To Our American friends,

Many thanks for your supports throughout these past 23 years and for your generous contributions of time, talents, and treasure. Little things you do with great love such as cooking in the kitchen or decorating the hall for Links of Love events, make a world difference. Furthermore, some of you have made trips to Viet Nam to visit the poor whom we serve and to interact with them as friends. Through these encoun- ters, they understand that we are all brothers and sisters our Church family; this spiritual support has brought jo their villages and in their communities …

Dear friends,

We join hands and hearts to celebrate our mission to our Montagnard communities in the Highlands of Vietnam in providing basic education to our Montagnard children, food, clean water, and medicine to our Montagnards in need, including our leper colonies, in the Highlands.

What have we together done since 1998?

We cooperate with local Priests, nuns and good local leaders of villages to promote an Education Program to help their children of different ethnic groups to deal with the poor situation in near future.

This is a very difficult task when  every family needs their children to support the family to put food on the table through different tasks, such as taking caring for younger siblings, collecting manure & wood branches, cow watching, etc… We overcome this obstacle by asking local volunteers to reach out and explaining to people of each village about the values of education that helps them to avoid plots on finance, property, and understand what their rights are.

We also support students in their study issues-These concerns include language barrier, family’s support limits, running errant on demanding of family task, and without a good environment for learning at home-by organizing a learning group in each village with a volunteer to guide and remind them to follow schedule of gathering group.

For students away from home attending  at college or university, we remind them to take part in activities of Viet Toc Student Group; these  group are led by volunteers who help them maintain a good relationship with the local parish where the students can attend mass and study the Bible or listen to an expert sharing their knowledge  about social issues. The other critically important thing is we help them overcome the discrimination, unhealthy distractions, and loneliness of the big city.

In the summer, workshops and camps were organized in various regions for spiritual and educational purpose. It was such a meaningful opportunity for students from different tribes to interact with each other. It is a beautiful time to open their horizons, to affirm their culture and values, to celebrate their gifts, and to remind them of the mission given them: to help make a difference in their lives and the lives of their people.

Fr. Peter Vang Cong Tran, CSsR.