HomeNewsIn Vietnam GROUND-BREAKING CEREMONY FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF VILLAGE CHANCE
GROUND-BREAKING CEREMONY FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF VILLAGE CHANCE
Saturday, 12 December 2009
On October 27, 2009, the ground-breaking
ceremony for the construction of Village Chance took place. If all goes well,
within fifteen months, the disabled will soon benefit from specially adapted
housing which will meet their needs. For Vietnam, this is a first!
After several months
of dealing with administrative headaches, moments of hopes and disappointments
and long waiting, the construction of Village Chance has finally begun! On the
morning of October 27, 2009, under a bright sunshine, members of Maison Chance,
representatives of the Vietnamese partner (the Association for Poor Patients of
Ho Chi Minh City), and management of the construction company Nam Thien Loc,
were all present at the construction site to lay the first stone for the
building of Village Chance.
If things go as planned, in March 2011, beneficiaries of Maison Chance will
benefit from more than 40 disability adapted apartments at affordable rents. A
restaurant open to the public will facilitate the communication between the
residents of Village Chance and the neighboring community. It will be also a
training facility for those who would like to learn the art of cooking.
Visiting disabled people will be welcome at Village Chance and be able to rent
disability adapted accommodations.
The classrooms currently at the Take Wings Center will be relocated to Village
Chance to create more space for vocational training and for necessary expansion
planned for the coming years.
First Phase -
Raising the Level of the Land
Nam Thien Loc, the
company that built the Take Wings Center, has been chosen as the general
contractor to undertake the construction of Village Chance. The contract with
this company, signed on October 20, 2009, specifies that the construction will
be within fifteen months, and will comprise several phases.
In South Vietnam, the rainy season begins in May and ends in November.
Presently, the parcel of land where the Village Chance will be built upon is
flooded with water. The first phase is to pump the water out, then to raise the
level of the land, an area of 3,513 square meters, by approximately 1.50 meter,
in anticipation that the main road level will be raised in the future. This
phase is very important to prevent flooding. In Vietnam, road improvement is
accomplished by adding soil. After this, we will build a 240-meter long wall on
the perimeter. This phase will take approximately twenty days, not including
Sundays and days with torrential rains, and is expected to cost approximately
US$ 54,000.
While the construction budget of US$ 1.2 million has been secured, we still
need to raise more funds for equipment costs. Part of the equipment especially
made for the disabled can be found in Vietnam, but others are not currently
manufactured in Vietnam and must be imported or custom built.
A dream comes true.
At the beginning, Village Chance was just a dream. A dream of how to meet the
needs of wheelchair bound people as they leave Maison Chance to live on their
own. They face many difficulties, as they must rent places that are not suitable
for handicapped people. The Village Chance project is a logical continuation of
our mission: to enable the disabled to live autonomously in every aspect of
their lives. Today, the construction site of this innovative project has begun.
Our dream of building Village Chance has come true!
As the founders of this project, we feel great joy in announcing it. Imagine
how immense the joy of the future beneficiaries is. I would like to take this
opportunity to thank you once again for your continuous support. This project
has a long-term vision. We would like - in a developing country - to create a
reference for the respect of the environment and a model of solidarity between
people based on shared compassion for each other.
