You always hear about how wonderful it is to volunteer, but until you actually take part, you never realize how it truly affects you.  I first heard about the Vietnam Vision Projects Australia (VVPA) earlier this year from a colleague of mine, who had been involved with this group for the past three years.  She never got the chance to finish asking me whether I was interested before I interrupted her with a very enthusiastic “Yes I would love to do this!”

The first few days in Saigon we got acquainted with the VVPA14 group.  This was my first time in Vietnam, so as excited as I was, I was also a little nervous.  Everyone was so friendly and welcoming, showing us the sights and sounds of this amazing city.  It was a great way to settle in before the real work began in Long An.

I have to admit, when I first saw the empty rooms in the ground floor of the local hospital in Long An, I found it hard to picture how this was all going to work.  But in a matter of hours the VVP14 team managed to set up about 10 chairs all with their own working portable dental units, a sterilizing room, and triage/waiting area. Also hundreds of dental packs were made up which were given out to the children after their dental treatment.  The next few days were a blur of children’s faces – smiles, sometimes tears, filling teeth, pulling teeth.  Did we really see nearly 600 children?  I stopped worrying that I hadn’t treated children for a while back home; I stopped stressing how differently things were done; I think I even forgot about the heat – that’s how hard we worked!  We also managed to raise over $2000 AUD for some blind people that came through the clinic – such spontaneous generosity from our volunteers.  On the last day, after we cleaned and packed up all the dental supplies, we drove down to a local temple and helped give out food packages to the villagers.  This was a very emotional experience for me, and I will never forget how thankful the villagers were, one lovely lady in particular gave me a big hug after I burst into tears.  Sometimes the language barrier doesn’t matter.

I am truly thankful to everyone involved in VVP14 for looking after us so well, especially the local volunteers and dental students, whose assistance was invaluable.  I’d like to think I made a little bit of difference, but honestly this experience made a huge difference to me.  Once again, thank you, and hope to see you next year.

Dr Anita Moric, Dentist, Adelaide 2014

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