Lend A Hand Vietnamese Youth Organization, Inc., founded on November 23, 2003, is a non-profit organization developed based on the belief of providing healthcare and educational assistance for impoverished children in Vietnam. In addition, we provide many educational workshops for students from grade school to graduate school, healthcare drives and other beneficial community events in the Houston area. We fundraise through performing traditional lion/ dragon dances year round and host annual fundraising galas. With the annual Lend A Hand Gala attendance jumping from 430 in the first year to over 800 this past year, Lend A Hand has been on eight humanitarian aid trips in Vietnam and is the most trusted organization by the Vietnamese community in Houston to deliver fundraised proceeds for the impoverished without going through a third party.
Lend A Hand, Inc. consists of young, motivated and determined Vietnamese Americans who realize and understand the harsh realities of life in Vietnam and want to make a difference. The majority of the members are from the internationally acclaim Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions thus giving Lend A Hand a well known name throughout the Texas Medical Center, especially Baylor College of Medicine. According to the internationally acclaimed Dr. Charlesetta Deason, “Lend A Hand is a promising and impressive organization with a wonderful heart.” She has also claim that Lend A Hand’s Founder is her most “valuable investment” in her career. Mrs. Mai Khanh, Chief Executive Officer of Little Saigon Radio has said “I put trust in Lend A Hand making a difference.”
Lend A Hand’s members have been given numerous awards such as National Merit, the Bill Gates Millennium Scholarship, VANG Golden Torch, etc. Many of our members have scored 99% on their SAT, perfect scores on their SAT II and were accepted to prestigious institution such as Harvard University, Rice University, UC-Berkley, Case Western etc. Every year, members have received full scholarships for college and medical school through nationally known programs such as the Joint Admission Medical Program (JAMP), Michael E. DeBakey-Baylor College of Medicine Houston Pre-Medical Academy, and the Rice University-Baylor College of Medicine Pre-Medical Academy. In Summer 2008, Lend A Hand will be the first-ever Vietnamese organization in Houston to have a doctor shadowing program in the different clinics of Houston and Texas Medical Center through the “Lend A Hand Preceptorship Program.” No other organization comes close to our academic success and nationally known merits in hands. Lend A Hand is well trusted by the public when it comes to guiding their sons and daughters to success in the field of academia.
Lend A Hand is a well known name at the Muscular Dystrophy Association of America. Every summer, we send our members to the Muscular Dystrophy Camp to take care of children diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. In addition, we are also well known at Texas Children Hospital. Every Christmas, we dress ourselves as Santa and his helper and bring gifts such as books and toys to the children who spend the holidays at the hospital. We usually focus strongly on terminally ill children since they will not have many Christmases left in their lives. Known in the Vietnamese community for creating the annual seminar “Road To Graduate School” and “Road to Academic Success,” Lend A Hand is known for its academic excellence and superb teamwork. We follow a simple success formula: Recipient teaches applicant to be future recipients.
Project Michelle has been a nationally known project throughout the Vietnamese community. In Houston alone, Lend A Hand has been the profound leader in organizing bone marrow drives in effort to save life of Michelle and many others just like her. We have spread our members all over the Houston area and organized countless drives in the last 8 weeks. Recently, Lend A Hand has led many other organizations such as the fraternities at the University of Houston, Hope Initiative Inc. and many individuals into this heart touching project. Together, we have registered over a thousand applicants. In the case of the Typhoon Xangsane and Typhoon Durian in Central Vietnam, Lend A Hand lead different youth organizations in Houston such as Hope Initiative, Good Tiding Charity, and the VSAs of Houston on a two week effort to host a collaborative show with over 800 in attendance and fundraising $15,000 to help the impoverished people in Central Vietnam.
Lend A Hand has been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers as well as media coverage based on high academic success, community education programs, and efforts to aid the impoverished children in Vietnam. The objective of Lend A Hand is to raise and distribute money benefiting impoverished children, promote teamwork and leadership to our members, and educate the public on the different ways to succeed in education. Each year, we go on at least one or two humanitarian aid trips. For the past five years, we have been on over eight humanitarian aid trips. We target directly at impoverished children who are uneducated and are faced with the risk of dropping out of school due to financial reasons. We also target ill children with an emphasis on curable diseases because we feel that these children deserve a second chance to live. They are already unfortunate enough to be living an impoverished life. They deserve this second chance to live and to become someone in society.
In the past years, we have given thousands of dollars to the motherland and provided over a thousand scholarships to impoverished students all over South Vietnam ranging from Hue to Quang Ngai to Ca Mau to Dat Mui, the most southern point of Vietnam. To our delight as well as our sponsors, one of our scholarship recipients will graduate from medical school in Can Tho within the next 3 years. Without us, she would have dropped out of school and never had this chance. In addition, we have assisted in paying for over a hundred medical cases and have fully sponsored two open heart surgeries. These two children’s lives were saved after going through open heart operations. We will be sending our team this Christmas to Vietnam on what we call “A Christmas Miracle.” During this trip, we will be providing 20-25 open heart surgeries, 300 scholarships, build a few playgrounds, and teach conversational English in rural and mountainous areas. We have never, and will never use Lend A Hand’s money to pay for the humanitarian aid trip. Our members and officers pay from their pocket to attend these meaningful and eye opening experiences. Every dollar means as much to us as it means to the impoverished children in our motherland Vietnam.
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