Benefits of volunteering in Vietnam

Paediatric Speech Therapy Course Completion A report by Sarah Day (Speech Pathology Clinical Educator, Australian Volunteer for

International Development, University of Medicine Pham Ngoc Thach (UPNT),

HCMC)

It’s summer in Vietnam… which means summer break, rainy season in Ho Chi Minh

City and the completion of the Paediatric Speech Therapy 2016-17 Course at UPNT!

With final clinical placements, portfolios, presentations and oral VIVAs all complete,

the celebrations have begun! The 32 speech therapy students organised a thank you

lunch for all involved in supporting the Speech Therapy course. Trinh Foundation

Australia (TFA), UPNT and past graduate support staff were treated by the students

to a 5 course lunch at a traditional Vietnamese restaurant. Speech Therapy students

presented TFA and UPNT with a very special gift in the form of a framed painted tree

with hand crafted flowers and pictures of each speech therapy student. Professor

Dung (Program Coordinator and Professor of ENT) accepted the gift on behalf of all

parties. Students later celebrated their course success at a local Karaoke bar, a

favourite pastime for many of them!

The formal graduation ceremony for the post-graduate certificated course is being

planned for mid-September, and all graduating students will return from their

hometowns and provinces with family to celebrate once more together.

On a personal note, I am excited to share that I cannot adequately describe how

proud I am of this wonderful group of students. I have so enjoyed teaching,

mentoring, coaching and sharing with them. We have all worked incredibly hard over

the past few months, TFA interpreters and short-term volunteering clinical

supervisors included, and to see the outcomes of that work resulting in competent

and passionate new graduate speech therapists, is just so satisfying and

extraordinary!

Congratulations Paediatric Speech Therapy Class of 2016-17 on your achievements.

Welcome to our proud profession.

Top photo: Students with TFA, UPNT, and past graduate support staff

Above: Thanking staff, the special gift and all enjoying the lunch

Insight from our Volunteer Supervisors

The final clinical block of the Paediatric Speech Therapy 2016-17 Course was

completed with the assistance of the eleven volunteer supervisors: Alison Board,

Sue Hombsch, Patrick Jones, Chloe Justins, Carla Mangion, Jessica Marriott,

Tracy Mee, Jaime Offord, Lynn Tan, Ruth Tuner and Katie Werner. They

conveyed how hardworking, motivated and dedicated they felt the students were

to learn and to improve their clinical skills while on their various placements. They

also commented on how they felt the students will become excellent speech

pathologists in the future and an asset to the Speech Pathology Profession in

Vietnam.

In addition, they remarked on what a rewarding and positive experience it was and

the generosity from the students towards them. While volunteering can be quite

challenging being put in a position outside their comfort zone was also a gratifying

learning experience for them. Furthermore, we had a few returning volunteers who

observed the wonderful progress being made by the profession in Vietnam.

We thank all our volunteers for the guidance and support they provided to these

students and the mentoring some provided to the Vietnamese Speech Therapists

at various sites.

Our volunteers have been praising our Trinh Foundation Australia (TFA) trained

interpreters who have provided valuable support and guidance to them during

their time in Vietnam. Our interpreters need to have knowledge of speech therapy

terms which are quite a new concept in Vietnam. They not only interpret they

provide cultural advice as well. There is also the documentation, presentations,

notes etc which needed to be translated. The volunteers credited the successful

outcomes of both lectures and clinical education sessions to the work done by our

team of interpreters and translators. TFA thanks them for their ongoing dedication

they provide to our volunteers.

You may be interested to know that during this Paediatric Course, our interpreters

provided 1,739 hours of interpreting and have translated 465,245 words! TFA

have funded all of this work… a great use of funds raised don’t you think?

Praise for TFA Interpreters

Above: Mr Dien presenting at the conference and with SPA President Geanor Dixon and Director Chyrisse

Heine.

Mr Dien reports on presenting a paper at the Speech Pathology Australia (SPA)

National Conference.

I was very happy and honoured to attend the SPA National Conference 2017 in

Sydney, Australia.

As a representative of my speech therapy colleagues in Vietnam, I presented the

topic “Innovations in speech pathology education and practice in Vietnam:

Bridging between ‘western’ models and local needs and opportunities” whose

authors were Prof Nguyen Thi Ngoc Dung, Mrs Christine Sheard, Ms Le Thi

Thanh Xuan, Ms Tra Thanh Tam, Ms Le Thi Dao, Mr Hoang Van Quyen, Prof

Lindy McAllister, and myself. It was interesting to meet with Ms Ben Pham– a PhD

student - who also presented a topic as part of her research. I was heartened

when many SLPs in Australia and other countries paid attention to Ms Ben and my

presence, our presentations and other presentations related to Speech Therapy in

Vietnam, e.g. the three topics presented by Ms Marie Atherton, Ms Joanne

Walters, and Dr Sally Hewat. This was also a good opportunity to once again meet

many SLP experts.

Presenting at SPA National Conference

I would like to thank Trinh Foundation Australia so much for supporting me to

attend the conference. Also, I appreciate the great support from Prof Lindy and

Mrs Christine Sheard for editing my presentation.

In addition I would like thank SPA for fully supporting my attendance at the

conference. I have gained an enormous amount of valuable knowledge from the

conference as well as the useful experience in organising such a world-class

national conference. I will be able to provide this knowledge to my colleagues in

Vietnam soon.

Promoting TFA at SPA Conference

Trinh Foundation Australia (TFA) had another successful year at the Speech

Pathology Australia National Conference in Sydney. We had a great time

reconnecting with many returned volunteers who visited the stand and were very

excited to speak with so many keen speech pathologists interested in volunteering

with TFA in the future.

The puppets were a big hit again this year and many scarves were sold thanks to

the chilly weather. Don’t worry if you missed out, you can still purchase puppets at

our online shop.

We also held a fundraising dinner and had a delicious Vietnamese feast at Thuy

Huong Restaurant in Glebe, joined by both loyal and new supporters of TFA. We

hope to see more of you next time to help us tackle all the food!

Thank you to all who supported our raffle and congratulations to the winners.

Finally, a big thank you to all the volunteers who lent a hand during the week. TFA

is very grateful for your assistance.

Fundraising Initiative Launched

Trinh Foundation was pleased to launch its 'Sponsor a Student' fundraising

initiative at the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference.

This initiative allows donors to sponsor one of our current students or graduates in

their journey to become the future of speech therapy in Vietnam.

Sponsors can choose a monthly amount that they wish to donate and in return will

receive a student profile (as pictured here) to learn more about the student they

are supporting and how their money will benefit speech therapy in Vietnam more

broadly.

If you would like to become a sponsor contact jan@trinhfoundation.org for more

information.

Trinh Website

TrinhTFA

TrinhFoundation

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Trinh Foundation Australia is proud to be a partner for Project J594 Vietnam

Speech-Language Program with Global Development Group. GDG (ABN 57 102 400

993), an Australian DFAT approved Non-Government Organisation [NGO]

carrying out quality humanitarian projects with approved Partners

Our mailing address is:

Trinh Foundation

5 / 210 Wattle Tree Road

Holgate, NSW 2250

Australia

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