As a VIA alum, I’d have to say that it was one of the best experiences of my life. Like all “one of the best experiences of my life” stories, I met new friends whom I still keep in touch with, saw things that I never thought I’d ever see or even knew existed, ate some of the world’s best foods, struggled with new cultures, struggled with myself, fell in love, got lost on a new adventure, shared in laughs and tears…

It was amazing.

Now is the recruiting season for VIA. If you are looking to do something abroad- whether you know what you want to do or not- take the time to look at the below links and see if it sparks your interest. There’s so much of the world to see. There’s so many wonderful people to meet and get to know. Take that chance and live out a new story in your life. I’ll do my best to share some of the ones I’ve had in a new category called “Volunteer in Asia with VIA”.

Brief VIA Information Page

VIA Website

If you have questions, feel free to leave it in the comments section or contact VIA directly. I had tons- and they answered them all.

I am writing to let you know about Blue Dragon’s emergency relief efforts following Typhoon Ketsana.

The typhoon struck central Vietnam on September 29. At least 163 people were killed by the storm, and over 6000 homes were completely washed away.

Blue Dragon has long been working in two areas of central Vietnam, Hoi An town and Hue province, where the typhoon hit. We are relieved to report that none of the families we are working with lost their lives as a result of the typhoon.

Sadly, however, almost all of the families and children we work with in those areas have been badly affected.

Hoi An Town

In Hoi An, where Blue Dragon runs the Hoi An Children’s Home, a flash flood caused by a collapsed dam resulted in the loss of many personal items belonging to the 30 kids living there. Thanks to some private donations from around the world, we have been able to replace those lost clothes, books, and personal effects.

Hue Province

In Hue, the typhoon was much more devastating. Many homes lost their roofs or were destroyed totally. Some families lost everything they owned.

Immediately after the typhoon, Blue Dragon worked with the United Nations International School (UNIS) to deliver rice, noodles, and other essentials to over 300 families in coastal areas of Hue province. We were careful to ensure that we were delivering emergency supplies to families who were in the greatest need, and had not received support from any other agency.

Follow-up

Almost a month has passed, but the situation in Hue province remains dire. Hue airport has been closed recently due to flooding, as storms continue to cause havoc. Many roads remain impassable.

One consequence of this ongoing disaster is that impoverished fishing families from coastal areas have been unable to go to work for a full month. This is leading to widespread hunger in many areas of Hue.

As I write, Blue Dragon staff are in Hue distributing over 4.5 tons of rice and noodles, which have been funded by the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Ho Chi Minh City. We are also providing families with simple water filtration systems which will provide clean drinking water for at least 2 years.

What’s next?

Everyone is hoping that the rain will ease and the floods start to recede soon. Once that happens, Blue Dragon will start helping families to rebuild damaged or destroyed homes.

At the moment, we have enough money for the ‘emergency relief’ phase of this work, but we would welcome donations to help us with the repair and rebuilding that will take place over the coming months. You can visit our website if you wish to donate – www.streetkidsinvietnam.com – or email us on info@bdcf.org.

See for yourself

The Blue Dragon blog – www.vietnamstreets.blogspot.com – has some photos of the affected areas, as well as images of our relief work.

With sincere thanks for your support,

Michael Brosowski
Director
Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation

Not to say that it’s not impressive, but I thought that- it being a temple meant that- you could go inside it. Nope.

The stone carvings- from lava rocks- were impressively detailed. It was sad to see that some of the Buddhas had either been completely stolen or had their heads taken off. Most likely to be sold to a collector.

I think that’s how we all feel about technology. We’re so use to it in our lives and on most days, it seems to work seemlessly. But on the days that it’s a tad slow or worse, not available, it just plain sucks.

One of the great movements of technology into our daily lives is the sharing of information. Rather, allowing for the greater access of digital files. In the past, and sometimes today, it was something of a mystery to get or share files. One way around it was to attach a file to an email, and email yourself. (I still do that from time to time.) Another way could be to use Google Docs. Even when you have your file “up there”, you may want to share it with someone else. This usually happens, per file. Yeah, you could arrange to share a folder, but that’s a few more steps than the average person wants to take. Next thing you know you have dozens of different web services accounts to do a little bit of everything. Think about it…

Gmail, Yahoo!, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogger, Wordpress, Flicker, Kodak, Picasa, DropBox, etc…………….

Multiple accounts because not everyone you know uses the same thing, and not every service provides what you want.

I know that not every service is supposed to be used for everything, and that we don’t want to share everything with all of our “friends” on Facebook, but you probably have 5 close people you want to share things with. Let’s narrow that down some more. Say you have 5 family members that you want to share things with, or a group of 5 close friends. You’re spread out all over the globe- heck, you could even be a small company- and want to share files, but also music, pictures, and recipes.

Technically speaking, the simplest solution would be to implement a file server that gives access to multiple users. Linux would be the cheapest solution, using Samba and SWAT. Yes, but not as pretty or as aesthetically pleasing as what the average user is accustomed to when it comes to installation, setup, and management.

Enter the HP solution.

HP EX485 MediaSmart Home Server (2.0 GHz Intel Celeron 64-Bit Processor, 750 GB Hard Drive, Windows Home Server)

And it’s cheap, too.

Links:
- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001OI2ZG4
- http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/default.mspx

I’ll be setting up one of these bad boys next week at an NGO, and I am excited! I think every household, small business, or NGO should have one of these.

However, I do say this without having ever used Windows Home Server and can say that I am influenced by the hype and reviews online. But the potential in what I’ve read sounds exciting. I’ll have a post-op published at the start of May to validate or smash down my high hopes.

Action stations.

[Above: VASCON 3 Slideshow]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 4, 2009

CONTACT
VASCON Communications
vascon.communication@gmail.com
www.vasconlove.org

Vietnamese American Student Conference Bids Farewell

Washington, D.C. – Today, the board of the Vietnamese American Student Conference (VASCON) announces that the annual event will no longer convene, but are discussing plans to assemble a similar event with narrower creative focus this coming June in New York City.

Last year on this very day, the board held its fourth annual conference for the first time outside of Austin, TX –where VASCON was founded—at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Over 250 students from 30 colleges and universities from across the nation gathered to dialogue and discuss practical solutions to the most pressing issues and events related to the Vietnamese American community. Every year, the conference assembles renowned experts in fields such as human rights, community organizing, politics, business, film, arts and entertainment to engage youth over the course of an inspiring, transformational three days.

“I have experienced few things more beautiful than VASCON,” says founder and previous executive director Kym Pham. “Knowing that this is the end of the road for this incredible journey proves to be bittersweet. However, what lives on is the change brought about by the individuals who were touched by this conference. I have witnessed and believe in the beauty of the mark they are each leaving on the world, the first and foremost of which belong to the passionate and dedicated young leaders part of the VASCON board. VASCON has an unbelievably special place in the hearts of many, and so does the VASCON family.”

Since its conception in 2004, VASCON built tremendous momentum, moving from a conference of a little less than 200 students to over 1000 over the four years it convened. Pham attributes much of VASCON’s development to the foundation set by sister conferences KASCON (Korean American Student Conference) and NAASCON (National Asian American Student Conference), and continues to be deeply grateful to the continuous support of uNAVSA (Union of North American Vietnamese Student Associations), VIA-1 (Vietnamese Interacting as One), and VANG (Vietnamese American National Gala), all of which encouraged one another to improve and inspire the state of the community.

In VASCON’s fourth year, Pham joined the advisory board and transitioned the role of executive director to Xuan Le. “I was honored to serve as executive director of VASCON in its fourth and final year,” says Le. “This was one of the first conferences focused on Vietnamese Americans to come to the mid-Atlantic region and that allowed us to reach out to many new students and working professionals. I want to extend endless gratitude to everyone who helped to make VASCON a success each and every year. It was a true privilege to work with individuals who gave their whole hearts and sacrificed so much of themselves to make this a reality.”

The new, yet-to-be-named event potentially taking place this summer plans to partner up with Kollaboration New York on the weekend of June 27th. Its out-of-the-box programming will follow a series of quick-fire talks and performances by accomplished Vietnamese American architects, fashion designers, writers, musicians, among other creative thinkers in the New York scene. Similar to Kollaboration in its support of the Asian American artist community, the event hopes to encourage, inspire, and challenge individuals to pursue their dreams in the creative arena, by connecting them to those who are already doing so. If interested in helping, please email: kym@kollaboration.org .

—

Past sponsors of VASCON include: Beyond Bouquets, Boat People SOS, Catholic University of America, Chaos Theory Music, Lee’s Sandwiches, National Congress of Vietnamese Americans, SBTN, Storyline Designs, VATV, and the Vietnamese Professional Society, Wells Fargo, alongside numerous other small businesses, private donors, student and community organizations.

VASCON is an annual conference co-founded in 2004 by students at the University of Texas at Austin and Yale University, which has since gathered over 1,000 students and young professionals to engage in open dialogue about the state of Vietnamese America with distinguished guests from a spectrum of disciplines.

Atlas Service Corps seeks nonprofit leaders from around the world to apply for their 2009-2010 fellowship positions in Washington, DC and Bogota, Colombia. All expenses are paid in this prestigious, fellowship program, including a living stipend, health insurance, visa, travel, training, and a $2,500 end of service award. Applicants must have 3 or more years of experience in the nonprofit sector, a college degree, fluency in English (and Spanish if applying to volunteer in Colombia), and a commitment to returning to their home country after one year. Candidates from outside the U.S. are placed at outstanding host organizations in Washington, DC including Ashoka, Asian American LEAD, CentroNía, Grameen Foundation, and Population Action International. Candidates from the U.S. are placed at organizations in Bogota like Give to Colombia and Oxfam GB. In addition to volunteering full time at their host organizations, Fellows are enrolled in a management development training program and join a growing network of nonprofit leaders from around the world. For more details about eligibility requirements and the application process, please visit: www.atlascorps.org/apply.html.

The deadline to apply is April 1, 2009.

While watching MTV the other day for my dose of new music, a public service announcement (PSA) came on that caught me by surprise. It was a very powerful PSA that left me frozen for a few seconds. I felt mixed emotions of anger, sorrow, and helplessness.

I checked out the website (http://www.chooselovenotabuse.com) but it returned an error. Initially, I thought it was blocked, but after checking it again later in the day, I was able to get access. I’m assuming, now, that the site is getting many visits and the campaign is reaching a lot of people.

I hope that you’ll take the time to check out the website for information on abuse in relationships. This is the video aired on MTV. You can also find it on the website. It may be difficult for some to watch.

The website offers information on dating violence, and although the program and events is based in Singapore, its message has a global reach. If you know of someone that is in this type of relationship, lend them an ear to talk to and a shoulder to cry on. More importantly, help them get the help they need. Maybe you’re the one being abused, or you’re the one doing the abusing- talk to someone so they can help you. Abuse is not love.

Is it such a difficult question to answer? Is it impossible to have a job that you love? Think about it. We spend, on average, 8 hours a day at work. Why not get a job that you love?

A dear friend of mine made the same connection with beds because throughout my college years I slept on okay beds, air mattresses, or the ground. (I like the ground, though…) Then one day, the conversation came up again and he made the point that people spend at least 6-10 hours in bed each night. Laying in the same place all night. Ideally, I would prefer 10 hours (and today, I did sleep 10 hours =D and I make no apologies because I woke up happier and more productive). The following weekend, I went bed shopping- my first grown-up bed. I spent about $300 on it, which, to me, is a lot of money. That sum actually bloomed because I bought other things to accessorize my room because I believe that you can’t half-ass a purchase like that. The whole room had to change. And it did. It felt comfortable and I fell asleep easily and woke up loving each morning. The bed was the answer.

If that was the answer to sleep, think about how that can translate into the 8+ hours of your working day. You owe it to yourself to do the work that makes you happy and in an environment that you are comfortable to be in. When you have that, you’ll be able to do so much more, and live, instead of survive.

That doesn’t mean that you will never, ever, encounter problems again- but at least you’ll be physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually equipped to handle that problem.

What’s my ideal job?

I love working with people. I love teaching. I love education. I love personal development- not just my own, but also helping people to realize their full potential. That’s where you’ll find me.