HDI Travels To Asia – October 20-November 13, 2008

December, 2008

A delegation from The Humpty Dumpty Institute travelled to Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from October 20, 2008 to November 13, 2008 (view photos). In addition to HDI’s Board of Directors and HDI staff, the delegation included Ms. Gina Otto, the author of the best selling children’s book “Cassandra’s Angel” . She joined the HDI delegation to review the Institute’s programming in Asia, particularly those related to young girls.

In Taipei, Taiwan the delegation met with Taiwanese government and NGO officials on possible areas of cooperation on mine action programs. In Hanoi, Vietnam, the delegation sponsored a benefit concert for landmine survivors featuring the famous Vietnamese pop star My Linh. They next traveled to Quang Tri province to observe first hand developments in HDI’s program “Mushrooms with a Mission”. This poverty reduction program is designed to give landmine victims additional means of livelihood through mushroom farming.

After crossing the Vietnam/Laos border, the delegation proceeded to Thakhek, Laos, where it met with HDI’s partners, the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and International Relief and Development (IRD). The U.S. Ambassador to Laos, Ravic Huso, met the delegation to review HDI school feeding and UXO clearance programs there. The delegation also had the opportunity to visit with children now attending school in areas previously contaminated by landmines. These children are provided with nutritional snacks during the course of the school day as part of HDI’s commitment to school feeding programs in conjunction with its land mine clearance projects. The delegation’s final stop was Phnom Penh, Cambodia where it visited AFESIP and observed the extraordinary work it was undertaking on behalf of victims of human trafficking.