The Franciscan Vietnam Mission, now St Francis Anthony Fasani Custody of Saint Joseph of Cupertino Province (Conventual Franciscans of California) has been continuously present in the country since 2004.
Bread of Saint Anthony is the Franciscan Friars main outreach program operating in both the metro Saigon area in the south and rural Van Mon in the north. Van Mon is primarily rural farming communities focused on rice and vegetable production with significant beef and dairy cattle. Unfortunately, the local farmers and day laborers are not among the Vietnamese who reap the benefits of the recent economic growth.
The leper colony or Leprosarium at Van Mon is one of the colonies the government of Vietnam has designated as a mandatory relocation place for about 600 people who have acquired leprosy; medically known as Hansen’s disease. Since 1999 this place has become a key humanitarian effort of the Conventual Franciscan Order.
Named after the physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen who discovered the bacteria in 1873, this disease afflicts young and old with an incubation period from a few weeks, for infants, to as much as 30 years. Though it is genetically resistible, about 10% of the world’s population is at risk of contracting the disease.
Hansen is a bacterial infection that is curable now with injections over several months. In its advanced stages, it is very visible because of the skin lesions. Permanent damage can occur to skin, limbs and eyes. Secondary infections, because of lowered immune defense, can cause further damage.
Along with this natural risk, it is the poor who have suffered the most in Vietnam due to pollution of the drinking water because of mining activity or war, limited access to medical aid, and poor quality diet that lowers the immune systems resistance to disease; these are some of the conditions that promote the continuation of this disease.
Historically the people who have suffered this disease have also had to endure social stigmatization. As it is the case in many countries, Vietnam requires persons who contract leprosy to leave their families and be placed in a leprosarium with others who have the disease. When a person contracts the disease, regardless of the person’s age, he/she is taken to one of these colonies and given a place to live and a rice allotment. Fear of this relocation and the social stigma attached to the disease inhibits self-reporting to the authorities. Medical training and knowledge about the disease in the endemic areas of the world is not adequate, so it can go unreported until it reaches the visible stage.
In the case of Van Mon colony, the yearly food allotment is inadequate to feed these people so they grow additional food like the staple of their diet, rice. The rest of what they need to eat in order to exist comes from the local Catholic Church. Franciscan Friars and Sisters are often their only primary caretakers.
Van Mon is now a stable Franciscan presence with a permanent friary and a place where medical professionals can come and study the disease under the supervision of experienced doctors. They all work towards a better understanding of Hansen’s disease throughout Vietnam so that those that become afflicted can be treated early.
Over time, the friars have made many improvements and recently they have also installed a nano-filtration water purification system in the friary complex as to provide purified, potable water to developmentally disabled children, adult Hansen’s Disease patients, elderly and poor farm laborers and their families nearby.
But, as more poor people in the local community, especially among the elderly and disabled, have come to make use of the services provided by our Franciscan Friars, the need for a more consistent energy source and the expansion of food distribution has increased. The installation of a solar energy system proposes to run the water purification system and food prep services for these same populations entirely off grid is needed.
The local grid is over-taxed and, consequently, notoriously unstable. The new off-grid solar energy source benefits the at-risk communities named above and provides a concrete model of sustainable energy production generally for an under-resourced rural area that has not been able to keep pace with the otherwise rapid rate of economic development evident elsewhere in Vietnam, especially in the urban south.
As more poor people in the local community, especially among the elderly and disabled, have come to make use of the services provided by our Franciscan Friars, the need for a more consistent energy source and for the expansion of the food pantry and distribution has drastically increased.
The installation of a solar energy system proposes to run the water purification system and food prep services for these same populations entirely off grid is needed. The new off-grid solar energy source benefits the at-risk communities named above and provides a concrete model of sustainable energy production generally for an under-resourced rural area that has not been able to keep pace with the otherwise rapid rate of economic development evident elsewhere in Vietnam, especially in the urban south.
The installation of commercial-grade bakery ovens and other kitchen equipment makes it possible to provide food services to more people in the local community, especially the elderly and disabled. Expansion of the kitchen for service a commercial-grade bakery to bake bread and prepare food; install 5 restrooms for the kitchen staff and the children in care; purchase two large tables, chairs, and kitchen equipment.
The regular operation and maintenance of the solar energy production system and the Bread of Saint Anthony Program will fall to the friars themselves, the Franciscan postulants, and a core of young lay and non-Catholic volunteers in the community. The friars have historically had good relations with the local Buddhist communities who have also benefited directly from Franciscan development initiatives.
Thanks to the support of St Anthony’s followers and devotees, a grant in the amount of $19,600 was awarded to Bread of St Anthony – Franciscan Vietnam Mission for the abovementioned materials and services.
