In close cooperation with our sister club, Rotary Club Saigon, we have arranged for over one hundred wheelchairs to be received and distributed to individuals in need. The effort has been coordinated by The Projects and Services Committee.The wheelchairs were bequeathed to Vietnam by a lady called Nancy as a legacy gift, and the gifting was coordinated by Mr Frank Yih of the Hua Qiao Foundation, based in Shanghai. Frank Yih established HuaQiao Foundation with a group of warm-hearted overseas Chinese with the purpose of paying back to motherland. HuaQiao (华桥), representing building the bridge of communication between overseas Chinese and domestic Chinese, is the homonym of Huaqiao (华侨) which means “overseas Chinese”. HuaQiao mainly provides humanitarian assistance to underdeveloped areas in East Asia, focusing on education, health, and public welfare.
Ms Nancy's gift will initially give mobility and freedom to almost 400 people in Ho Chi Minh City and Khanh Hoa. A second container with a similar number of chairs is expected to arrive in the coming weeks.