It was a great pleasure for filming in Vietnam's team to have the opportunity to work closely with strong and resilient people who were exposed to agent orange from their father who served during Vietnam world.
We assisted Xtreme Media filming crew in filming a documentary named "Touch of Hope" in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang. We visited the house of a veteran in Cu Chi district, Ho Chi Minh city. Veteran Tran Van Don stays in this house with his blind-at-birth daughter Hang and his son-in-law Truong. His wife passed away three years ago. It was sad that Agent Orange has passed to the third generation of his family. His granddaughter, Nguyen was also exposed to Agent Orange. Nguyen now is 10 years old and she is blind at birth as her mother.
Agent Orange is now debilitating the health of Mr.Don seriously. He suffers from heart illness and pain in his bones and joints. Truong is the only one who is in the normal condition of health in this family. He is the source of light for his wife and daughter. During the interviews with Truong, Hang, we found out that they are very strong and resilient people. We saw hope in their eyes.
In Ho Chi Minh city, there is a village where handicapped, orphan and deformed children have been looked after. Some of them are victims of Agent Orange/dioxin. From Peace Village, many children who were exposed to AO grew up and achieved success in their lives especially in the field of art, swimming, singing... We highly appreciate doctors, nurses and all staffs working at this village
One of AO victims grew up at Peace Village. His passion for drawing has been nursed at the Peace Village and now he has obtained achievement in painting. He is Le Minh Chau. He suffered serious deformities of his legs, arms but he uses his mouth to draw amazing paintings.
Leaving Ho Chi Minh city, we flew to Danang to visit Phuong who was also exposed to AO from his father. Now Phuong is working at Danang Center for Supporting AO Victims and Disadvantaged Children. Phuong suffered from deformity of his height. He is only 90cm high but luckily his intellect is quite normal. He can walk, drive a motorbike and work to earn his living. Now he is staying at a small house with his younger sister who was also exposed to AO and has a deformity in her height as her brother.
They are AO victims and suffered from health problem as well as discrimination in job opportunity and even in daily life in this way or that way. But they are very strong, resilient and optimistic to overcome all difficulties in their lives to prove that they are not a burden for family or society.