issue 54 - AsiaLIFE Magazine

BREAKING GROUND
As Loreto prepares to celebrate its 15th year in Vietnam in October,
Chris Mueller speaks with the face behind the charity about what it has
accomplished and what’s in store. Photos by Fred Wissink.
Sister Trish Franklin is already
well-known in the expat
community, especially among
Carlton Football Club supporters.
The 61-year-old Australian
has been living in Vietnam for
18 years, 15 of them leading
the Loreto Vietnam-Australia
Project. In the process, she has
become the face of the charity,
helping more than 25,000
disabled and disadvantaged
children throughout Vietnam.
While the charity previously
focused on helping disabled
children, Trish has taken Loreto
further into the remote areas of
Vietnam.
This new direction began at
the end of 2010 after receiving
requests for support in Phu Yen
province along the south central
coast, as well as another school
in Ca Mau, the southern-most
province in Vietnam.
These newest projects are
meant to not only target the disabled,
but bring much-needed
kindergartens and schools to
areas that have few. Despite the
large demand for a kindergarten
in the Phu Yen community, there
was only room for 30 students,
all 5 years old.
“When we arrived there
was only a small stone house
with no toilets, running water
or resources,” Trish says. “The
teacher had to carry buckets of
water to the classroom.”
Now that the kindergarten in
Phu Yen is finished, complete
with a kitchen, eating area and
playground, more than 250
students attend. Many villagers
passing by describe the school
as “their town’s palace”, she
says.
Soon after construction in
Phu Yen began, Trish was walking
along a small road, when
she came across a young girl
with cerebral palsy, a disability
she commonly works with in
Vietnam. This little girl, she
says, brought her full-circle.
“It’s like being on a journey,”
she says. “Is that destiny? Is that
meant to be? I think that was
destiny.”
Trish says her faith is important
to her but only uses it as
personal guidance and doesn’t
let her Catholic beliefs dictate
the direction of her organisation.
She first joined the Loreto
Sisters in 1970, before the order
sent her to Thailand to work on
refugee camps in 1985. It was
there that she first started working
with Vietnamese children,
which led her to move to Vietnam
in 1995, when she founded
the Vietnam branch of Loreto.
Throughout Loreto’s 15
years in the country, it has built
primary schools, kindergartens
and other educational facilities,
working primarily with children
with disabilities. In Vietnam
there is still a stigma on those
with disabilities, leaving many
families to keep the children
in the house out of shame.
Even among volunteers, which
number in the hundreds, Trish
says it is difficult at first for
them to feel comfortable around
the kids.
“Some of the volunteers think
the kids are dangerous at first,”
she says.
Trish says of all the projects
they have done, the computer
room they built for blind children
in District 10 stands out the
most. Another was a computer
room they built next to a school
in Nha Be, on the outskirts
of Ho Chi Minh City, which
opened in March.
“The kids didn’t even know
how to pull out the keyboards,”
she says. “I hate the things
[computers], but there is no way
any child in the world can be
successful without them.”
One of the main reasons
Loreto has been so successful,
compared to many other
international NGOs, is its ability
and willingness to work with
local governments and convince
them to contribute funding. This
forces the governments to take
responsibility for the projects
and allows them to be successful
long after Loreto leaves. “We
get them to walk beside us,”
she says.
But that may soon change
as Trish prepares to leave the
organisation. Although her departure
will not happen anytime
soon — she says in the next
three to five years — she is planning
for it. “I’m not going to be
here forever,” she says, adding
that she will not leave Vietnam.
Right now she has an
architect and three dedicated
staff members, all of whom are
Vietnamese. Trish says they are
really the ones that make Loreto
run and could continue to do so
if she left. “The are passionate,”
she says. “They are serving their
own people."
All of the Loreto staff say they
couldn’t imagine the organisation
without Trish, but if she
does leave, they say they’d
continue her legacy.
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