Private Jet !

My first month here in Vietnam has gone fast. It's been a month packed with travel, training and a little fun. In 4 short weeks I have traveled to more provinces in Vietnam than most Vietnamese will see in a lifetime.

As I mentioned in my previous post, our focus has been on training the local medical staff in the local provinces to identify candidates in their communities who would benefit from our program and to follow-up with children we did surgery on last year to ensure positive outcomes for the patients. The first few weeks our training was focused on Northern Vietnam.image.png: 8 provinces approx 150 miles (6-8 hours travel time) North of Hanoi. Most on the border with China or Laos. The past week our travels took us to Central Vietnam image.png 5 provinces South of Hanoi down to Quang Tri province. Quang Tri province is approx 375 miles south of Hanoi. DMZ: Quang Binh and Quang Tri provinces play a key role in Vietnam's history. This was the dividing line between North and South Vietnam. Quang Binh North Vietnam, Quan Tri South Vietnam from 1954-1976. During the war this area was called the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). Despite the name the DMZ became one of the most heavily militarized areas and intense battle fields during the Vietnam War. In the coming weeks we will continue our training sessions for a number of provinces in Northern and Central Vietnam. All indications are that our new screening/training model has been effective. Province and District level staff are identifying and referring children for surgery in the coming months. Here are a few photo's of province level training sessions from last week.