A little heart continues to beat thanks to the Charity Teacher Trivia Night organised by the UNIS Hanoi Social Committee.

The mission of the Social Committee is to spread happiness and build a strong community both among UNIS Hanoi faculty and staff as well as within the larger international teaching community in Hanoi. Organised by the Committee since 2018, Charity Trivia Night has been popular with many who joined for fun while also helping to raise funds and awareness for good causes.

The Trivia Night in February was organised by Carolyn Jeziorski, UNIS Hanoi’s Elementary Librarian. It was an inter-school charity pub quiz that saw over 100 participants from five international schools compete in a battle of wits. The participants chose to share their Valentine’s Day love with Heartbeat Vietnam, an organisation that helps low-income families fund heart surgeries. 22,200,000 VND was raised from this successful event, and the donation was made in February by Brycen Davis, the Social Committee chair.

Heartbeat Vietnam immediately allocated the funds to save Nha Uyen, a 6-month-old baby girl who had her heart surgery on 10 March, 2023, at the Cardiovascular Centre in E hospital in Hanoi.

Like the other children that Heartbeat Vietnam helps in 63 provinces of Vietnam, baby Uyen’s family in Da Nang were unable to cope with the financial burden of heart surgery. When she was just over 1 month old, she was found to have a congenital heart defect. Her parents brought her to the Danang Hospital for Women and Children for examination, but sadly, she was too underweight to have open heart surgery. Her defect worsened within a short period of time and she was referred to a higher-level hospital, the Cardiovascular Centre at E Hospital in Hanoi, for an immediate surgery that costs 3,800 USD. Uyen’s family is living in a rented house on her father’s earnings of 171 USD per month, which is the family’s sole income. Daily living expenses are already a financial burden for the family, let alone the huge surgery costs that they couldn’t afford. 

Thanks to the donation from UNIS Hanoi’s Trivia Night, national medical insurance, and other matching funds from Heartbeat Vietnam, Nha Uyen had a successful surgery on 10 March and is now recovering in the hospital.

Mr Davis and Mr Mack paid Uyen and her mum a visit last week in the hospital. “It was such a wonderful way to celebrate our first inter-school charity event post-COVID”, said Mr Davis.

The UNIS Hanoi Social Committee would like to thank teachers from BIS Hanoi, Concordia, HIS, St. Paul and UNIS Hanoi for contributing to this meaningful event. A big thank you also goes to the businesses that donated prizes for the raffle, including Furbrew/ Garden, Simple Coffee, Pace Kickboxing and Fitness, Eastern & Oriental Tea House, Gather, iVegan, Naco Taco, Turtle Lake, Red Apron. Together, we saved a life!

 The UNIS Hanoi Social Committee is planning a final teacher trivia night in May, with proceeds going to one of the animal charities, and we hope to see many of you there.