NEW PRESCHOOL CELEBRATES OPENING WITH OPERATION USA

Location: Paiyagala, Sri Lanka

The construction of the new Muditha preschool was completed in January, 2006. This project was supported by Operation USA with the help of Mrs. Margaret Rajarethnem, Dr. Pat Clark and The Capital Group. The school is now fully functional, serving 60 children from surrounding fishing villages. Operation USA has recently committed to a nutritional program for all the children ($100/month), as well as supporting English lessons in the preschool.

To see a sample menu for the school children, please click here.

WOMENS EMPOWERMENT

Location: Matara District, Sri Lanka
Partner: Sarvodaya

The Sarvodaya Psychosocial and Economic Empowerment Project was completed in February, 2006. This project covered 10 villages in the Matara District, mobilizing village volunteers to create peer groups, direct trauma therapy sessions for children through sports activities, market a Tsunami Survivor handicrafts and promote better nutrition through home gardening. Sarvodaya staff also facilitated community tree planting, as well as health and hygiene education programs in the affected villages. Future projects include collaboration with the Center for Health Care and livelihood grants in Matara.

KALLADI VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

Location: Trincomalee District, Sri Lanka
Partner: Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO)

Operation USA's village reconstruction project has continued to progress, despite the volatile political situation in the region and increased prices for both raw materials and labor. 115 homes have been started with 54 having been completed as of March 1, 2006. 70 fiberglass fishing boats have been in use for 3 months and have begun to generate income for the villagers, also spurring a growth in related industries. The school and preschool have been completed and back-to-school packs were distributed to 175 children. A site has been cleared and construction has begun on a multi-purpose community center, as well as a primary health center. A livelihoods grant project has thus far supported a bicycle repair shop, a laundry business and a barbershop.

Operation USA created a model for reconstruction of a village destroyed by a disaster when Hurricane Mitch battered Central America from October 22, 1998 to November 5, 1998. The village of Santa Rosa, Nicaragua has come a long way since the devastation.

IN MEMORIUM
DR. DUONG QUYNH HOA

Operation USA lost a great mentor, partner and friend with the death on February 27, 2006 of Dr. Duong Quynh Hoa, a pediatrician and one of Vietnam’s great humanitarian figures over the past 40 years.

Dr. Hoa was from a prominent Saigon family; she attended medical school in Paris in the early 1950s while North Vietnam was engaged in fighting a war of independence against France.  While in Paris, Dr. Hoa met Ho Chi Minh and joined both the French and newly-formed Vietnamese communist parties.  She was jailed in 1960 by the neutral Ngo Dinh Diem Government, which fell after the US Government arranged the assassination of President Diem by pro-US generals in the South Vietnamese Army.  Dr. Hoa was released from prison and eventually went into Vietnam’s jungles and forests for seven years, from 1968-1975, leading the entire civilian health care system set up as part of the National Liberation Front.

At the War’s end in 1975, when it became clear that Vietnam’s new unified government would be dominated by northerners and be rigidly communist, she announced her resignation as both Minister of Health and from the Communist Party. Only her status as a national hero from Vietnam’s war for its independence and her international stature as a pediatrician saved her from losing her own freedom and her family’s property.

Operation USA first began working with Dr. Hoa’s Center for Pediatrics, Development & Health in 1980. Together, we built a number of rural health clinics, supported medical training programs and orphanages, set up agricultural development projects and eventually made over 5000 micro-credit loans to rural women for food production, enabling them to attain self-sufficiency and vastly improve their standard of living. Dr. Hoa also was instrumental in investigating the after-effects of Agent Orange contamination in Vietnam and was an international authority on malaria and other tropical diseases.