Vietnam Workcamp 2026
Written by Theo Wong
Nairana and Mirrabooka have had a long tradition of helping in less fortunate countries through university student work camps, completing projects that local people have found difficult. This year's project was in Dong Kho, a village in Vietnam, three hours away from Ho Chi Minh City. There were 20 volunteers, and before the project, each volunteer was given the task of fundraising $1,000 to cover the cost of the project. The $20,000 AUD raised by the volunteers covered the expenses of the project, which involved installing a water filtration unit for the village and building a house for a poor family.
Making up the team of volunteers were eight from Mirrabooka and seven from Nairana Study Centre in Sydney, two from Glenrowan Study Centre in Auckland and one lad from the DC in the USA. The boys worked with local Vietnamese workers digging foundations, pouring cement, laying bricks and rendering walls.
The volunteers worked hard and with enthusiasm. There were a lot of difficulties, with most of the volunteers having no experience working in this field. The language barrier between the Vietnamese workers and the volunteers also made things interesting. The Vietnamese workers would tap their tools to attract the volunteers' attention and use their best sign language. Some things were very easy to understand. A finger pointing at the sand, the raising of two fingers and a point to the concrete mixer obviously meant two buckets of sand into the concrete mixer. More complex instructions, such as getting off the scaffold and moving it or teaching the volunteers how to lay bricks, were a lot more difficult to understand. Frequently, the Vietnamese workers' best attempts at sign language did not suffice.
At the start of the project, the boys could hardly use a trowel. They would pick up cement, only to see most of it slide off and fall to the ground. By the end, some of the boys had turned the whole task into an art form, while some were only slightly better than when they began. The first few days of work had a few moments of miscommunication and a lot of moments of quality control, where the Vietnamese workers had to touch up the volunteers' work. However, with time and repetition, the volunteers found their rhythm, became proficient in their work and also became better at understanding their Vietnamese colleagues.
The construction site was a buzzing place. The language barrier was not an obstacle, with the volunteers and the Vietnamese workers gelling really well, sharing refreshments and snacks, laughing with and at each other and trying to learn phrases in each other’s language with very limited success. During work, many children from the village were drawn out by the strange sight of foreigners working in their village. During break times, the volunteers would talk with the children and play games of soccer. This put a big smile on the children's faces and afterwards, many of them stayed to help the volunteers work, doing small but meaningful tasks. The volunteers were extremely touched. There was one instance when a group of boys around 6 - 8 years old who were fishing nearby came and helped them to stack and move a pile of bricks.
Over the two weeks, the volunteers got to know the villagers. It was through these interactions that they found out that one girl, aged 14, was no longer attending school even though she really wanted to. The reason was that her family had no means of transport. Towards the end of the project, there was still money left over from the $20,000 the volunteers had fundraised. On the last day of work, the volunteers were able to surprise the girl by taking her to a bike shop. She was able to choose her own bike and is now excited to return to school.
The work of the volunteers will have a lasting impact. The water filtration system will increase access to clean water for a village which relies on bottled water as its source of clean water. The family is excited to move from their tin house into their new brick house, which is double the size!
On the last day in Dong Kho, the boys woke up early and walked up the seemingly endless stairs to the shrine of Our Lady of Ta Pao. Sweating and out of breath, they attended Mass and gave thanks. They were joined by some locals who had also woken up early for Mass. Despite 50 years of Communism, the Catholic faith remains strong in Vietnam. The boys then returned to Ho Chi Minh City for a couple of days of rest and tourism before returning to their respective countries.
The boys have had an impact on the village of Dong Kho, but the trip has also had a big impact on them. They returned home tired, but grateful for the opportunity to have made a small but lasting difference in the lives of the people of Dong Kho.
