Mission
I'M AN ORIGINAL CATCHPHRASE
Who
They are a Franco-Vietnamese couple, he a white-haired, expressive European, she a small, energetic Hue native.
Thuy grew up poor in Hue, but understood the importance of education and worked hard to attend the best schools possible. After completing her studies, she delved into humanitarian work in the region. Jean and Thuy met thanks to their shared passion for helping others, and were married in 2004.
Jean first came to Hue in 1999 – after experiencing the flood of the century, he decided to stay in Vietnam and pursue humanitarian work, leaving behind his life in France.
Since then, they have been working together to help make Hue a better place. In 2004, they created Voyage au Vietnam, a tourism agency, whose benefits would help fund their humanitarian work. A few years later, they built a village for previously boat-dwelling people. Schools, a library, a foster home, a homestay, nothing is enough for Jean and Thuy who have been tirelessly working to improve the lives of those around them.
How
I'M AN ORIGINAL CATCHPHRASE
Why / What
"We're utopians!" Jean jokes about him and his wife. But as you see them work, you realize this quip is not so far from the truth: project after project, family after family, they keep striving to achieve better living conditions, more sustainable progress, more numerous opportunities.
At first, the couple decided to focus their actions on a segment of the area's population who lives on makeshift boats, the sampaniers. As fishing no longer sufficed for the sampaniers to make a living, they began to dredge sand from river beds instead. Their living conditions worsened – the back-breaking work that provided barely enough income, proximity to water and toxic dust, all contributed to a lack of education, a variety of medical conditions, and poverty.
After working on the urgent task of improving the sampaniers' living conditions (namely by building housing on land), Jean and Thuy's priority became fostering more sustainable and widespread development, mainly through a focus on education and youth.
Jean and Thuy's mission is not just to provide momentary relief. It is to ensure significant and sustainable changes occur – that each generation be healthier, more educated, more financially secure and happier than the previous one.
To fund these actions, Thuy and Jean rely on support from organizations such as Les Sampaniers du Vietnam, Estacaide, Aide Dentaire Vietnam, Grain de Riz Pour un Sourire, and others; donations; individual sponsors for the children; and volunteers. However, tourism remains their main source of revenue, with their travel agency “Voyage au Vietnam” and their homestay near Hue.
