Annual Report 2010

 

 

Developments in 2010

The Mai Tam House of Hope started with just 5 orphans.  In 2010 the number of people that Mai Tam served expanded by 29.5% from 2009 to 516 individuals, a response to the critical needs of the community. (See Tables 1 and 2, for the number of women and children served by Mai Tam compared to 2009.)

In 2010 the Center served 516 widows/mothers, orphans and affected children.  Of these, 76 orphans and 21 widows/mothers reside at the Center.  There are another 58 widows/mothers and 361 children receiving Mai Tam care and support within the community.

Mai Tam reached a significant milestone this year: no children registered in the program died. This is significant indeed and a wonderful tribute to the workers in the program. With all good news, there has to be some sad news. One mother living in the Center passed away from medical complications (1.27% mortality rate).

 

Donations

While the total number of donors increased in 2010, overall donations decreased significantly. We did not expect to match year 2009 when we received a very special donation from Vancouver, Canada, but through your generosity we were able to generate some $16,500 in donations in 2010 (vs. $46,000 in 2009 and $9,356 in 2008).  Some $3500 of late arriving donations/pledges will be in the kitty for distribution in early 2011. 

Overall we had 45 identified donors and several anonymous donors. Gifts donated by one wedding party continued to come in.

Our donor base has expanded numerically and geographically, with donors from as far away as Queensland Australia, which has recently had its own fill of suffering. We also received donations from Massachusetts, New Mexico, California, Texas, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and the University of Wisconsin, some of these through the miracle of the internet.  Individuals also organized fundraisers such as a Spring 5 mile walk/run at the University of Massachusetts, Boston sponsored by Veterans for Peace, a similar walk/run at the University of Wisconsin, and a social fund raiser in San Jose, California.

Your donations have allowed us to help meet the Mai Tam House of Hope Project’s goals of providing life-saving drugs, food, and now shelter education and job training to the orphans and widowed mothers.  

As we have noted before, Director John Toai runs a separate hospice for severely ill adult AIDS patients.  While we do not solicit funds for the hospice, some donors have requested that their donations be used for the work at this facility.

 

 

Other News

• Volunteers

Via our website (maitamhouseofhope.com), several individuals have contacted us to volunteer at the Center. We need to strengthen our response to volunteer requests as we do not have a program in place to take advantage of volunteers and the Center’s needs can only be determined by those in Vietnam. Additionally many requests came in when the Director was on a 3 month mandated sabbatical in Italy. The Vietnam Health Project- Bicycling to Independence, a University of Wisconsin initiative, is currently seeking funding for a volunteer program for this summer to develop strategies to improve the mental health of HIV/AIDS positive women and children in Vietnam.

• Media

The Mai Tam House of Hope was featured in an article in the National Catholic Reporter, June 15, 2010: “For children and mothers a house of hope” by Matt Kelly, with beautiful photographs. Matt is a professional photographer.

John Toai the director was featured in an Italian journal Combonifem, mondo donne missione, February 2010: “Infanziae HIV terapia impossible?  I piccoli di Padre John.”

 

Looking Ahead

We are now into the 5th year of our so-called “micro project.” Those who joined at the beginning have pledged for the total five years. We are sure none of us expected to see this overwhelming demand for services when we started with 5 orphans to support, or could we imagine the excellence of care of the project leaders in Saigon or the outpouring of generosity for these little innocents in a far off land. Come this summer we will need to review our options for the future and our abilities to continue the funding efforts, as the micro project’s five year commitment will be completed at the end of 2011.

On the Internet

Here are some websites to visit that comment on Mai Tam. You can see how many individuals are impressed with the Center’s work. You can Google “Mai Tam” and there are many references now to view:

Pictures of Christmas at Mai Tam

• http://www.vnyoga.com/photo-gallery/santa-clause-to-mai-tam-house-of-hope---dec-2010

Hope for Tomorrow

• http://www.my-hope.org/
• http://www.my-hope.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19&Itemid=24

Christmas for Breakfast

• http://christmasforbreakfast.org/ourwork.htmlh

Global Community Service

• www.globalcommunityservice.org

 “Children From Mai Tam HIV/AIDS Shelter Celebrate the Holidays,” US Consulate (Ho Chi Minh)           

• http://hochiminh.usconsulate.gov/highlights/12/14.html

Foundation for the Children of Vietnam

• http://childrenvietnam.org/225/mai-tam-center-for-hiv-children/

Vatican Radio coverage of Mai Tam

• http://castroller.com/podcasts/VaticanRadio/1352420

This site describes a young person’s (‘Princess Towel’) dramatic feelings when she visited the Mai Tam House of Hope Center:

• http://princesstowel.xanga.com/673896328/item/

Beautran’s Weblog beautran.worldpress.com

• http://www.vnyoga.com/photo-gallery/santa-clause-to-mai-tam-house-of-hope---dec-2010

 

OTHER OUTCOMES/UNEXPECTED OUTCOMES--POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE

• Another two fundraisers took place in Arlington, Virginia. We provided moral support for these groups.

• Tables 1 and 2 provide information on basic social support/health indicators for the mothers and children supported by Mai Tam

 

 

Table 1.  Social/health indicators for HIV/AIDS widows/mothers receiving support in Mai Tam, 2009 and 2010

 

Table 2. Social/health indicators of orphan children infected and affected with HIV, receiving support in Mai Tam, 2009 and 2010

No.	Indicator	4th QUARTER 2009	4th QUARTER 2010
1	Number of children receiving support in Mai Tam	350	437
2	Number of children sheltered in Mai Tam	67	76
3	Number of boys	27	29
4	Number of girls	40	47
5	New registered children	4	18
6	New boys	1	8
7	New girls	3	10
8	Number of children returned to community	1	7
9	Number of children died	2	0
10	Number of children in community receiving support	283	341
11	Number of boys in community	144	160
12	Number of girls in community	118	157
13	New children registered in community	21	75
14	New boys	10	27
15	New girls	11	48
16	Children died in community	0	1
17	Number of children receiving medical support	317	-
18	Number of children receiving school support	120	255
19	Number of children receiving hospital and medical care support	116	347
20	Number of children supported with shelter and care	91	98
21	Number of children receiving psycho-social support	64	381
22	Children receiving legal support	64	78
23	Number of children living with AIDS	149	200
24	Number of children affected by AIDS	193	237
25	Children not yet confirmed HIV status	8	16
26	Number of children lost to contact	5	16
27	Number of children returned after losing contact	0	1
28	Number of children have been helped to register at HIV clinics	141	201
29	Number of children receiving ARV Drugs	126	183
30	Number of children receiving prophylactic  Cotrim	6	122