Well folks, in a few hours time I'll be getting on a plane in the first leg of the trip home to Melbourne. The journey is over, but what I have seen and learnt during this trip will stay with me forever. Over the last couple of days we've been starting to analyse some of the initial evaluation findings and presenting them to WV staff including ADP Managers, Regional Managers and project staff. You can see everyone in the picture above. After the presentation...

Today was our last day meeting with community members and seeing the work in the field. I met with some parents of CWD today and heard their stories about how WV has supported them. We spent the afternoon with the ADP staff hearing about how they plan to incorporate PWD into their programming for next year and beyond, which is fantastic as this is what mainstreaming is all about. Ensuring that every facet of a project considers the needs of disabled people. In a...

An early start today as we travelled to Nong Son ADP area. This ADP has total of 7 communes (which are kind of similar to our suburbs) and is located in a valley in the mountains. It was a very rough road to get here particularly up one side of the mountain and then down the other side. This ADP floods between 5-10 times per year in the rainy season (Oct-Dec). It is farming land down here with rice and corn, and farmers will try to harvest their crop before the r...

What a difference a day makes. One day to just lie around and do absolutely nothing if you choose to. Aside from breakfast, we all stayed in our rooms today. Except for the fact that my air con wasn't working and I needed to change rooms, it was the perfect day. Once the weather cooled down a bit (it got to 38 degrees here today), Julie, Thurza and I walked down to the beach. The water is so warm it's like a bath, so I'm not sure how it really helps you coo...

So, I've been thinking how fortunate we have been to have free wi-fi in our rooms and very comfortable accommodation. Before I came away I had no idea what to expect, so have been very pleasantly surprised along this trip. That was until we reached Que Son. You'll see from the location of this blog that I'm not in Que Son, I'm in Danang. Here's the story, it's a bit long, but bear with me.... We left Phuoc Son at about 4pm yesterday and drove for 2 hours t...