February 1, 2008

Dear [member_name_first],

Happy New Year!

February 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of East Meets West working in Vietnam. Twenty years ago, EMW was a dream in the mind of Le Ly Hayslip, who founded EMW to build a bridge of reconciliation between Vietnam and the U.S.

This month also marks the fifth anniversary of when EMW's Executive Director John Anner started at East Meets West. Last week in Hanoi, i, the Vietnam Union for Friendship Organization, the top government agency that manages international nongovernmental organizations in Vietnam, awarded John a medal for his leadership and invaluable contribution to Vietnam development over the last 5 years. We sincerely thank him for his greatest leadership to EMW's tremendous development so far. Congratulations

This year we and Thanks so much!

Best regards,

Peter Singer
Chairman
EMW Board of Directors

EMW Breaks Ground on NHP

To launch what promises to be the biggest project ever undertaken by the East Meets West Foundation, a groundbreaking ceremony was held on Sunday, January 6 at the National Hospital of Pediatrics (NHP) in Hanoi. The NHP is the largest pediatric care facility in the country, and the main referral facility for all of northern Vietnam.

With grants from Atlantic Philanthropies, East Meet West will re-build the entire medical campus. Demolition of some existing buildings has already begun. According to EMW Country Director Mark Conroy, the re-construction of the NHP will take around seven years and cost upwards of $40 million, with an equal amount for new medical equipment.

The NHP is also the training location and research lab for the Breath of Life program.

Irish Aid Fixes Children's Hearts

Irish Aid has announced a new grant to East Meets West, for $7,000 to provide heart surgeries to seven children in northern Vietnam. Most of these children will come from Thai Binh province, where East Meets West has a large program assisting people with disabilities funded by the Ford Foundation. Although Operation Healthy Heart is well established in central and southern Vietnam, it has been applied only sparingly in northern Vietnam, mostly in Thai Nguyen where EMW has a project office building parts of a medical university. Luciano Moccia, the new regional coordinator for OHH in northern Vietnam, will coordinate getting the children treated at hospitals in Hanoi (Thai Binh is on the coast, about two hours drive east from Hanoi.)

Irish Aid is the official development assistance agency of Ireland, and has become increasingly active in Vietnam in recent years. The new Irish Ambassador, Maeve Collins, recently met with East Meets West and expressed her desire for a deeper partnership with EMW. EMW staff hopes that this means more children in need of heart operations will get the help they need!

John Anner
Executive Director

On My Way to Work: Riding Motorbikes in Vietnam "...During rush hour, you can be cruising along a busy street trying to avoid colliding with the 25 other motorbikes sharing the lane with you and come upon any one of the following: A woman wrapped from head to toe, wearing plastic flip-flops, rolling an enormous hand-wheeled garbage cart; junior high-school boys in white shirts and little scarf-ties slowly riding four abreast; an old man in a pith helmet and cut-off shorts walking across the road in the middle of the street, one withered hand waving above his head in a vain attempt to attract attention...." Excerpt from the newest blog post from John Anner. Read full post.	Southwest Airlines and EMW Celebrate Partnership in Ho Chi Minh City EMW held a special recognition ceremony on Oct. 20 in Ho Chi Minh City for Southwest Airlines in recognition of their year-long support for EMW’s Operation Healthy Heart (OHH) program. Southwest Airlines campaign, Giving LUV, Saving Lives, has enabled EMW to redirect resources otherwise used for domestic airfare expenditures, in addition to helping with EMW’s efforts to fund at least 10 children’s heart surgeries in Vietnam. Read more about the event here. Read SWA representative Kim Delevett's blog entries about her recent trip to Vietnam to tour the OHH program.