KHE'S STORY

Humanitarian Assistance To Families In Poverty

Mr. Khe and his family are finally getting a new house. For the first time in years they will be able to sleep in a clean dry house with a roof that keeps out the rains and with walls that don’t grow mold that makes their children sick.

Mr. Khe has always struggled with his health. He was born with a congenital condition that delayed his development and prevented him from walking until he was 6 years old. His health has not improved much and impedes his ability to work in the rice fields and provide for his family.

Over the years Mr. Khe and his wife Hoa have struggled to make enough money by farming their small rice paddy field. Life is harder on the family when Hoa is in the hospital and can’t work. Since she was a child she has struggled with epilepsy and asthma that flare up and put her in the hospital sometimes as often as once a month.

YWAM Mercy Vietnam’s staff met Mr. Khe and his family in 2009 when local Early Childhood Development trainers were visiting homes in his area. The trainers realized that his family had special circumstances that would qualify them for additional help.

Last year YWAM Mercy Vietnam helped the family purchase a new bicycle so the children could keep going to school. They also provided one of the children with school supplies and text books to make sure none of them had to drop out of school.

Mr. Khe and Hoa have been living in a mud walled hut with their three children and Mr. Khe’s older sister. A few months ago 1/4 of their rice paddy was taken by the government for a river expansion project. In exchange for the rice paddy, he was given $2700 in compensation. With this amount he began dreaming of building a new house for his family.

At one of our meetings earlier this year he said, “My whole life dream is having a house without leaks, a house that doesn’t flood when the rain comes, so that my family will be healthy and not worried in the rainy season.”

Mr. Khe borrowed $1800 dollars from relatives, neighbors, and the ‘Bank for the Poor’ to begin construction on his home. The total cost of the finished home will be about $6000.

Knowing he was about $1500 short, and that YWAM Mercy Vietnam is committed to helping the poor in his area, he contacted YWAM Mercy Vietnam for assistance in finding the remaining $1500 for the project.

YWAM Mercy Vietnam’s Humanitarian Assistance program is focused on helping families like Mr. Khe’s overcome difficult circumstances. Whenever possible we try to work with local leaders to solve these problems at a local level by involving and empowering the local community to take care of its most vulnerable members.

YWAM Mercy Vietnam was able to work with the local government to get $500 in additional funding and was able to locate a donor to cover the remaining $1000.

Soon Mr. Khe and Hoa’s house will be completed and their family will be able to live in a safe home. Life will still continue to be difficult with their health problems and the reduced capacity of their rice farm, but stable housing will help reduce their concerns of additional health problems developing.

PROJECT SUMMARY:

Project Goal: The goal of this project was to create a brand for YWAM Mercy Vietnam that articulates what they do and why they do it in a way that connects with their audience. Since they do so many different things in community development, explaining it in a simple concise way was a challenge. We accomplished this by showing what they do through the personal stories of the people benefiting from their programs.

Project Scope: Khe’s Story was part of a larger project for YWAM Mercy Vietnam.

The full project included:

  • visual and message brand
  • website design
  • 4 video stories and 8 photo stories (English and Vietnamese)
  • training for staff and marketing consultation
We had such a good experience working with Sharing Dots. Bryon and Lorilee are so talented, creative and easy to work with.  I am impressed with how they can deal with the ambiguity of an unfamiliar language and culture yet still draw out a clear, compelling and accurate story and marketing message. The deliverables for Visual Branding and Message Branding are simple and easy to use. It really makes life easy for me as I develop new marketing materials. It’s so clear what messages and visual elements to use and the end products come out looking great. What a dream to have a beautiful collection of compelling photos to draw on! We’ve had a lot of positive feedback from our donors and friends as well. They love our new professional website. The videos have been shared a lot of Facebook and the one about the Children’s Homes was instrumental in finding the remaining sponsors needed, raising funds, and inspiring volunteers. I just wish we had the Lippincott’s on our staff to create new videos all the time!  That said, even though our work together is officially completed, Bryon and Lorilee have continued to check in with us and make themselves available to help us be successful. I’ve really appreciated their responsiveness. Given the chance, I’d be eager to do more projects with Sharing Dots in the future.
Christine Ojih

Communications Director, YWAM Mercy Vietnam

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