AFT was approached by Dr Nguyen Nguyen, the WA Representative on behalf of the AusViet Charity Foundation. This foundation is a non-profit charity established in 2015 by a number of Australian professionals who want to serve the community by bringing hope and health to disadvantaged people in Australia and Vietnam. Their mission goals are:
- Support Australian communities especially during major disasters,
- Provide assistance in Vietnam during natural disasters,
- Provide health education to Vietnamese people, and
- One annual charity trip to Vietnam to provide medical and dental care and humanitarian aid to disadvantaged villages.
Their annual Vietnam mission trip takes place in July-August of each year and in 2018 they went to Tra Cu (about 150km south of Ho Chi Minh City) in southern Vietnam. The population of Tra Cu is about 200 000, and over 80% of families are classified as poor.
While there, they:
- Conducted 1000 general medical examinations, which included providing education, doing basic investigations such as blood tests and ultrasounds, distribution of medications where appropriate and referrals where necessary.
- Conducted 1000 dental assessments, mainly on children and provided dental care, education and treatment where possible.
- Performed 100 cataract surgeries to restore vision.
- Distributed 1000 school gift packs for poor children, which included notebooks, pens, carry bags and other stationary.
- Distributed 300 food parcels for poor families in the region.
All these services were provided completely free and were carried out by qualified Australian health professionals in collaboration with local Vietnamese health professionals.
AFT supplied them with the following products:
- Allersoothe (Promethazine) 10mg
- Candacort Cream (Hydrocortisone + clotrimazole) 30g
- Calci-Tab 600mg
- Ferro-Tab
- Lax-Tab (Bisacodyl) 5mg
