Before diving into Vietnamese culture, the word “ancestors” was a quite limited term for me. My ancestors were mainly my parents, I only knew one grandmother, all the others had passed away before I was
born,
I don’t even know the names of some of my grand parents. Yes I have seen some photos, but there was not a culture in our family to tell you a lot about our grandparents and for sure I know very little about my great grandparents.
But now I am actually becoming an ancestor myself…travelling with my granddaughter, I feel like the “history” of our family and I am happy to share with her.
Long time ago Mrs Trinh said to me: you are
1st generation of TTG, we are 2nd generation…
Here in Vietnam ancestors are a strong social factor, a strong link in the family, to history.
Every home has an ancestor altar, honouring
the past generations.
When Tho and me started our work in the field of special education in Vietnam, I guess it was also linked to our ancestors,
From Tho’s side, as he has Vietnamese origins through his father,
it was his uncle Ha Van Lau who at first said to us after a visit in our home in Switzerland: why don’t you do some of your work for your county. There is such a great need!
At that time Tho and me lived in a Camphill community in
Switzerland, Perceval ST Prex, welcoming 7 youngsters with disabilities, mainly youngsters living with autism, in our family.
Tho was the director of a social workers training . Tho, me and our two children, lived for 12 years with children with disabilities
and special ed students in a “big” family.
In 1982 Tho went for the first time back to Vietnam. The suffering of the country touched him deeply.
As we are sensitive to the suffering of the person’s with disabilities,
the suffering of their families, this was the “entry” for us to become active in our compassion in Vietnam.
This is how Eurasia came about: eurasia-foundation.org
You can look at our website all that we have done during these years, but I think what is the most important in all this: is the authentic human encounter, building on trustful relationships, to concentrate on training and get “involved” fully
and on the long term in order to implement the projects with “roots” and to connect to the “ancestors” stream of special education, of the country and its culture and customs.
Also important to work again and again on our motivation
for this work, our vision and on our common goals.
When I see the “next generation” of Eurasia: Tu, Trinh, Khanh, Huyen, Hung, Phu, Mr Hanh, Mrs Vong….I do feel…yes this river is getting stronger, wider and its
joyful and powerful flow will carry Eurasia, special education and social therapy further,