In early September I visited the Office of Genetic Counseling and Disabled Children (OGCDC), an NGO, in central Vietnam. I was there to document the work that they do with children with special needs in schools, farms and in their homes.

It was such a rewarding trip and I would like to share some images and stories with you over the next few weeks about the places I visited and the children I met.

None of this would have been possible without the help of Cris Yudi an audiology consultant based here in Melbourne. Cris was on a mission to raise much needed funds to modernise the newborn hearing screening tests in hospitals in central Vietnam.

My daughter Aria having her newborn hearing screen in hospital. Something we all take for granted in Australia.

Without this newborns with hearing impairment go undetected which significantly reduces their early childhood development and learning and in places like Vietnam this results in them getting ‘left behind’ by the system.

One of the highlights of my work was being allowed access to the homes of some of the families that OGCDC support. One of these was Ho Van Ha’s family. They live Nam Dong province a mountainous district about 70km west of Hue and close to the Laos border.

Getting there was interesting. Ha lives in a farming village which can only be reached on motorbike. The scenery in this region is beautiful and people live quiet lives, a far cry from the craziness you find in every other main city in Vietnam.

Ha was born in 2001 with a hearing impairment which went undetected. His family had no access to any health centers for check-ups when he was young. As a consequence, he has grown up with profound hearing loss and cannot wear hearing aids even after his condition was detected. I assume part of the reason was that his family could not afford the implants.

Because his condition was detected so late in life, Ha has never learnt official sign language and just communicates with his family by using familiar gestures and signs. He did not go to normal school but had attended special classes run by OGCDC until he was 9. He is now working at the organic farm (which I will talk about in another article).

When I arrived at Ha’s home his parents invited us in and as is custom in Vietnam we all sat on the floor and they offered us tea and sugar cane.

Ha was extremely shy of the camera at first. He kept giggling and looking away but with the help of Phuong Anh (from the OGCDC) I was eventually able to communicate with him. You could tell that he had a mischievous nature, always laughing and making fun.

I found out that Ha likes tinkering with electronics. He had a box full of wires and tools. One of the things he likes to spend his time on is fixing other peoples broken phones. In fact he is known around the village for this and people sometimes bring their phone to him to fix for a few dollars. I asked where he learnt this skill and apparently he just picked it up on his own through trial and error.

Well, not wanting to pass up on a good deal I gave him my S7 phone which has a badly cracked screen and asked him to fix it. In Australia they wanted $400 dollars to replace it.

Ha took up the challenge. He grabbed my phone and examined it with great intent. After about 5 minutes he gestured to me that it could not be fixed.

What happened next was the highlight of the trip for me and resulted in my favourite image.

Not happy with his service, I started to ‘complain’. We both exchanged banter for some time. I guess some forms of discussions don’t need translations and the meaning is obvious no matter what language you speak…even rudimentary sign language.

I eventually got up and told him that what he was saying was that there was no hope for my phone! So I gestured several time that I was going to throw it away into the jungle. Well Ha thought this was absolutely hilarious and he started laughing uncontrollably. So did his whole family. It was a beautiful moment for me and I was able to capture it by taking this photo. It is my favourite photo from my time with OGCDC because of the circumstances leading up to it.

In total, I visited 9 locations during my time with the OGCDC. Each time it was always sad to leave. However, I believe Ha is in good hands with the OGCDC helping out and his parents and sibling actively involved with his development.

More selected images of Ha and his family in the slideshow below.

For more information on the OGCDC, visit their website and learn how you can help.

Take care

Warren