Morristown veteran returns to Vietnam to help children
Dave Baker, a U.S. Army Canine Unit veteran of the Vietnam War, has returned to Vietnam to help the poor there.
This time, Baker, 71, coordinated the providing of school uniforms to children in Vietnamese Day Care Centers which he has sponsored for several years since his first trip back to the impoverished nation to help the poor, especially children.
"I thought after the war, that it was time to give back and decided one way to do that would be to help the poor of the country, especially the children," Baker said.
In addition to his work with the day care center, Baker has donated practical items for children's clinics in Vietnam and helped build homes for poor people who could otherwise not have afforded them.
Sau Anh, vice chairman of the local peoples committee in Phuc Dong Province and Bich Lin, director of the local daycares and David Baker, who is one of the daycares' major contributors, met for the announcement of the completion of 300 handmade uniforms for the daycare students.
In all for the area's three daycares, they contributed 300 handmade school uniforms for those children that didn't have them because their parents couldn't afford to buy them. The cost was about $1,800, which Baker contributed.
"The picture of kids' faces after they received their new uniforms speaks easily 1,000 words," Baker said. "The smiles on their faces and excitement tells the whole story. Seeing the kids happy with the uniforms kind of makes my day, and makes the whole project worthwhile."
Baker, who owns The Postmark, a Morristown coin and stamp shop, said he has two other projects to help the poor in the works. One involves buying some used "like new" desk top computers for the peoples committee, so they can teach classes on how to use the computers. "These classes will be strictly for senior citizens," Baker said.
The computers were bought at a computer store in Vietnam to save on the cost of shipping them from the U.S., he said.
Another project he has in the wings, Baker added, will involve helping a female monk, who has a small local temple in the area, and just took charge of the care of an 8-year-old girl, who is mentally and physically handicapped.
"We plan on helping her financially with the medical expenses as well," Baker said. "The monk's name is Tom Cat and she cares for eight abandoned children."
"When these kids finish high school, they can either go on their own or off to college," Baker said. "If they turn out to be a straight A student, they often will have the opportunity to go on to college sponsored by the government."
"Often when they finish college, they can go to work for the government," he added, noting that in Vietnam it is "very prestigious to have a government job."
"We're getting lucky that we're getting a younger generation involved in the government of Vietnam that want to see more of a democracy than the country has had in the past," Baker, 71, said. "Being from the United States, I know how important an education can be, and how much we value our democracy.