Roadmonkey Vietnam Expedition 2010 - Liz Doran

Why go to this place?

The people in this community basically work and live in or near the garbage dump. Kids have very little to 'play' with. When put to a community decision to have a playground or community garden they chose a playground for the kids!

Work for most is all day separating garbage, this is also where much of the food comes from. Parents and kids work to collect plastic bags, separating the garbage from them at the dump for $0.35 / bbl of plastic bags collected. School is from 7-11 or 1-4, 20km from the new dump site where most people live; kids walk, bike, or find other ways to get there.

In late October I will be joining the Roadmonkey "adventure philanthropy" expedition through Vietnam. We will spend nine days cycling through the highlands, and will then travel south to the Mekong Delta to work hands-on with the Catalyst Foundation and the local community to volunteer building a playground for these children. This project will be a group effort, among me and my expedition team members, and will create the first-ever playground for hundreds of children from an ethnic Khmer community in Vietnam that is almost entirely disenfranchised from public education and welfare.

The Catalyst foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to giving families the tools to escape poverty and to raise awareness of trafficking at the grassroots level, in order to eradicate it. A playground does not eradicate poverty, of course, but it does provide a source of athletic and social fun for this community of children.

We need to raise $8000 to pay for the materials for this playground so any donation helps!