 Treatment Centre). Below is the list of funds we donated to each hospital:

Nghe An Hospitals:

Cancer Hospital:

• • 50,000 surgical masks
  • 20 Million VND flat donation

Children’s Hospital:

• • 25,000 surgical masks
  • 20 Million VND flat donation

Lung Hospital:

• • 10,000 surgical masks
  • 20 Million VND flat donation

Quang Tri Hospitals:

Dong Ha Hospital and Tuberculosis Hospital (Agent Orange and COVID-19 Treatment Centre)

• • 30,000 surgical masks
  • 50 million VND flat donation