Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to congratulate the South Australian Veterans Touring Group on their work this year, culminating in their August 2010 visit to Vietnam and their good works in support of some of the most vulnerable and underprivileged children of that country. The group describes itself and its mission thus: ‘A non-aligned group of like minded people who have the needs and welfare of underprivileged people at heart working compassionately to see to those needs by providing food, clothing, medicines and necessities.’

The 2010 visit resulted in the donation of over $10,000 worth of goods to the people of Nui Dat, the Baria government orphanage and the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. These funds were able to provide these orphanages with in excess of 3,000 kilograms of rice, over 500 bottles of soy sauce, 10 bags of washing powder, 54 boxes of noodles, 20 cans of insect spray, soap, baby food, tinned milk, nappies, sanitary wear, toilet paper and essentials to last the whole year. The list goes on and on. Goods are obtained from sources as local to the orphanages as possible in order to help not only the orphans but also the local economy.

I have known the South Australian Veterans Touring Group for a number of years now. Every year they head for Vietnam, attend the service at Long Tan on August 18 and give what aid they are able to pay for as a result of their fundraising efforts over the preceding year. The Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus look after the mentally ill, the physically disabled, amputees, people with AIDS or who are HIV positive, Agent Orange victims and orphans. This orphanage is commendably attempting to increase its self-sufficiency through growing crops and raising livestock—chickens, ducks, pigs and even fish.

Some things are more difficult to provide for oneself. At the orphanage at Baria, which the Australian Vietnam Veterans Reconstruction Group rebuilt, the touring group members found a 20-day-old baby who was terribly dehydrated. The child was to be seen by a doctor later in the day—that afternoon—but its condition was such that it may not have survived. Trained medics among the group members instructed staff how to administer fluids to the baby and were most pleased to learn that the child pulled through.

In Hanoi the group met with Jimmy Phan, a Vietnamese-Australian who has established the program Know One Teach One and now has a training centre in Saigon. KOTO, as it is known, is providing vocational training to orphans, street kids and disadvantaged children generally in hospitality and the hotel industry. Many children from disadvantaged backgrounds grow up toward nothingness—no family, no skills, no prospects of work. Children turn to crime and prostitution in their social desolation. Wonderful people like Jimmy Phan, who give these adolescents an opening, a window to a constructive future through the acquisition of skills and the establishment of a career, therefore deserve the thanks and respect of all who disdain social dislocation and the perpetuation of human misery.

I would like to pay special tribute to the South Australian Veterans Touring Group for their ongoing voluntary work in helping to sustain and improve the lives of some of the world’s most disadvantaged children. There are countless children around the world who could benefit from such help. It is so highly commendable that these South Australians, who have a strong connection with Vietnam, work to provide what assistance and support they are able to.

Mr Wayne Honeychurch is my primary contact with the group. I have been more than pleased to speak with and assist him, and thereby the group, over several years now. I look forward to not just providing future assistance but travelling to Vietnam with the group to see the results of their work firsthand. I am sure all who visit see just how much more work is needed. Wayne’s fellow fundraising coordinator, Ryk Traeger, and Lloyd Stephens also deserve mention. I have had the pleasure of meeting with them and hearing about the terrific work that the South Australian Veterans Touring Group has done and continues to perform.