How Recycled Materials Fund Heart Surgeries – Healing The Wounded Heart, Hue

October 30, 2017

When I was first told that I would be visiting a shop that sells crafts to tourists in Hue’s busy tourist district I was a bit underwhelmed. I wondered what on earth this had to do with helping children with disabilities.

That was until I heard the back story.

This article is one in a series of articles I am doing about my time in central Vietnam documenting the work that the Office of Genetic Counseling and Disabled Children (OGCDC), an NGO, in central Vietnam are doing with children with disabilities. You can read the other stories here:

1/ Raising Funds for the OGCDC Hear and Talk Program in Central Vietnam, Hue
2/ Organic Farm for Youths With Disabilities in Hue, Vietnam
3/ The Importance of Early Detection of Hearing Loss in Young Babies

The Healing the Wounded Heart shop is a haven for disabled and disadvantaged artisans. With the help of the Spiral Foundation (based in Los Angelas), the shop was officially opened in 2009. The staff and artisans are all disabled in some way, a lot of them have hearing impairments. Healing the Wounded Heart currently employs about 20 artisans.

All the art and craft in the shop are designed and made by the artists. They use recycled materials and traditional textiles that depict Vietnamese culture and heritage. A recycling program (something that is unheard of in Vietnam) has been established to source the materials needed to produce these beautiful handcrafts.

The shop is very popular amongst tourist, having been listed in the Lonely Planet guide. Throughout the shop, there are photos of big-name celebrities either at the store or wearing some of the handmade crafts.

The sales of the merchandise go towards paying the salaries of staff and the artists, as well as fundraising for humanitarian needs. The primary one being funding for heart surgeries. Since it’s opening the shop has helped fund 117 heart surgeries for people who otherwise would not afford it. Hence the name, Healing the Wounded Heart.

The merchandise is made not too far away at a dedicated workshop. There I met some of the artisans applying their skills. Each room was dedicated to certain activities like sewing, weaving or sorting. You could see the joy on the faces of the workers as they applied their skills.

The program has given these young adults a sense of purpose not only in the direction of their own lives but also in the knowledge that they are helping others, with a number of them visiting the patients and families who have received heart surgeries that were supported by their work.