(VOVworld) - 13km away from the small town of Son Tay City, in the Ba Vi district, lies the Thuy An rehabilitation center for handicapped children. Under de supervision of Doctor Tran Van Ly, the center welcomes little beings starting from the age of two, as well as a few young adults. Suffering from handicaps such as limb deformations, autism, mute and deaf deficiencies and Down’s Syndrome, the youngsters stay approximately 4 years in the facility before going back home for good. The center provides education as well as different types of treatments: all the way from physiotherapy to speech therapy. In association with the international organization Projects Abroad the center is today planning to enlarge its garden, in order to provide a new kind of therapy, getting the children involved with the nature surrounding them. We followed a group of volunteers for a day in Thuy An. On the menu: hand washing and quite a lot of laughter.

Hanoi, 8:00 am.
It is already over 30 degrees outside. 18 young volunteers hop onto the bus for a two hour ride up to the Ba Vi district. While some soak in the breathtaking scenery all around, other prefer to take a nap before the long day ahead of them, headphones on and music up. A small group of young women break the silence, sharing life experiences, excitement, and expectations. Over six nationalities are represented on the bus – volunteers from France all the way to Australia have showed up to give a hand and do some good for the Vietnamese community.
It is 10:30 when the vehicle comes to a stop in front of the rehabilitation center. The trunk is popped open for volunteers to carry out the supplies they will need for the day: buckets, soap, towels, glitter and posters. Heading up to the conference room, a small meeting with the head of social work is organized in order to understand what Thuy An is all about. “After a couple of years, many children leave the center completely healed from their handicap. That way they can reintegrate society with less difficulties”, he said with a hint of pride.

Volunteers carry out the supplies they will need for the day: buckets, soap, towels, glitter and posters

Once the meeting came to an end, time for the freewill workers to start what they came here for: teach the children, in their classrooms, how to wash their hands.
Split into four groups, they start discussing what way they will be approaching the kids they will be in charge of. Colorful posters in hand, explaining in simple Vietnamese words the steps to having clean fingers, they distribute the roles : per group, one will hold the posters and read off them with the help of a translator, one will show how to do it while the other helps out wherever she can.

One of the many colorful posters that explain in simple Vietnamese words the steps to having clean fingers

After lunch and a nap for the kids, it is show time! International volunteers spread into different small classrooms. We followed a group into one of them. The lesson will take place with a garden view (once a week, the children actually help take care of the garden by watering the plants for example). In an approximate but sweet Vietnamese, the volunteers introduce themselves: Natasha, Ashley, Emy, and a young translator.Using a lot of hand signs to get past the language barrier, a circle of trust is created: shy at first, the children start to show their excitement, shouting out their names all at once and then, a bit more calmly one at a time.Ashley asks kids questions to create an interaction with them, turning the lesson into a much more fun game.

Volunteers preapre water for their 'lessons'

“When should you wash your hands”, she asks, and a young boy replies in a shout, excited to be the first one to answer: “Before we eat! Or after we play outside in the dirt! Beurk!”.

And now, the demonstration can start !

Step 1: Put green glitter on the children’s hands to pretend it is dirt.

Step 2: Wet hands in the bucket of clean water

Step 2: Wet hands in the bucket of clean water

Step 3: Add soap and scrub palms, fingers and wrists (some of the kids got a little bit over excited and went for a full surgeon arm scrub)

Step 3: Add soap and scrub palms, fingers and wrists

Step 4: Rinse off the glitter dirt very well

Step 5: Dry hands with the red Hello Kitty towels

Step 5: Dry hands with the red Hello Kitty towels

One after the other, the children went to the bucket to follow the steps, getting a big high five from each volunteer if they did the task well. But the disabled patients didn’t want to stop the activities with their friends for the day there. After splashing some water around, screaming with joy the girls names, learning how to spell them in English, a little bit of running around and some hugs, it was time for some math’s! Adding, subtracting, multiplying, and what they found the hardest: dividing.  One little boy stood out with his quick calculating skills. He was wearing a blue polo shirt and never stopped smiling, very very proud of himself. And it that classroom, no one looked at him different because of his autism. While washing the hands of a disabled girl, whose arm was crooked, she didn’t make it seem harder than for any one human.

When asked if they were happy with the way they spent their day, each and every children shook their heads in approval, and even though one young boy had a little breakdown and started giving small punches to his classmates, the volunteers didn’t feel for one second they weren’t taking care of normal, healthy children. And there lies the beauty of the Thuy An rehabilitation center.
At 4pm, the time came for the volunteers to go. The numerous kids they spent the day with randomly hugged them, followed them to the gate and even waited for the bus to leave, waving them goodbye from a distance.