vietnam

Vietnam trip, half way down…

Duncan Epping · Feb 27, 2014 ·

Been in Vietnam now for almost a week. (Read my previous posts here and here, also read Kamau’s most recent blog post here.) So far this has been a unique and amazing experience. The concept of service learning is something I had never thought of but resonates really well. The great thing about it is that the “learn” aspect doesn’t necessarily need to be directly job related, I mean there is a huge value in personal growth / developing soft-skills. Of course there is a technical aspect to it…

Talking about technical stuff, it is funny how relatively simple tips can make a huge difference in improving process of for instance desktop re-imagining. What struck me most is that before you actually come up with a simple approach you tend to look at 20 different complex solutions, probably just because you can. It is all about where you come from I guess, when your back ground is Enterprise IT, you will want to take 20 huge steps back before you start a project like this. Just to give an example, you cannot expect to install 12 hosts and an all-flash-array in an environment where you do not even know if there is cooling or sufficient power. It is easy to assume that it will be available, but especially in these kind of places that is not a given.

After visiting 2 orphanages and conducting many interviews around how classrooms are being used / managed and deployed we went from Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho on Wednesday morning. Let me say though that HCMC is a great city, extremely vibrant and energetic. It is in constant motion and they may say that New York never sleeps but I am sure this also applies to HCMC. Other thing that struck me is that it all comes across as extremely chaotic (especially traffic), if you take a step back and observe it appears not to be chaotic but rather organic. It flows.

In Can Tho we visited two orphanages and it made it even more clear that a lot of help is needed. I was talking to my kids last night about this as well, what struck me was the enthusiasm of these orphans, the joy, and the willingness to help each-other out. It is awesome to see how excited they are about computer classes, and instead of fighting each other (like my kids would do) to be the first to claim a laptop they all huddled in and shared. It is also great to see how fast they picked up, before we knew they opened up youtube and were visiting various websites. I still wonder how they managed to get on the password protected wifi though that we had just set up, LOL.

What rests me for now is telling all of you, again, that this is one of those experiences that will be with me for the rest of my life. An amazing trip, an amazing charity, talking about providing a new perspective to things. Before I forget… 6 people have been so kind to sponsor computer classes for a child for one year, various others have made other contributions, I want to thank each of you for giving back. It is great to see how engaged all of you are, that you are willing to donate your own money for a great cause like this. I can’t say it enough: thanks.

*** I know many of my fellow technology lovers have a big heart. I would like to ask each and everyone of you who has enjoyed reading my articles to donate something to either Team4Tech or Orphan Impact. For 200 dollars you can sponsor computer classes for an orphan for a whole year, 400 dollars brings them a new Classmate PC, and about 4000 dollars enables Orphan Impact to hire a teacher! ***

Vietnam trip, first couple of days…

Duncan Epping · Feb 24, 2014 ·

I have been in Vietnam a couple of days now and so far it has made a huge impression on me. (Many pictures here if you want an impression) To be honest I didn’t really know what to expect. I had never been to Asia before even, and never have been in contact in any shape or form with orphanages. Funny that before you go out you do have an expectation of what you will see, I guess everything revolves around perception. How you look at something and how it comes across.

The first couple of days were spent observing. Talking to the people of Orphan Impact to figure out what their challenges are delivering computer skill training in these orphanages in Vietnam. We visited two orphanages to see how these classes are delivered, and personally I spent time just observing the kids to see how they are consuming it. What struck me is the drive / the fun these kids had. We watched the change of a group and these kids were waiting at the door and as soon as the hour was over they literally ran in. What Orphan Impact does for these kids matters. As Tad of Orphan Impact said, it makes such a big difference for these kids that in one orphanage they have seen the runaway / elope literally drop down to 0 and that was attributed by the Orphanage director to the classes provided.

Another thing that stood out during these days was how these kids used the computers, what they were doing during the classes and what kind of material they used for their assignments. It is great to see that they are not just doing the exercises but also use the time for “social” purposes. Seeing those kids switch between their email / exercises / facebook was great. Seeing them use Google to look-up a picture of Messi to use that in their assignment was eye-opening. These kids were very resourceful in many ways.

Talking about resourcefulness, something that struck me walking around in Vietnam, the level of entrepreneurship throughout the country / city is extremely high. On every street corner and every street facing window you will see someone trying to sell something. Mini-startups in a sense you could say. I guess talking about perception, when you are on a holiday and you are being asked every minute if you want to buy something it can be annoying. It is good to realize that this is their way of surviving. Look at it from their perspective when you run in to a situation like this.

During our kick-off event multiple Vietnamese entrepreneurs were invited, and I know some may think that what we do won’t make a difference in the long run, I can tell you that it already did. During our kick-off event their was an introduction by the VMware team, Team4Tech and Orphan Impact, which as I have explained earlier is a US ran non profit organization that employs local (Vietnamese) people to teach these kids. One of the entrepreneurs said and I quote: seeing people from the US (and other parts of the world) coming to Vietnam to help our people makes me realize that I can do more myself for my own people. That by itself was worth the trip if you ask me.

That is it for now, just a short summary of what we’ve been up to far. The upcoming days will be spent discussing what their problems/challenges are, how we potentially can solve this.

For those interested, Kamau Wanguhu also published his thoughts… Day 0 and Day 1 are up so far.

Serve, Learn and Inspire – support the cause and donate/contribute!

Duncan Epping · Feb 20, 2014 ·

Today I am flying out to Vietnam. No not for a holiday, as many seem to think. I am flying out to Vietnam to work with several great VMware colleagues whom have been asked by the VMware Foundation to go on this journey. I am very grateful and honored to have been selected for this project, it is not just a random project… We will be helping Team4tech and Orphanimpact by working on improving the delivery of computer classes to various orphanages in Vietnam.

Some of you will probably have the same question as my daughter had when I explained why I was going away for almost 2 weeks to Vietnam: “You are going to an orphanage to do what… improve delivery of computer classes, why would those kids need that?” Watch this video and you will understand why it is important for these kids to get computer classes, preventing social isolation is key here.

More details about Orphan Impact here: orphanimpact.org
More details about Team4Tech here: team4tech.org

If your company is interested in contributing / giving back, make sure to contact Team4Tech and Orphan Impact. They work with many great technology companies like Intel and VMware on various projects, and they can use all the help they need.

I know many of my fellow technology lovers have a big heart. I would like to ask each and everyone of you who has enjoyed reading my articles to donate something to either Team4Tech or Orphan Impact. (Of course contributions in different ways like I describe above are also encouraged!) Believe me, this is a great cause and they can use all the help they can get. You (or the company your work for) can donate any amount, but with only 10 dollars you can give these kids a headphone for their computer classes for instance. (Before anyone asks, yes I just donated.) VMware folks, if you donate don’t forget to request a donation match through the VMware Foundation!

Support the cause!