Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/02/2009 12:56:09 PM PST
SAN BERNARDINO - Binh Dang planned to spend last summer buying souvenirs and exploring the exotic cities of Vietnam with his family.
Instead, he found himself saving every penny and using the money to buy bags of rice to distribute to the impoverished people he encountered in the country in Southeast Asia.
Since then the 19-year-old San Bernardino Valley College student has decided to make helping the people of Vietnam a big part of his life's work.
"San Bernardino seems like Beverly Hills compared to what I saw in Vietnam, and I feel like my work there is unfinished," he said.
The trip to Vietnam was originally supposed to be a family trip to see aging relatives. It was Dang's second trip since his family
Binh Dang of San Bernardino holds up photographs of his family in Vietnam on Tuesday in San Bernardino. Dang, a student at San Bernardino Valley College, went the extra mile to help people living in poverty in Vietnam. (LaFonzo Carter / Staff Photographer)moved to the U.S. in 1992.
At that time, his mother was one of many brought to the United States after Congress passed the Amerasian Homecoming Act, which allowed the children of American soldiers living in Vietnam to immigrate.
But that first visit when he was 7 did not have the same impact as last summer's trip.
From the time he stepped off the plane in Ho Chi Minh City, the entire experience was eye-opening.
"There were young kids everywhere just holding each other in the streets begging for money. Their skin was so dark from living outside in the elements and working all day," he said. "I was shocked and couldn't understand what those kids were doing outside all day until I realized that they were
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orphans just trying to survive."
He also saw older people dying of such ailments as the common flu because they couldn't get the medical care they needed in Vietnam.
Midway through his trip, Dang was so frustrated by all the suffering that he decided to take action.
He and his relatives pooled their money and came up with about $5,000 to buy rice to distribute in the village where they were staying, along with boxes of Advil and Tylenol for pain relief.
Villagers lined up for nearly a mile once word of the distribution spread. Dang and his family passed out bags of rice for two hours until they ran out.
"It was an amount of rice that could feed a family for six weeks and people loved the Tylenol and Advil, which they call holy medicine in Vietnam," he said.
Dang's experiences stayed with him, and when he returned to San Bernardino Valley College in the fall, he wrote an essay about his experiences for his English class.
The essay about the moment in time when your life changed was the best in the class and well-received on the campus.
Now Dang hopes to continue the good work he started in Vietnam.
"I'm committed to raising money with my friends here at the college and to return in some way to help out as a psychologist, nurse or doctor," he said.
deborah.pfeiffer@inlandnewspapers.com (909) 386-3879
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