Collective Philanthropy Project
Information
Vietnam Health Clinic (VHC) is a not-for-profit organization committed to expanding healthcare access and services for under-resourced populations while fostering leadership and professional development among its members.
VHC operates a two-week mobile health clinic, providing comprehensive medical, dental, optometric, pharmaceutical, and therapeutic care. With the support of student members, healthcare professionals, local communities, sponsors, and volunteers, VHC has served over 17,000 patients over the past thirteen years. To continue delivering high-quality healthcare to these communities, VHC will hold its next mobile clinic in the summer of 2025.
Healthcare professionals and student members play essential roles, both as providers and as personal interpreters for patients. A distinctive aspect of our clinic is its focus on offering student members invaluable clinical experience by working directly alongside healthcare professionals. If you are interested in applying as a student member or healthcare professional for our upcoming clinic, please follow the respective links for more information.
In pursuit of our mission, VHC collaborates with local university students and healthcare providers in Vietnam in a joint effort to reduce health disparities in rural communities. Additionally, we have partnered with several non-profit organizations, including the Friends of Hue Foundation, the Wellness Global Foundation, and ASSORV: Association for the Support of Orphans in Vietnam.
Local Charity Beneficiary
Information
My name is Maddie Do, and I am a senior at the Academy of the Sacred Heart. Last summer, I wanted to work on a service project, something that would demonstrate my core values and goals. Giving back to the community has always been a goal of mine, and being raised by parents who emigrated from Vietnam, has taught me how lucky I am to have the resources I need to be supported. So I decided to start CẢM ƠN, (which translates to "thank you" in Vietnamese) a project that is focused on providing food and other necessities to Vietnamese communities in n communities in need I was inspired by my godmother who delivers food baskets to people in the Houston area, and I wanted to bring something like that to New Orleans.
However, I wanted to make CẢM ƠN different. Unlike traditional food donations, CẢM ƠN provides foods that are specified for Vietnamese meals. Not only does this create a specialized service for Vietnamese communities, but it limits food waste of items that are not commonly included in a typical Vietnamese diet. Instead of peanut butter and dry pasta, food baskets would include things like a bag of rice, ramen noodles, and various condiments and seasonings used in Vietnamese meals.
I want CẢM ƠN to be a way for me to give back to the Vietnamese community, but also be a way to connect people outside of the community through charity. I hope that this project can also help others build an understanding and solidarity towards those in need and encourage outreach.