Tag: Human Trafficking

Saturday October 17, 2009
1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Cal State Fullerton – Garden Grove Campus
Garden Grove, CA 92840

The event is free to all VA NGO Network member organizations, their volunteers, and individuals interested in humanitarian work in Vietnam.

Session 1: A Continual Discussion on Human Trafficking
1:00 p.m. –  2:30 p.m.
Moderator: Vi Nguyen
Panelists: Current VA NGO Network Human Trafficking Challenge Grant Recipients

For organizations and individuals who are already working or planning to implement new anti-Human Trafficking project, you are cordially invited and encouraged to attend this continual discussion on the topic of trafficking of human beings. Your inputs will be invaluable to this process and will allow us to have better and collaborative strategies to work on this daunting issue in Vietnam. Current grant recipients will provide updates from their organizations on Human Trafficking activities, assess strengths and potential areas for improvements, and discuss VANGO Network’s facilitated trainings and assistance on collaborative activities. The session’s goal is to reach the next steps for current recipient organizations, extend collaborations on Human Trafficking, and invite all VANGO organizations proposing new work on Human Trafficking.

Session 2: Public Relations & Fundraising for Your Organizations
3:00 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.
Presenters:
Penny LeGate, Television News Anchor, KIRO (CBS), Seattle
Son Michael Pham, Founder of Kids Without Borders / Past President Rotary Club Seattle
Binh Rybacki, Founder, Children of Peace International

Working with the media. Getting your messages out to the public, to other organizations and foundations. Connecting with Rotary International to partner with your organization. Working with youth groups to fundraise for your cause. Panelists will be sharing their work to help you to with practical strategies to market your organization and grow your donor bases.

Session 3: Capacity Building Workshop: Networking opportunities and fostering collaboration
among members
4:45 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Presenter: VA NGO Network Program Committee

Over the past several years, VA NGOs have become more interested in strengthening the programs of our organizations through development activities in Vietnam. There are several members joining efforts in our Capacity Building workshops. We have been successfully organizing these workshops for the last three years in Hue, Hanoi, Quang Nam, HCMC and Vinh Long, and over 650 people attended these hand-on workshops with a diverse topics from social work, child development to communication skills. A video presentation of the successful Capacity Building Workshops will be shared our common concerns: How to make better use of limited resources and how to stay on course and reach established program goals.

Session 4: An Evening with Friends, Home Tour and Phở
5:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Where: Drs. Chan and Quynh Kieu Residence, Santa Ana, CA

Please come share an evening of beautiful friendship – Một buổi chuyện trò. Enjoy a piping hot bowl of Phở from Xe Phở cart, walk through an antique 150+yrs old traditional Vietnamese house and garden. Learn its history and furnishing and enjoy some light music entertainment.

About our Presenters:
PENNY LEGATE
Versatility and experience may be the best words to describe Penny LeGate, who has climbed mountains, traveled remote roads of Africa, and gone scuba diving with sharks to get the news. Known as a daring storyteller with a heart, she can be seen regularly anchoring Seattle Eyewitness News. Penny’s broadcasting career spans 30 years and includes hosting, reporting and producing for both television and radio. With a popular local television presence, her many honors include an Emmy award for writing, hosting, and producing a documentary on Springer, the orphaned orca captured in Puget Sound and returned o her pod in Canada. Penny also won an Emmy for her work as host of “Evening Magazine” as well as numerous other nominations for producing and writing. An active participant in many local charities, Penny feels strongly connected to causes devoted to children, animals, and the environment. Among her contributions, Penny created a fundraiser called “Tuxes & Tails” for the Humane Society, which has raised more than 3-million dollars. Every year since 2002, Penny has traveled to Ethiopia at the invitation of Rotary International, raising awareness of various global health issues, including the ongoing battle to eradicate polio. As a result, Rotary has awarded Penny the prestigious Paul Harris fellowship five times for her humanitarian work in Africa. She feels privileged that her gritty experiences in remote places have helped open her eyes to the suffering and needs of others. In recent years, Penny has traveled to Ghana, Ethiopia, Bolivia, Ugandan, India, Nepal and Vietnam on charitable missions and is sponsoring children in three developing nations.

SON MICHAEL PHAM
On the last day of the war, Son Michael Pham left Viet Nam as a refugee. He and his family started their lives in the U.S with nothing except the generosity and care of community and church members in Chicago. A natural volunteer, Son Michael Pham served others in the refugee camp, and continued to serve others as he worked his way to become a successful business person. A proud member of Rotary International, Son Michael lives his life according to the organization’s motto – “Service Above Self.” So, for most of his life, Son Michael has tirelessly championed causes for children. Long before he founded Kids Without Borders, Son Michael had a vision of an “all kids, one world” world one day. He inspires and encourages children to give of themselves through service to others in their communities and worldwide. He believes strongly that by involving children in helping other children, they will recognize more similarities than differences in each other. Kids Without Borders was launched as a school service projects for students to sort clothes and donated items for children in the community. Today, the organization supports children in more than 26 countries, attracting volunteers worldwide, providing opportunities for youth, benefiting and changing thousands of lives around the world. Son Michael is actively involved in many service agencies and has held many leadership roles within the nonprofit community. He spent more than twenty years in the hospitality industry. Currently, Son Michael is leading two companies in business development.

BÌNH NGUYỄN RYBACKI
Bình Nguyễn Rybacki left Vietnam with her family on April 30,1975 when the American government evacuated them in the last days before the fall of Saigon to the Communist troops. Binh finished her education at Colorado State University and worked for Hewlett-Packard for 25 years as an engineer. In 1993, Binh returned to Vietnam to locate the rest of her family and to make peace with her home country. She found children working as street peddlers, beggars, and prostitutes. Unable to leave things as she found them, Binh and her husband, Jack began Children of Peace International in 1993 to help improve the lives of these kids. Over the next years her commitment and organization grew. Binh is active in Denver Vietnamese community.  She has converted her parents’ house into a €œrelief center for new Vietnamese settlers or Vietnamese families in crisis. The house will help the new comers to settle as they find jobs and permanent housing. Families in conflict or crisis can also stay at the house until a better solution is ready. Since 1982, this house had served over 40 families and individuals. In 2002, Kiwanis International awarded Binh the World Service Medal Award for her work in Vietnam. Past winners were Mother Teresa, Katherine Hepburn, Mrs. Rosaline Carter, Mrs. Nancy Reagan to name a few. Binh used her award money to operate the Pediatric HIV Center in Saigon for one full year. Children of Peace International is a subject for the soon-to be- released A Necessary Journey documentary. You can view the trailer on www.aneccessaryjourneymovie.com Binh and her husband Jack are proud parents of Preston and his wife Shannon (both teaching at ILA in Saigon and volunteering for COPI as its In-Country Representative and Program Director) and Spencer (Junior at Colorado University in Denver). The Rybackis live in Loveland, Colorado.

An Giang University, May 26 – June 11, 2008

For the third consecutive summer, the VA NGO Network has joined hands with the collaboration among An Giang University, West Virginia University, Southeast Asia Children’s Project and Pacific Links Foundation to bring to the field another set of workshops on social work skills. The highlight for this year’s series includes presentations by Prof. Nguyen Thi Oanh and other seasoned social work lecturers in Vietnam, alongside with 5 faculty members from West Virginia University. This year’s workshops will focus on:
1. Principles of Working with Children and Adolescents;
2. Community, Family and Individual Issues Related to traumatic experiences;
3. Understanding the psychosocial impact of physical illness