Dear EMW Friends and Supporters,

One month ago, Typhoon Xangsane slammed into central Vietnam and the city of Danang, where EMW is headquartered and where many of our programs are located. The local government estimates that at least 14,000 people in Danang lost their homes and many schools and other community buildings were badly damaged.

Thanks to the support of hundreds of EMW individual and organizational donors, including the American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi and The Boeing Company, we have raised tens of thousands of dollars in typhoon-related funds which will be used to help people and communities get back on their feet after Typhoon Xangsane. The funds will go towards replacing or repairing homes, schools, water systems and other buildings.

Typhoons are a fact of life in central Vietnam, although few are as dangerous as Xangsane. The best way to manage these disasters, says EMW Country Director Mark Conroy, is to be prepared for them in the first place. “EMW is not a humanitarian relief organization,” he says. “But we can help people deal with these storms by making sure they have strong houses and well-built schools (like the one in Quang Nam province, shown above) that won’t suffer much damage in a big storm."

Thank you all for the supoort you provided during this time of crisis in central Vietnam and the support you continue to provide to our work in Vietnam. Read below about our current happenings at EMW and as always, thank you for supporting East Meets West and our mission.

Regards,

John Anner
Executive Director

New USAID project in Kon Tum province

East Meets West is proud to announce that it has received a grant of over $500,000 from USAID to build a large boarding school for ethnic minority middle-school children in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum.

The school will serve 250 children from the district in which it is located, and will include vocational training workshops, teacher dormitories, a cafeteria and a demonstration farm with animal husbandry facilities. This will be EMW’s first project in Kon Tum, although a few years ago EMW staff built an ethnic minority boarding school in Quang Nam, which borders Kon Tum to the north.

Bookmark this page for continuing information about our school building program in Vietnam.

Messer Foundation equipment donation to Viet Duc Hospital Pediatric program in Hanoi

EMW's Director of Development in Vietnam, Robin King Austin, reports "The Messer Foundation has become a major partner in our efforts to work with the Vietnamese medical system to improve capacity and care. This is the third major donation from Messer, and each of the donations will have a significant effect on the hospital's ability to save more children... (This donation) will help in our efforts to increase capacity of the cardiac unit."

Read full Messer press release/report here.

President Bush in Vietnam

President Bush will be visiting Vietnam in mid-November with a huge delegation of over 1,200 people. He will be there to attend a meeting of Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). It is expected that he will meet with both Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, and visit Ho Chi Minh City as well as Hanoi. These state visits are often used as a platform for significant official statements, so stay tuned for a potentially interesting announcement or change in US policy towards Vietnam.

Read full APEC information and schedule here.

Latest Issue of Reach Vietnam magazine Our third issue of Reach Vietnam is now out! Our Fall 2006 issue features a travel essay on Danang, an in-depth feature on our Village of Hope orphanage in Danang and all our regular updates and stories on EMW programs and supporters. Find out more about Reach Vietnam or subscribe today.	Vietnam Photographic Greeting Card Sets EMW original greeting cards inlcude a photographic series with beautiful and iconic imagery of Vietnam taken by professional photographers; illustrations from students at EMW's Village of Hope and our latest series with Vietnamese recipes inside the card. Proceeds support our program work in Vietnam. Find out more about our greeting card series/order yours today.

You can donate directly to EMW online today—simply click below.

The mission of the East Meets West Foundation is to partner with the people of
Vietnam to build a peaceful and prosperous future.

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