Uyen Nguyen is on the Board of the Friends of Hue Foundation, an EMW partner working with Operation Healthy Heart on its life-saving mission to save children in Vietnam with serious heart disease.

What follows is an interview with Uyen conducted by Laura Ward, OHH Marketing Advisor, regarding Uyen's involvement with the OHH program.

Q: What is the mission of the Friends of the Hue Foundation, and why are you involved on its Board?

Uyen: The mission of FHF is to provide long-term assistance in economic self-sufficiency, health care, education and emergency relief for victims of natural disasters in Thua Thien Hue and nearby areas in Central Vietnam.

When I first moved to the Bay Area from Santa Barbara, a friend of mine from my college days, who's currently also on FHF Board, invited me to one of their meetings. She knew that I have always enjoyed doing charity work and thought I might be interested in joining this group. FHF is a very small organization--much smaller than American Cancer Society, the charity that I used to help with--but I was very impressed by the dedication, devotion, and drive behind the founders and Board members. People like Bac Huu, Co Lieu, and Dr Freeman (the founders) were very inspirational. They all were very successful in their respective careers, and all have officially "retired" but they continued to spend hours and hours of their days helping others. When I look at them, I see true kindness. For them, it's never about getting their names in the paper or getting recognition for their charitable work--it's always about the people that need their help the most. They have so much experience in doing charitable work that I felt I could learn a lot from them. But frankly, I was totally surprised when they asked me to join the Board. I felt like I was still very young--25 to be exact--and that I wouldn't have much to contribute. I have been on the Board for 6 years now and this is by far my proudest "job".

Q. What were the life experiences that motivated you to become so committed and involved with charity work?

Uyen: I think what motivated to do charitable work breaks down into two components: the people that have inspired me and the experiences I went through. The main driver has always been my parents. Both my parents, and my grandparents, have adopted children. I used to hear stories about my adopted sister when I was growing up (she passed away shortly after I was born). My Mom and Dad also used to help out our relatives all the time by letting them stay at our house for an extended period of time. The house was always like a zoo, with a bunch of people coming in and out. I didn't think much of any of these things while growing up but as I got older, I came to really respect my parents for their kindness and their open mindedness.

Also, when I was 10, my Mom, my aunt, my three siblings and I left on a boat to escape Vietnam. Sadly, my Mom and my two younger siblings passed away at sea and my brother, who was only 5 years older, and I barely survived. After a month at sea, we were rescued by a Filipino fishing boat and brought to refugee camps in the Philippines, where we stayed for over a year before coming to the States. During my time in the refugee camp, I didn't give much thought to the social workers that were helping us. As I get older, I came to realize how people like that have helped me with my life. That experience made me I want to return the favor by doing something that they would do themselves--help others.

Q. Can you share with me details of your experience on the boat trying to get to America?

Uyen: I was so naive but given that I was only 10, this was expected. I thought we were going to get a big ship and cruise right on to America. Alas, our escape vehicle was a dilapidated wooden fishing boat that died at sea after only 3 days. There were 31 people on the boat but 10 died--three of whom were my Mom, my younger brother and sister. By far, the hardest thing for me to get over is the fact that I couldn't cry when my younger brother, who was my best friend growing up, died. I had such a happy childhood up until this point that I was in shock after my younger sister passed away; the reality of him dying several days later was too much for me to absorb. I am still amazed at how one event could cause such a dramatic change to my family.  

Q. How did you cope with the loss of your mother, little brother and sister; in addition to leaving your father and another brother behind in Vietnam?   What was it like for you in the refugee camp in the Philippines?

Uyen: This question has always been hard for me to answer. On the one hand, I was roaming about the refugee camp climbing coconut trees and playing on the beach with my friend, Linh, and enjoying my life like any other 10-year-old. On the other, I would sit on the seashore ledge at night waiting for my Mom and brother and sister to re-emerge from the ocean. I know it sounds loony but I used to do that. I loved to read so I used to go to this library in the camp that was next to the beach. After reading, I would go sit by the ledge and look out at the ocean hoping my family would re-emerge.

Q. How did you adjust to life in America?   

Uyen: As for life after coming to the States: I was the only Vietnamese student in my entire school so I learned to adapt to the US culture very quickly. Again, there was the one side of me that was a very typical, happy kid--I played on the softball team, was on student council, do whatever else that your typical American kid would do; and was even awarded "Citizen of the Year" at 8th grade graduation, which I thought was a little hilarious since a "Citizen" award was giving to a student labeled as a Resident Alien, on her green card. Then there's the other side of me where I knew I was a bit different from everyone else. I can't describe it but I was very close to my Mom and the rest of my family so losing them was just by far the most painful thing I've ever experienced. I would never wish it upon anyone.

Q.Who and/or what motivated you to excel in your studies and education?

Uyen: I think people would expect me to say that what I went through motivated me in my studies and education. The reality is that I don't think I even attempted to make a conscious connection between the two until I was a sophomore in college. Prior to that, I was just happy-go-lucky in learning about anything and everything that was given to me. I am a perennial nerd and a dreamer! I used to wish that I could afford a set of encyclopedias--and I still do!--and I loved geography, science and art. Thus, learning was always fun so I never felt like I had to motivate myself. It just came naturally since I got a kick out of it. 

When I got to college, I think the reality of not having my family around really hit home. During the holiday season, when my friends would go home and my older brother was in another city, and I was often by myself in the mostly-empty college town. That was when the reality of my life really kicked in and it made concentrating on school especially hard. It was the first time in my life when I actually failed a class! I missed my Dad and my younger brother, and of course the other family members that passed away, terribly. That summer, I charged a flight to Vietnam on my credit card (am still thankful to our lenient credit card system!) and went back to Vietnam for a month. That was the first time that I saw my Dad and my younger brother after leaving Vietnam 10 years earlier. I think sometime during that time in Vietnam was when I realized how lucky I was to have this opportunity that my Mom died for. After that trip, I made a conscious decision to excel in my studies.  I now smile when I think of the days when my Dad would punish me for playing too much Monopoly and not doing my homework on time!  I finally understood everything my Mom and Dad did for us to give us a bright future--even in the form of punishing me for wanting to purchase Broadway Street and the Railroads before doing my math homework!

Q. Along with your work with the Friends of the Hue Foundation, what is the career path you've chosen?

Uyen: I honestly don't think I've ever actively tried to map out a career path but I think it chosen me. I just select jobs based on how excited I am about getting up in the morning for it and things just seemed to fall into place. If you asked me 10 years ago what I would be doing now, I wouldn't even come close to the right answer. I was always fascinated by biology so I studied Pharmacology as an undergrad and Biomedical Sciences as a grad student. I enjoyed the business side of things so I tended to take up jobs that are related to business development or business strategy but sometime the jobs seemed so tangential to each other that I wondered where they would get me--seriously. While I was in business school, a venture capitalist thought I might enjoy working in a VC firm since I love learning about science and enjoy working with people 20 times smarter than me so I went to do an internship at the firm he worked in. Shortly before I graduated from business school, I was lucky again and was given an opportunity to do private equity investing for the state government, specializing in healthcare investment and emerging markets.  Since our organization is one of the largest private equity investors in the world, we get to see lots of deals, and lots of innovation and talents springing up all around the world. It's very exciting.   

Q. For someone who has experienced so much challenge in life at such a young life, you seem so grounded and together.  What do you credit this to?

Uyen: Thank you for the kind words. I don't know if I am all that grounded or together but thank you. I think it's due to my family, and especially to my Dad. He lost his mom when he was only 3 and his Dad when he was only 9. He basically raised himself by working through random jobs. I didn't realize until I was 20 that he didn't get to go to school until he was 11. He said he was so embarrassed about being the oldest kid in his first-grade class. He did very well and was able to skip one or two grades every other year to catch up. I remember at the end of 6th grade, when I was living in the States, the principal of my school asked me if I wanted to skip 7th grade. I wrote back to Vietnam to ask for my Dad's opinion, but because of the delay in mail, I decided to make the decision to skip without his approval. It turned out he didn't want me to skip and was in fact very upset that I did so. I didn't understand why until I was 20 that he didn't want me to skip because he didn't want me to be missing out on any part of my childhood. He said he had to skip grades to catch up, but would rather have me enjoy being a kid.

Also, my Dad lost 5 children (along with my 2 siblings who died at sea, my parents lost 3 children in infancy) and his wife by the time he was only 44, but to this day, he remains to be one of the most positive, optimistic, and together persons I've ever known. He is an inspiration to me and my brothers and to all my friends too. Even though I went through a lot relative to some people I know, he went through much more adversity than I but he's still a shining star. I love that about him and I really don't know how he does it.

Q. You must have a tremendous empathy with those that are going thru tragedy and difficult circumstances.   Is that one reason why you connect with EMW's Operation Healthy Heart (OHH) program?  

Uyen: I do have a lot of empathy for people with difficulties, but I think that stems more from realizing how lucky I am. I realize that I am now in a position where if I do have children, I can afford to help them if they ever get sick. I think it must be painful for the parents of some of these kids with medical problems, such as the children with congenital heart failure, when they realize that their kids are sick but they can't afford to do much to help---the pain and despair they feel is unfathomable to me. Thus, even though I definitely can't move mountains even if I wanted to, I know I can improve one child's life at a time if I try hard enough. And I think that's all I am really going after with helping through FHF's and EMW's OHH programs.

Q. How has the Friends of the Hue Foundation assisted with OHH in the past, and what are it goals in supporting the OHH program in the future?

Uyen: We have treated congenital heart defect (CHD) cases in the past through our Corrective Surgery Program, but Friends of Hue tends to specialize in cases that are under $250 to treat, such as cleft palate, tumors, et cetera, so treating congenital heart defect has always been a one-off situation for us. We usually don't have the budget to do that many cases. I remember several years ago we identified a child with CHD when we were doing a mobile clinic in the remote areas of Hue and we wanted to treat this child. We didn't have the money to do so during that time and while I was doing fundraising to find donors to cover this case, the child died. It was such a heartbreaking situation for us. I am glad that EMW is undertaking this task to help children with serious heart disease because EMW, thru OHH, has larger bandwidth than we do and can do better outreach for this. I hope enough people will see how much they can change the lives of these children by donating to this cause. We, at FHF, are very happy and eager to collaborate with EMW in whatever we can to help with this effort.

Q. Are you looking forward to seeing our new Hue Cardiovascular Center?   When will you go?

Uyen: Yes, I am very excited to see it. I visited the Hue Medical Center back in 2000 to see post-operative patients from FHF's Corrective Surgery program and I was shocked at how old the medical equipments were. At the same time, I was amazed at how resourceful and skilled the physicians were since they were able to do so much with so little. However, I know if they had access to better equipment and facility, they could do even more to help the medical problems there. 

Thanks so much for your time and for sharing your story Uyen.  We are truly fortunate to have you working and helping us with our mission of saving the lives of as many children with serious heart disease in Vietnam as we can.