By Dr. Libby Zinman-Schwartz
PPSEAWA International, August, 2002

I live in a handsome four story building of French design in the first district of Ho Chi Minh City, in my opinion the most exciting city in the world.

HCMC-Saigon is a bustling metropolis of 7 million people and it is in the midst of a stunning transition from an agricultural economy to a global one.

Each day thousands of Vietnamese pour in from the countryside seeking opportunities for greater wealth and advancement. Few find their dreams.

Without education,however, there is little chance for poor Vietnamese from the the Mekong Delta countryside or the central Da Nang area to change anything.

Many young Vietnamese in their twenties and thirties work while taking courses at HCMC University or at technical schools in the city. They waken at dawn to study before departing for a humdrum or perhaps laborious job for which they are paid very little. The average income in Vietnam is $400 per year;there millions more never see that much money for work that prematurely ages them and endangers their health daily.

Millions of women labor on highways, their faces bundled in rags or swathed in muslim to protect their skin and lungs from the biting particulates of dirt, dust and tiny pebbles that ravage their complexion and contaminate their organs. If they do not get an education before they are out of their thirties they will be abandoned to this kind of life and an early death.