VietBlog

From our master’s of Public Health classmate Nnenna:

Visiting the social service agencies in this country has been an enlightening experience. The first agency we visited was a school for children who lost their parents as a result of the tragic circumstances of the hardships of life in that particular community in HMC (Ho Chi Minh City).

It was amazing to see how resilient and cheerful the children were despite the lose of their parents and the environment they were surrounded by. The children seemed to be very bright, and they loved to sing for classroom visitors, like our group.

After visiting with the children, we sat down to listen to the director of the school to learn more about the mission and humble beginnings of the agency. While listening to the presentation given by the director, I become distracted by the wonderful art that the children had drawn depicting various public health issues.

The children artfully captured a sense of both sadness and optimism with the stroke of a crayon; with depictions of different sciences in bright pinks, blues, yellows, and greens. I was very happy to see that the school chose to educate their students on public health issues that are prevalent in their community.

I was even more delighted to find out that the agency also sponsored health education sessions for the community too. I was in a state of public health nirvana at that moment. I am excited to experience the next few weeks in Vietnam.

Update:
Here’s a poster drawn by a student at the school we visited (thanks to Jay Dryer for the pic):