Caritas Vietnam: Visiting and monitoring the terrible floods in Central Vietnam

Within a month, the people of Central Vietnam suffered many consecutive storms and floods. The prolonged damage to people and property caused by heavy rains subsequent terribly floods were terrible. The consequences of natural disasters were extremely because a lot of households almost had nothing after storms. Therefore, recovery from a disaster is extremely important.

From November 9-12, 2020, Caritas Vietnam representative, Fr. Joseph Ngo Si Dinh, OP, Director of Caritas Vietnam, Fr. Peter Nguyen Trong Duong, SVD., his assistant, visited and assessed flooded areas.

The first area Caritas Vietnam visited was the Diocese of Hue, which consists of Thua Thien Hue and Quang Tri provinces. Quang Tri is also a place that suffered heavy damage, especially Cay Da parish which is considered to be the navel flood area. Caritas Vietnam and Caritas Hue visited some families with difficult circumstances, to listen and share with them. It is true that only we can see with our own eyes, we can partially understand the pain that people suffer.

Mrs. Truong Thi Nhan, 68 years old, is living with Mr. Nam, her son in P. Kim Long, Hue city shared: "After the flood, our house is completely dilapidated, everything in the house is also damaged; now we wish to have a house with corrugated iron roof to hide the sun and rain".

Mr. Nguyen Luu (Son Dong 1, Huong Van, Huong Tra district, Thua Thien Hue province) shared: “My leg amputated during the Vietnam war, so I have to install prosthesis, the other leg still has sequelae so it is very difficulty for me when walking. My wife and I planted bananas but with the past floods, bananas were all dead, nothing left. The government has supported us 270,000 VND ($ 12), Caritas has provided us with the rice (330,000 VND), now we just depend on benefactors, we don't know how”.

After that, Caritas Vietnam and Caritas Hue work together to discuss and come up with specific plans for the reconstruction of people's lives, regardless of religion.

The next day, Caritas Vietnam delegation together with Bishop Paul Nguyen Thai Hop, Bishop of Diocese of Ha Tinh, Fr. John Baptist, Nguyen Huy Tuan, Director of Caritas Ha Tinh, visited and shared with some severely affected families in Quang Binh province.

Speaking of the historic flood this year, the Director of Caritas Ha Tinh is still very touched, he said: “The parish priests were very active and dedicated to bringing the people to a safe area and providing food kits for them. There are places where the priests were exhausted and had to transmit sea water. As soon as they got better, they immediately went to take care of the people. Although the flood was already big in 2010, the flood in Quang Binh province this year is even bigger, 1.5 meters higher than in 2010, because of the terrible flood, people's lives are very difficult but thanks to the help. The help of the parish priests, nuns and the young brothers and sisters in the rescue groups, the damage has been reduced. Although the lives of people in the flood days were difficult, no one died of starvation or thirst. There will still be a lot of work to do to help people have a stable life after the flood”.

Phuc, the pastoral council of Trung Quan parish shared: “When the flood came to the roof, people tried to remove the roof to get on the roof, but many people were stuck because the roof of the iron could not get out of it. The parish mobilized young people to rescue. They had to dive through the entrance to get the people stuck in the house out. The people here are mainly engaged in agriculture, rice cultivation, and cattle and poultry husbandry. Life which was inherently difficult has been swept away, so it is even more difficult".

Caritas Vietnam always takes great care and efforts to carry out tasks that contribute to recovering from natural disasters, rebuilding people's lives, repairing damaged houses, building new houses for affected or destroyed households, especially families in the landslide, forced to relocate to a new and safer place, providing seeds, and cattle and poultry, installing purified water filtration systems, and supporting scholarships for children in difficult circumstances...

A lot of work needed to be done, because in many places, people left nothing, from their children's notebooks, to the schoolbag and bicycles used to go to school, were swept away or damaged. Cattle and poultry died, all things in the house could not be used anymore.

With donations from benefactors across the country, overseas Vietnamese and international organizations sent to Caritas Vietnam, we hope that the people who suffered in the heavy losses will alleviate the burden in their lives. Please continue to support and accompany us.

The editor department – Caritas Viet Nam