University of Virginia Library

Not Too Helpless To Help

A group at the University,
the Friends of Quang Ngai, are
asking students voting on the
disposition of the funds for the
class gift to endorse a plan to
donate the funds, some
$11,000, to the Quang Ngai
Rehabilitation Center in South
Vietnam.

The Quang Ngai
Rehabilitation Center in Quang
Ngai Province is operated by
the American Friends Service
Committee, which has
informed the Friends of Quang
Ngai Rehabilitation Center in
Charlottesville that the Center
in Vietnam produces
approximately 90 artificial
limbs each month, that one
quarter of the patients are
under 16 years old, that
vocational training and
rehabilitation are becoming
more important, and that the
AFSC will leave Quang
Ngai after the war and when the
Vietnamese can continue the
Center without outside aid.

The Center receives no
funds from any government,
operates totally independently,
and is primarily staffed by
Vietnamese civilians. It serves
the medical needs of anybody
who is in need, regardless of
political affiliation or cause of
injury.

In an agricultural country
where physical labor is vital to
subsistence, the vocational
training and rehabilitation
programs are as important to
the future of the wounded as
medical attention and
prosthetic devices.

The graduating class fund
has come out of the general
fees paid by every student and
should be used as students
desire. Frustrations over the
war run deep and most people
feel helpless in the face of
renewed bombings and
increased level of fighting
which result in many of the
civilian casualties.

Student strikes, like the one
at the University two years
ago, do little to end the
violence. The gift of the
graduating class to the Quang
Ngai Rehabilitation Center will
not end the war either, but it
will provide new hope and new
opportunities to a few
Vietnamese who otherwise will
be doomed to a quick death or
a life of despair.

The Friends of Quang Ngai
have received wide support on
the Grounds. The Friends hope
that degree candidates will vote
to give their gift to the Center,
that the University community
will contribute to the AFSC,
and that the suffering in Asia
can be alleviated. The mailing
address is Friends of Quang
Ngai, c/o Box 85x, Newcomb
Hall Station.