Claire and Paul's Vietnamese Adventure

As a new sponsor, Claire Titmus and her partner Paul, researched several sponsorship charities and when they decided on Plan they chose to begin their sponsorship with a visit to see their new sponsored child, Bup Be (10), in Vietnam.  This is Claire's story.

An exciting journey

"We had managed to arrange a trip through Vietnam with some friends and were excited about including the Plan visit in our itinerary.

"On the morning of the visit, we were met by a Plan translator, a 'trainee' translator and a car and driver. The translators were both lovely and we had fun sharing stories and getting more of an understanding about Vietnamese life.

"When we reached the Plan office, we collected a member of the local office staff who obviously knew all the local communities intimately and was able to answer lots of our questions about the community we were on our way to visit.

"We drove on another couple of hours to the furthest village in the area, along roads good and bad and through increasingly rural farmland and countryside. The views were beautiful but we saw plenty of evidence of the recent flooding and crop damage which Plan were helping the local communities to recover from."

Bup Be and the Family

"We arrived, a bit nervously, at the village and at the house where we were meeting Bup Be. The house belonged to her grandparents, where Bup Be and her little sister stay during the week so they can walk to school.

"All the family had gathered to meet us and the first thing we saw was an excited but shy Bup Be running down the path to meet us.

"The family were extremely welcoming, perhaps a little unsure of how to behave (like us!) but very friendly. We all started to relax and chat with the help of the translators.

"We drank tea, met aunts and uncles, the girls were particularly excited about showing us the highest marks on their school work."

A Feast for the guests

"(After visiting the house where Bup Be lives at the weekends) we returned to the grandparents house for a celebratory meal prepared by the family, including chicken's feet (which we politely declined!), rice, quails eggs, beans and rice wine. A feast! We gave our gifts to the girls and to their family and took family photographs which we would be able to send on through Plan once we returned.

"After lunch, we said goodbye to the family and went with the girls to visit the school which they attend, supported by Plan. The schoolchildren were all happy and beautifully behaved and sang for us as we visited classrooms. The girls proudly showed us their classes and friends.

"Finally, we left Bup Be and her sister as they headed back home and we headed back to Hanoi feeling we had met some wonderful people and glad we were fortunate enough to be able to help support the work strengthening the community."