// June 17th, 2011 // 3 Comments » // A-freakn-men!!, Mai News
Hey friends. I just wanna tell you that I’m so thankful for this blog. Not only does it allow me to share the everyday platform I’ve been blessed with to impact women through identity and style, but your support allows me to share the life stories of others that have influenced me as well. Thanks for reading, you guys.
If you’ve followed my
Facebook or
Twitter, you know I’m a passionate supporter of
Heartbeat Vietnam, a program of Vina Capital which funds life-saving heart surgery for the most disadvantaged children in Vietnam whose families cannot afford it. The first time my husband and I found out that about 30,000 children in Vietnam suffer from heart disease, I didn’t understand what that meant for these kids. What do you mean they couldn’t run outside like the others? Couldn’t dance? I couldn’t fathom being a child and not be able to do the things we all dream we could do forever as a child- PLAY. That’s when we decided to take action and support Heartbeat Vietnam through word of mouth and monetary donations, that were also matched by provincial government organizations.
Last year we decided to take a mission trip to Vietnam, where we were able to actually meet the recipient of donations like ours. Here’s a video of the beautiful Be Ha, just 4 days after her heart surgery.
I’m sharing this video for 2 reasons. One, to thank you for spreading the word about congenital heart disease, and two, to ask you for help. The Heartbeat Vietnam campaign on Facebook has raised enough so far from small donations to fund the heart operations of two young children, which is amazing! It turns out that the second heart baby, Hong Hieu, has a twin sister who is also suffering from a congenital heart defect and needs surgery to live. HBVN has just launched another campaign on FB to raise funds for her sister, Hong Thao, and I would be so grateful if you could help. It’s such a ridiculous twist of fate that both of these girls were born with holes in their heart, and it would be even more ridiculous if we were able to save only one of them.
Any amount can help, and every prayer counts. Please do click on the FB link to lend your support, and I thank you so much for spreading this link to your friends. Heart u!
Thanks again for helping out with spreading the word about Hong Thao’s surgery…we actually don’t need to raise the entire cost of the surgery ($2k+) because of matching funds and no overhead. Only about $800-$1000 is needed, HOWEVER ANY REMAINING MONEY CAN HELP ANOTHER CHILD IN NEED.
