Opening: Terri Daktyl Friendship Clubhouse

A new clubhouse has been opened in Kinh Mon province for people living with HIV/AIDS and their families.

Cutting the ribbon at the opening ceremony of the Kinh Mon Clubhouse

Since 2006, Union Aid Abroad APHEDA has worked in Vietnam's Red River delta province of Hai Duong in partnership with the Hai Duong Women's Union (HDWU). With a population of approximately 1.7 million, (83% of whom work in agriculture), the province is increasingly characterised by poverty, with its people having little or no access to information, services, education or training opportunities.

One of the major challenges in Hai Duong, as in many regions of the world, is the rapid conversion of agricultural land to industry. Social problems such as the trafficking of women and drug abuse are on the rise. APHEDA and the HDWU have developed a number of projects to provide local community responses to these issues.

In 2007, a group of Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA activists travelled to Vietnam, cycling from Hanoi in the north to Ho Chi Minh City in the south, visiting projects in Hai Duong province along the way. Aptly named the 'Wheelie Wadical Workers', the tour participants raised over $20,000 for Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA projects in Vietnam.

Whilst in Hai Duong, the group visited the Kinh Mon HIV/AIDS Club - one of four such clubs in the province. These 'Clubs' provide opportunities for people living with HIV/AIDS and their families to meet and share their experiences, and to receive support, advice and education about HIV/AIDS. The clubs also play an important role by holding awareness-raising activities - challenging the myths, stigma and discrimination that exists within the general community.

Showing much concern and interest in the health and wellbeing of the club members, the late Terri Daktyl, a member of the 2007 cycling tour group, spoke passionately to her friends and comrades about the HIV/AIDS project and the 'March 8' vocational training centre in Hai Duong on her return home.

Terri was an organiser with the LHMU in South Australia and previously worked at the Australian Nursing Federation in Adelaide. Terri died suddenly in March 2008, and her friends and comrades felt it was important to continue to support the project she spoke so passionately about. At the time, Kinh Mon Club members were meeting in the house of a club member. Their greatest wish was to have their own Clubhouse, so they would have the facilities to hold meetings in a more comfortable and secure environment.

As a result, the inaugural Terri Daktyl Memorial Dinner was held in Adelaide in May 2008. Funds were raised in Terri's memory and were used to build a Clubhouse for the Vietnamese people she cared so deeply about. One year on, the Terri Daktyl Friendship Clubhouse was officially opened. Terri was remembered in a moving ceremony on March 6th, 2009, that honoured and celebrated all she believed in.

For more information or to make a contribution to APHEDA's work with people living with HIV/AIDS in Vietnam, please contact Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA on
1800 888 674 or office@apheda.org.au

2009 Terri Daktyl Memorial Dinner - Adelaide

© Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA 2003.

Last Modified: Tuesday, 12-May-2009 16:10:38 EST
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