Local Saigon Charity Work

Before setting out on the Pharmacy/Medical Mission component of this journey, we decide to provide charity work to the locals in Saigon. Through our partnership with Nhat, who provides monthly charity work, we embark on a day of giving back. To start we meet in a remote alleyway arriving to a table and food supplies. We then get tasked with making over 250 Banh Mi (Vietnamese hoagies) and packing for distribution. I guess you never know what to expect during an international charity rotation. (cooking class was not a part of our teams initial training or a stated objective on the syllabus)!!! Once we made 266 Banh Mi, we traveled by Taxi to Benh Vien Ung Buou (Cancer Hospital of Saigon) and distributed sandwiches and water to the poor families who basically struggle to pay for medical bills for their sick family members and live either inside or outside of the hospital with very little access to proper food or conditions. Following food distribution, we changed hats to provide needed clean up services in a local neighborhood, cross intersecting with a railroad system. We exchanged our food making supplies for trash bags, rubber gloves and Tongs to pick up approximately 10 full bags of rubbish just discarded for moving trains etc....

Cultural Tour of Saigon

After traveling for close to 24 hours, we arrived in Saigon safely. As for the initial portion of our trip, we explore the Vietnamese culture with a walking tour of Saigon. Included in this tour is the Ben Thanh market, The Cathedral of Notre Dame, and the famous Saigon Post Office. This first day gives our group a chance to acclimate to the weather conditions. (Real Feel Temperature 106 degrees) as well as adjust to the local foods. We will continue our cultural experience on another day.

Meet Team 2019: Sunny Ro, Mai Le, Ivy Chen, Ann Sam, Michael Nguyen and Michael Doan. This group was selected from a highly competitive, highly qualified group of applicants. After months of training, planning, fundraising and team building, Team 2019 is ready to embark on APPE Block 1. Today we depart TUSP at 5:00am, leave JFK at 10:00am and land in Saigon on 5-22-19 at 6:00pm for a grand total of 22 hours in transit. What awaits us is a warm and welcoming culture, many patients in need of assistance and hopefully many great lifelong memories of global pharmacy care.