Thursday, January 31, 2008

Renovation!

Two small renovation projects that Blue Dragon has had underway were finished off this week.

At the Hoi An Children’s Home, the kids’ bathrooms have long been in need of basic repairs. With the massive floods that swept through last year, the facilities were damaged even further, to the point of having the sinks hanging off the walls… But donations from friends both in Vietnam and around the world meant that we could finally get them fixed. Have a look at the ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots!

Watch out for the sink...

The new sinks are installed

It might seem like a simple renovation, but to the 30 kids who live at the Home, it makes a big difference.

Here in Hanoi, Ngoc’s home was repaired last month in preparation for his return from hospital. Since the stabbing attack that occurred, Ngoc’s health has slowly improved but he’ll never have full strength again. His tiny house simply wasn’t suitable for somebody with weak lungs: it was dusty, without even a ceiling to hide the asbestos roof.



The water system for Ngoc's house was one of the first things we replaced


A view inside the one-room house

Blue Dragon organized for a major renovation of the house, and Ngoc moved back home around Christmas. But our volunteer Andrew has been working on some finishing touches, which were installed earlier this week.

Andrew has been mentoring one of our older boys, Hung, who had tuberculosis meningitis a couple of years ago. Hung’s progress is extremely slow, but he loves tinkering in Blue Dragon’s Shed and has been helping Andrew to make furniture and do basic repairs to our centre.

Hung and Andrew worked together to make some shelves and a fold-away study desk for Ngoc’s house, and on Tuesday they went to install. Hung, pictured, just couldn’t stop grinning as he watched his handy-work being bolted to the wall. Ngoc and his family, too, are thrilled to have this addition to their home. Smiles all around!

Hung inside Ngoc's house, with his handy work installed


(And for those who have been following this story, the police have caught all three attackers who stabbed Ngoc).

2 comments:

Mosher said...

All great news, Mike. And sneaky dropping that last little bit in at the end! Any chance the police can hold them until I get there in July...?

Totalrenovering said...

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