Dear [member_name_first],

All over Vietnam, where I'm writing this from right now, families are preparing for the biggest holiday of the year, Tet, which will take place this weekend on February 18. The celebration of Tet, or Lunar New Year, is a time for families to celebrate new beginnings while at the same time honoring the past.

In California, EMW is also celebrating the upcoming holiday. We will be hosting a Tet reception on March 11 at iTapas Restaurant & Wine Bar, a new restaurant in Palo Alto by John Hung Le, the highly-regarded chef of the Three Seasons restaurants (click on invitation at right for more information). We also sponsored and hosted a booth at this past weekend's Santa Clara County Tet Festival, the largest Tet festival in the world outside of Vietnam. There, EMW staff raised several hundred dollars from generous supporters for EMW programs and, just as important, met hundreds of people at the event. We hope that many of these new friends will be interested in getting involved in the work we do in Vietnam.

Speaking of our work, our feature this month is the Breath of Life program, EMW's initiative to save the lives of premature infants in Vietnam. I'm especially pleased to announce the launch of a new DVD about the program, a moving look at the babies and parents helped by Breath of Life. Sign up on our website to receive a free copy of the DVD (see details below).

Best wishes for a happy and healthy Year of the Pig and thank you for all the support you continue to give to East Meets West and the people of Vietnam.

Best regards,

John Anner
Executive Director

Breath of Life Program to Expand in 2007 to save more Premature Lives

EMW's Breath of Life program provides hospitals in Vietnam with vital equipment and training to save the lives of premature infants in Vietnam. With the help of our partner International Child Assistance Network, EMW plans to expand the program this year to southern Vietnam, where we will also provide more training to doctors and nurses in neonatal wards to use the machinery that will save the lives of the newborns in their care.

Find out more on the program on our website including a report by Dr. Stephen Ringer, Chief of Newborn Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. A year ago, Dr. Ringer traveled with EMW to Vietnam to study the Breath of Life's pilot program. Read his report on the potential impact of the program to reduce infant mortality in Vietnam.

EMW has also just finalized a new movie about Breath of Life, a powerful 20-minute professionally-filmed documentary that is currently available for free to anyone requesting one on our website.

More about Breath of Life.

Dr. Steven Ringer's article "The Case for CPAP in Vietnam."

Order the Breath of Life DVD.

EMW Welcomes New
Board Members

EMW is proud to announce the appointment of Tom Low and Steve Reynolds to the Board of Directors. Tom has a background in finance, including serving as the former CFO of Restoration Hardware and a number of internet companies and is currently a partner in an executive search firm specializing in placing high-level financial staff. Tom is active in a number of EMW programs and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Joe, is on the Operation Healthy Heart advisory board. Steve was formerly a partner at General Atlantic LLC, a private equity firm based in Greenwich, CT and before that with Peat Marwick Mitchell (today KPMG) in New York City. Together with his wife, Dr. Susan Wolf, Steve has been a long-time supporter of EMW's Tien Phuoc Orphanage in central Vietnam.

Read board bios and meet all EMW board here.

EMW: A Sponsor at San Francisco Asian American Film Festival

East Meets West is proud to co-present the Vietnam Film Series for the 25th Anniversary of the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival to be held in the San Francisco Bay Area March 15 - 27, 2007. This year’s Vietnam Film Series includes five programs, encompassing diversity in filmmaking – a thoughtful, dramatic portrait of modern Vietnam, a documentary depicting the experience of boat people escaping persecution from Vietnam, two perspectives on the legacy of war and its effects on Vietnamese American families, and a comedy by an Australian Vietnamese director.

For a complete description of films and screenings, visit the SFIAAFF website.