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Charity Concert to Support Minority
Vietnamese Nursing Trainees The concert ticket costs 2500 yen; of that amount, 500 yen (one coin) will go to a charity to train midwives. Why did we decide to hold this charity concert? Gallery Regalo opened in Tokyo in April 2005. When we opened the gallery, we hoped some day to be able to help and support Asian women who want to become nurses. An official of the Japanese language school in Vietnam introduced us to a head nurse at the national TU-DU Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. It was in TU-DU Hospital that the Vietnamese Siamese twins, Viet-chan and Duc-chan, were successfully separated in 1988. Tu Du Hospital has several close ties to Japan. Members of the Japanese language school helped as volunteers while Viet-chan and Duc-chan were in the hospital. When we visited this hospital in the fall of 2008, we asked the head nurse which program needed the most financial assistance. She said that the "midwife training course for the minorities" needed the most urgent support, because the trainees came from the mountainous areas of the country and lived in the most difficult economic conditions. So we decided to support the women in this training course. According to the head nurse, Vietnam contains many ethnic minority villages; most of them are located in the mountains. The lives of villagers are economically very hard. There are very few medical facilities with proper hygiene and childbirths in many villages are still very dangerous. In 2008, a short but intensive "midwife training course for the minorities" was set up at TU-DU Hospital in order to train women to be midwives, who (1) will be able to evaluate the condition and health needs of the pregnant women, and (2) can communicate and give advice to pregnant women using the specific dialect of that village, because the dialects are quite different from village to village. The trainees come to Ho Chi Minh City from their villages with much hope. It requires considerable effort and dedication to learn about maternal health and childbirth in a short period of time. Trainees live in the dorms in the hospital, and eat three meals provided by the hospital at the hospital cafeteria. They sometimes have additional lessons on Sunday and learn the theory as well as the practice of safe childbirth techniques. Some must return to their village halfway through the course because their family needs help in the farming season, and some of them cannot complete the training course because of the family circumstances. Consulting with the head nurse, we decided to award scholarships to the most outstanding trainees when they complete the training course. We awarded the first scholarships to 4 trainees in July of 2009 and awarded the second scholarships to 2 trainees in November of 2009. In January 2010, we attended the midwife training graduation ceremony at TU-DU hospital and directly awarded scholarships to 5 trainees. While continuing this scholarship program, we want to expand support to programs for children without parents or high school students hoping to study at the university. There are limits to what one individual can do, but when many people join together, their goodwill can become large waves to change the world. So, we decided to organize this charity concert and would like to ask your support. It will be a delightful Afternoon Concert: a Quintet, piano and the arias from the famous operas and operettas. We look forward to seeing you.
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