LSN-V’s Outreach Workers are the lifeblood of the organization.  Without them the unique model of social empowerment and peer support would not be possible.  I have been impressed by everyone I have worked with here, but I have been most inspired by the Outreach Workers’ commitment to survivorship.  Though they come by it naturally-they are all survivors themselves-their dedication and energy is invaluable to creating sustainable social change.  Deciding who to profile was tough, but I decided to interview Mr. Thuan.  I made this decision in part because I have spent most of my time in the field with him, but mostly because when he tells jokes he waits with eager anticipation while they are translated and then laughs again once I’ve heard the punch line in English.  It’s pretty great.

Last Friday I went to visit Mr. Dung’s vocational training center for persons with disabilities in Dong Son commune.  With the support of LSN-V, Dung began offering training in incense making, silk-screening and candle making for his fellow survivors this past April.  His is a great story of leadership and initiative-I put together the video below in an effort to help him share it.

To see pictures of the Training Center click on the link to Flickr.

And a special thanks to my coworker Meg for letting me steal her computer for hours at a time to edit my videos

All of the survivors I have met with since being in Vietnam have touched on the need for sustainable and inclusive employment.  One of the primary programmatic elements of LSN-V and Survivor Corps’ work is Economic Opportunity for survivors.  Over the past few weeks I met with some of the business groups operating in Quang Binh province.  The video below explains more about the awesome work these groups are doing and the substantial impact they are having on the lives of survivors and their communities as a whole.

*Note to Viewers: When I uploaded the video to YouTube the quality and readability diminished.  I am working on solving this problem and will either repost or provide a link to a higher-quality version as soon as possible.  Thanks for your patience.

Last week I was asked to represent LSN-V and present a summary of the Workshop on Victim Assistance at a Disability Working Group (DWG) meeting in Hanoi.  Although somewhat reluctant to get back on the train to Hanoi only four days after returning from my previous trip, I agreed.  Thus, on Thursday I spent another grueling night on the train, arriving in Hanoi before dawn the following morning.

Later that afternoon I informed the members of the DWG-mostly representatives from INGOs and community organizations-on LSN-V’s objectives at the Workshop, the outcome of the event and the steps forward.  The DWG is an important advocacy tool for LSN-V, as well as for the promotion of disability rights in general.  The group provides a forum for establishing best practices, increasing efficiency and raising a unified voice.  And there was substantial interest in the workshop from the other members.  LSN-V acts as a link between disability rights, disarmament issues and sustainable development and the organization is often in a unique place in the advocacy community, helping to build bridges between issues and link a number of stakeholders.

Luckily, despite of my high level of exhaustion, the presentation went well.  In lieu of posting my exciting PowerPoint here I have put together the video below.  Please take a look!