Letter from Sister Chan Khong
New Hamlet - Plum Village, November 14, 2007

Feet Under Water, Tornado Overhead, Landslide

Dear friends,

These are a few headlines of current news articles from Vietnam announcing great natural disasters sweeping across the country, reporting the enormous amount of suffering of victims from the northern part of Vietnam to the provinces bordering on the south.  In the north, we have sent aid though modest, to a few hundred of the thousands of inhabitants who have seen their homes vanish under the water (in Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, and Ha Tinh). In central Vietnam, the flood continues to submerge hundreds of thousands of homes in Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh and Phu Yen.  The homes of the poorest were mostly affected. Constructed of straw, wood and mud, they could not afford to build brick homes or homes on high foundations.  The weather reports predicted the potential severity of the storm, resulting in less damage and saved lives.  The loss of life was considered low by local standards (7-22 deaths per province) therefore the interest in helping these victims is low. With their homes completely under water and possessions washed away, these victims have lost everything.  Hundreds of thousands are stranded on their rooftops, or taking refuges with family or friends with brick homes.  They continue to wait anxiously for survival aid to arrive.  The only dependable help comes from compassionate volunteers and nuns who organized themselves to help as best they could.  In looking deeply, we see that as children of this planet, we have destroyed without pity our Mother Earth, and these “natural” disasters are bells of mindfulness waking us up to hear her warnings.  Perhaps in the name of development, we should not destroy our natural resources like mountains, forest and return to a simpler life. Making use of the spiritual heritage of our ancestors, we can protect the environment and the way of life of millions of living beings that share this earth with us.

Three of the most shocking events among in these disasters are:

1/Floods:

Widespread deforestation caused by industrial exploitation through the mining anthracite-zinc, or nickel has greatly inhibited the lands capacity to absorb the seasonal rains leading to repeated and increasingly higher water levels. Therefore, hundreds of thousands of acres of rice fields and agriculture are under water in the districts of Lac Van, Thuong Hoa, Thanh Lac, Son Thanh, and the Ninh Binh province.  When the rain continued to pour more than four days, water rose everywhere, and the lower elevations of each province were flooded where thousands of homes were lost in: Vinh hung and Vinh Yen to the Thanh Hoa province and Huong Do, Yen Loc, Hung Thuy, Huong Giang, Cam Minh, Quang Trach Tuyen Hoa, from Minh Hoa to the Ha Tinh province and to Quang Binh.  .

November 12, 2007,
Our Mother Earth with her forests is suffering enormously announcing that the end is near if we do not change our way of life.  The river in Hue, home of the root temple of our teacher Thay, has risen for the fourth time and the water level of all the rivers from Thua Thien (region of Hue) to Quang Nam and Quang Ngai has reached 4.5 meters. The water level has risen more than 2 meters in the Tay Linh Monastery where our young Prajna sisters live (a branch of Plum Village).  Except for a certain few accustomed to being evacuated from flood waters, our young sisters are now stranded on the second floor of the monastery where they are living off instant noodles.  Though there is water everywhere, drinking water is rare.  The electricity and water supply has been cut off completely but fortunately, the telephone line is still intact connecting Tay Linh Temple to Tu Hieu, our root temple, enabling them to contact and organize social workers who have previously worked together with the sisters to aid the poor and deprived.  

2/ Tornados Loom Overhead:

With the water rising we are fortunate not to have hurricanes, if so the damage might have been catastrophic.  There are only small local tornados, such as the two tornados that hit the Thua Thien districts, killing two infants and injuring 22 elementary school students.

3/Landslide: 

From November 5th to the 8th, several landslides occurred in the regions of Quang Nam, and the Tien Phuoc, Dong Giang and Dai Loc districts.  In a remote area in the Quang Ngai province, next to Tra Lanh village, tens of thousands cubic meters of unpopulated land created a landslide knocking down newly installed electric and telephone lines while employees of the utility companies were repairing electric poles.  Only the body of one engineer was found.  Three landslides occurred in Phu Yen burying 14 people alive in Hoa Xuan Nam.  In another area, several houses were buried but fortunately, they were already abandoned.  Though the third landslide was only 20 cubic meters, it covered a large part of the railway on the south to north Vietnam tracks, causing trains heading north to stop at Tuy Hoa for several days.  In the province of Binh Dinh, the flood has buried 20,000 units to the rooftops and destroyed the Ganh bridge making a ditch 8 by 4 meters, thus cutting the national route connecting the plain of seven provinces to the high plateau of four other provinces.

Yesterday, we received a phone call from the social workers in these provinces reporting the rise in cost of rice from 4000 to 6000 dong per kilo:

With 5 euros, you can offer 15kg of rice.
With 5 euros, you can offer a blanket.
With 10 euros, you can offer a 15kg packet of rice, 2 boxes of instant noodles and 50,000 dong in coins.
With 100 euros, you can help a family rebuild their roof.

In France, you can send a check pay to the order of « EBU », to the following address: Plum Village, Flood aid, 13 Martineau, 33580 Dieulivol
In Switzerland : Please transfer to UBS AG Postfach CH Basel,  to Ngoc Cao Chan Khong
No 233 405 317, IBAN CH59 0023 3233 4053 1701N
In Europe, you may send to:
UBS AG CH-4002 Basel account No 233 4-5317.61F in Euros of Ngoc CAO Chan Khong, IBAN CH71 0023 3233 4053 1761F
For French Bank :
CREDIT AGRICOLE D’AQUITAINE 304 Bd du President Wilson 33076 Bordeaux Cedex, intitulé
E B U, Village des Pruniers
RIB (France)
13306    00342   42901199011   96 - 
I.B.A.N./B.I.C. (Etranger) 
FR76 1330   6003 4242   9011 9901 196 / AGRIFRPP833
Or to UBS AG CH-4002 Basel account No 233 4-5317.61F en Euros,
IBAN CH71 0023 3233 4053 1761F
For the US and France, you can receive a receipt for your tax return.
In the US, you can write your check, pay to the order of « UBC », and send to Sr Trung Chinh, Deer Park Monastery, 2499 Melru Lane, CA92026, Escondido, USA.
You can also send directly to Vietnam to Sr Hy Nghiem (Phan Minh Tam)
NAME :     Miss  PHAN MINH  TAM,  telephone  0975605755
      ACCOUNT      :  054.001.00780.9
      SACOMBANK-SAIGON THUONG TIN COMMERCIAL JOINT STOCK BANK
      SWFT CODE:   SGTTVNVX
       CHIPS UID: 364442
mentioning: VICTIMES DES INONDATIONS
You can also give us your credit card number Master card or VISA or AMERICAN EXPRESS etc..
Name on credit card, amount given, your e-mail address, your postal address, telephone number and the 16 digits of your credit card, date of expiration