I’d like to invite you to sponsor me, as I run with my daughter Elyse in the Holland Park-2-Park Half Marathon on September 26, in support of children in Vietnam with HIV/AIDS.
Our family started on this Vietnam journey after a family visit in 2007. We began working with 17 children with HIV/AIDS in Ho Chi Minh City. Today we support over 98 children in three provinces and work with an amazing team of 25 volunteers who make up the “Warm Hold Association.”
Please get on our website and learn more about this very cool project and how your support last year has made a huge difference in the lives of many young children in very desperate situations.
http://danfishervn.wordpress.com
In February, I talked about my Vietnamese experiences during this year’s Season of Reconciliation at Hope Church. Links to that story are available on the Hope Church website.
Text: https://hopechurchrca.org///wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Witness-to-Reconciliation-020115.pdf
Audio: https://hopechurchrca.org///wp-content/uploads/2015/02/02012015-Witness-to-Reconciliation-audio.mp3
There are thousands of children in Vietnam who were born with HIV and are left orphaned as their parents die from AIDS. Being an orphan is hard enough by any measure. Being an orphan infected with HIV presents many additional challenges.
What can we do? Here is just one example of how the Warm Hold Association Team is changing the lives of children with HIV/AIDS.
Phuoc is a 4-year-old boy with HIV. Phuoc’s father died of AIDS in 2012, and his mother abandoned him. His grandmother, Thi Toi, who is 63 years old, has taken on the challenge of raising a young child with HIV, and works hard to sell lottery tickets on the streets to support her grandson and herself.
In January, I first met Phuoc and his grandmother, who at that time had a serious snakebite on her hand. It was not a pretty sight. They were living in a terribly unsafe and dilapidated shack. The Warm Hold team, in cooperation with the local government and a local donor, built them a new house providing a safe and healthier living environment, and providing hope for an improved life (see photos).
Learn more about this project and many other important initiatives we have recently completed or that are now in progress.
And if you get a chance, come cheer for Elyse and me on Sept. 26 at the Holland Park-2-Park Half Marathon. You can sponsor us on our run though the website:
http://danfishervn.wordpress.com
All donations will go directly in support of children in Vietnam with HIV/AIDS. Join us and help change the lives of some very special children.
Thank you for your encouragement, caring and support.
Peace to all.
Dan Fisher