MAD
Indochina
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needs YOU
one can make a difference
NEWS UPDATE
3 July 2009
Here is quick photo shoot of the new home of
Laugh Cafe at 126 Tran Cao Van, Hoi An. \The ground
floor looking towards the street.
this is looking in from the entrance doors 
you can see in the first picture.
When you come to visit, it
will have changed a bit. On the ground floor there is a restaurant area, a
large kitchen
with a
bathroom for staff
. A room that
we will use as an office is large enough to also have part of it used for a
bedroom
(we will put
up some sort of divider) There is also a small toilet room under the stairs but
it has a few problems. It has no ventilation and it was this that prompted my
request in the last email for an un-ducted fan. It also lacks a wash basin so I
am looking for a very small unit. What we want does not appear in the few shops
in Hoi An - so I will go to DaNang
this afternoon and have a look there.
This morning we will have
the electrician installing more power points and correcting a few problems.
We have a number of quotes
for the kitchen ventilation system and it appears that we might get away with a
solution for about US$1600. More than expected but we had quotes above $5000.
The house is built on the boundaries of the land on all sides. This means that
any vents through the outside walls are on someone else's property. More money. We have to install some more sinks in the
kitchen and change most of the taps in the house, as most do not work, or, in
two cases, the landlord has removed bathroom fittings. The landlord also
removed fans and light fittings, but there is nothing that can be done except
replace the items.—
On the first floor (2nd
in 
More restaurant area
And a
small verandah. There is also
another bathroom.
On the top floor there is
storage and a roof top area.
The outside is not
distinctive but we hope our reputation will attract customers.
3 June 2009
Dear Readers,
A shipment of toys from
MAD earlier in the year included some hundreds of identical stuffed owls. I
must confess that the toys did not appeal to me, but I am no judge as the
attached photos (courtesy of David and Narey from
AHC) demonstrate. I am at AHC at the moment and we have run out of toys.
Fortunately there is a shipment currently awaiting clearance in
The toys did not appeal to
me - but the pictures certainly do. I hope that they give you a smile.
A quick update on the
generator set: it is working well but still not connected to the hospital /
mains as it is currently located too far from the location of the interface
switch. The choice, whether to find $3000 to extend the cables – or to
re-locate it still has to be made. In the interim the unit has been thoroughly
cleaned and it will be re-painted soon.
Here are some photos with Va, Head of Hospital Maintenance and Michelle from FWAB in
28 April 2009
Dear Readers,
The last few days in
This will be finished later when I have some photos of 125 TCV. I
hope to get the extractor hood for the kitchen ordered today.
Does anyone know a supplier of a ductless (recirculating)
fan with a carbon filter for a bathroom (actually, it is toilet). There are
some available in the USA but they do not ship outside the country (probably
good, because they are 120V and Vietnam is close to 240, [quite a lot of the
time]) An Australian source would be good so I that I can carry \it on
my next trip (August), but any source would be good if it can be posted.
Oh No – I left this email at 7:30 this morning to rush to 126 to
talk about the extractor ducting for the kitchen and forgot to take a camera. I
suspect that the quotes will be high – but we should know at least one by this
afternoon. I will find time to take some “before“ pictures
before we close at 10pm.
Busy now with a few lunch customers and Hong is giving a cooking
class to an English couple. A great thing about our classes is that when you
book you decide what you want to cook. For that reason our classes have to be
very “individual”.
A small interval while I chatted with a Quebecois couple. Such conversations often cover a lot of
ground, including the history of Hoi An as a Japanese trading post and port and
when Japan cloistered itself (1635 to 1853 I think) the Chinese took over from
the Japanese as the beneficiaries of Hoi An’s
strategic location and safe harbour. There are some
traditional dishes which are only found in Hoi An some
of Chinese derivation and one (or two) of Japanese.
19
January 2009
A New
Chairman
Dear MAD Members,
In order to facilitate the registration of MAD with the
Dr. Chris O’Neill, Director of the Sydney Centre for Developmental
and Regenerative Medicine, Northern Clinical School, Royal North Shore
Hospital, University of Sydney, . will take on the
position of Chairman. I am most grateful for Chris’s involvement and interest.
I will happily assist the Committee in any way I can but will not have a vote
in any decisions that they make.
If any of our members wish to become more involved in the workings of MAD and
wish to nominate for a position on the Committee please let me know and I will
forward your details to the Committee; more involvement by all our members is
sought.
I will be leaving for
Please give some thought to how we can raise
funds to address these needs and please, stay in touch when I am travelling. Your emails are greatly appreciated.
Kind regards,
Peter
5
January 2009
Peter's next trip is scheduled for 25 January, 2009. It
coincides with Tet, the Vietnamese New Year which is
a bit inconvenient because lots of establishments close for a week at Tet. Since Peter pays for his trips out of his own pocket,
he took advantage of a special air-fare. Some of our
local supporters will be in
The generator set for AHC is progressing with Johnsons Transport agreeing to move the unit from the old
We are close to achieving out target for funds for the move of Laugh Cafe to a
bigger home.
_____________________
Monday, 1 December 2008
Dear Readers,
I am back in
AHC generator
In the last week I received some advice that the Sydney
City Council, who own the land where South Sydney Hospital used to be and where
the generator set has rested for the last 10 years, have agreed to give AU$5000
to the cost of shipping said generator to Cambodia. I will be pursuing this
further this morning for more details.
Laugh Café
The house that we found at the other end of Tran Cau Van has given us a small problem. The property seems to
be owned by two brothers and one of them has insisted on us paying 5 years rent
up-front (ouch). Negotiations have stalled for the moment and we will do
nothing for a few weeks in the hope that the brothers will discuss it and
determine a more modest payment. Having looked at many houses in Hoi An, we had
held out some hope for this one.
Songkimthmey
Now that I am back in
Perhaps we should be looking at alternatives. I did look a
generator attached to a bike. I have been dissuaded for the moment as the
children are small and used only to pedalling on flat
land. Doubts were raised as to the power output of the children (it would need
to be pedalled for about 2 hours a day) and to the
logistics of mounting and dismounting a bike that is in constant demand for
getting to school for 2 children, twice a day. There are two school groups,
those that go from 7am to 12 noon and from 1pm to 6 pm. A bike carries 2-3
children and spends most of its time at school.
What else should we consider, apart form my current
approach of a constant search for laptops.
Does anyone know of an organisation that is updating
it laptops? Songkimthmey is not the only area of need.
A shipment of toys, books, pens, crayons and paper was
sent today. It is scheduled to arrive in
Thank you, Vic!
15 October 2008
A generator set for AHC.
The Angkor Hospital needs
a replacement stand-by/top-up generator. The existing unit is now longer
working. The hospital has recently moved to the local power grid but still
needs backup. The power supply in Siem Reap can be
erratic. I have located a generator but, and there always seems to be a but, the hospital has no funds to pay for its shipment
from
The solar panel saga
There has been a small advance, No, a donor for the panels
required for Songkimthmey has not been found, but,
(there is another one) the
Membership
We have a few new members, but sadly we have lost one.
Peter Lucas, a founding member, died while on a trip to
Peter's schedule -
November 2008
- Hoi An from
11 November - Laugh Cafe, Cahors Centre
- Siem Reap from 24 November - AHC, Songkimthmey
Needed for this trip:
- Laptops
- We will repair or salvage almost any laptop/notebook
- Software
- educational - English language
- Books
- Primary and early secondary; Grammar, readers, stories, the condition is
not important.
MEMBERSHIP
We are run by our members and we need community support - your
support.
Join MAD Inc for $25 a year - show your concern and interest.
Joining Make A Difference will assist us
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Members receive:
- A newsletter
- A say in the running of the organisation
- The opportunity to help in
areas of your expertise
- The opportunity to enthuse
others
MAD Indochina
MAD Indochina Inc is an Australian based charitable
NGO, not affiliated with any religious, political or pressure group.
PROGRAMS
MAD works with disadvantaged children and
young people in
Through our programs we provide education and training in
English, hospitality and computing. Visit the About Us page to read about
Angkor Hospital for Children,
(AHC)
Laugh
Cafe and our work with
Why?
A partial answer might be Albert Einstein's comment:
"We are not put on earth for ourselves, but are placed here for each
other."
We believe that it is our duty, and the duty of all, to to promote the
development of people and communities amongst the poorer nations.
The war in
One can make a difference
Why don’t we work in
Peter does similar work in Australia,
just not with children. He works with Exodus Foundation teaching computer
literacy and with the Smith Family’s
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UP
Our web site is small - we do not have enough
space. To get an Application for
Membership download it from:
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one can make a difference