On the 28th April myself and my two best friends, Dahlia and Cara booked a trip to Sa Pa for a long weekend over a Vietnamese annual holiday. Little did we know that as our trip was ending our story in Sa Pa had only just began...

With only a couple of hours left before making our way back to Sa Pa town for the night bus back to Hanoi we decided to eat at one of the local restaurants. It was here we met two young girls and their mother and were given the insights to their tragic background through the owner of the restaurant.

The mother has always been 'Deaf and mate' unfortunately making her extremely vulnerable in the dark quiet dusty roads of this small tribal village. She has been raped twice, the outcome of this was becoming a single mother to two beautiful young girls, but her journey has been full of pain and poverty. She had no money, unemployed due to her disability and the roof over her head is not a practical living condition for any family.

We now know that this family is living in a small tarpauling shack with no running water or electricity, held down with rocks, I'm not sure how efficient this will be in a storm! The family must trek for days to visit sick family members with no money for transport.
In order to build them a functional concrete house with space for the girls to grow up with in and have access to running water and electricity, it is going to cost around $1,400 (USD). We found out the girls are able to attend school through the council which the eldest daughter is already enrolled into. Meaning our main focus is to allow them somewhere safe and secure to live where the mother can raise her daughters and grow old comfortably.

Here is the link to my personal blog where the story will continue in more detail and explain the way this story has touched our hearts, please make sure to give it a read if you are interested in following or helping us on this journey to change a families life!

Internationalsmile.blog