Chuck Feeney's work in Viet Nam

The end of 2016, marked billionaire philanthropist Mr. Chuck Feeney’s lifetime achievement goal of giving away all of his money before his death through Atlantic Philanthropies (AP), an organization he founded in 1982.  A recent $7 million bequest to Cornell University has brought the total to just over $8 billion in grants, “to advance opportunity and promote equity and dignity around the world.”  Mr. Feeney’s philosophy of ‘Giving while Living’ has been realized.  While his generosity towards Ireland and Cornell University is well known, his relationship with the people of Vietnam has flown relatively under the radar.

Mr. Feeney’s philanthropic relationship with that country began with an article in the San Francisco Chronicle (1997) concerning the lack of funding for East Meets West Foundation (EMWF), an NGO working for the poor Vietnamese with headquarters in the central city of Da Nang.  Included with the article was a picture of Mark Conroy, EMWF country director who was documenting a few of the foundation’s completed projects and expressing the necessity of project continuation and expansion.  EMWF’s grants were running out with no cash left in the box to keep the operation running.  During a recent trip to San Francisco to meet with Mr. Feeney, Mr. Conroy disclosed, “I was having to use my own savings, which were very limited, to keep busy on some small projects.”

Writer and humanitarian, Le Ly Hayslip, founded East Meets West Foundation in 1987.  Ms. Hayslip grew up in Da Nang during the war with the Americans, which left her country in complete devastation. Mr. Conroy had been hired by Ms. Hayslip to run the EMWF Vietnam headquarters following his Peace Corp tour in Guatemala. Mr. Conroy was already acquainted with Ms. Hayslip, having met previously during past trips to Ho Chi Minh City. In May 1994, Mr. Conroy and then wife, Joanne Ives, began work in Da Nang.

Chuck and Helga at the Village of Hope orphanage in Da Nang/

Mr. Feeney had his office investigate EMWF. Intrigued by AP’s findings, he called the EMWF US office in Oakland, CA. After speaking with Director Mark Stewart, Mr. Feeney offered to send $100,000 to Da Nang headquarters to see what they could do with it.

 “When it’s gone, get back to me and explain how it was spent,” said Mr. Feeney.  EMWF used the money to build and renovate schools and fresh water systems in poor villages.

In early 1998, Bob Matousek, Mr. Feeney’s long-time friend and associate, visited EMWF headquarters in Da Nang.  Alongside Mr. Conroy, Mr. Matousek spent a few days checking out various projects in the Vietnamese countryside and in Da Nang. A number of schools and compassion homes had been built.  The Village of Hope orphanage, which housed 200 kids and was managed by EMWF, was being effectively maintained.  Several other grass root projects in Quan Nam Province had also been completed by the foundation. In light of his trip, Mr. Matousek approved EMWF for a visit from Mr. Feeney.

Mr. Feeney’s first personal contact with EMWF in Vietnam was on Oct. 18 1998, in the original office on Tran Phu Street, Da Nang.  This office was a thinly staffed, ‘nuts and bolts’ operation where the occasional snake or rat that passed through did not interfere.  Mr. Conroy had no idea who Mr. Feeney was at the time and asked him why he was interested in a small organization like EMWF that worked primarily in Vietnam. Mr. Feeney answered that he didn’t like or trust large institutions.  He chose to support the people of Vietnam, believing that the Vietnamese had been dealt a raw deal by the US government.

Vietnam also happened to be on Mr. Feeney’s route from San Francisco to Australia where he was funding medical research and education projects and trying to persuade wealthy Australians to follow suit.  Ordinarily, Mr. Feeney focused on top down development in education and public health to help facilitate a country’s ability to take care of its own.  In Ireland, this approach by Mr. Feeney had been operating successfully for years.  In contrast, his support for EMWF was more from the bottom up due to their sufficiency with small financing.  It appeared that both Chuck and Mark were ‘brick and mortar’ guys, similar to the Irish that to the extent of their capabilities, settled America to lend a helping hand to their people in need.

In those days, Da Nang General Hospital had next to nothing.  Today, that facility has been completely rebuilt by EMWF with funding from AP and treats over 2,000 patients a day. Its capacity has grown from 800 to 1,250 beds. In addition, three more hospitals have been added to the health system in Da Nang: The Eye Hospital with 400 beds, the Woman and Children’s Hospital with 600 beds and the 500 bed Oncology Hospital.

Dr. Tran Ngoc Thanh, the hospital director of the last 14 years, recently remarked, “Da Nang General Hospital’s capacity today is a dream come true for the Vietnamese people.  Without the input of AP and EMWF it would have taken 30 years to be where we are now.  Mr. Chuck Feeney has been the savior of our people and we will never forget that, and we always make a point of expressing our gratitude in meetings with other officials.  Da Nang General is one of the top hospitals in Viet Nam and its presence has stimulated more medical training out of Viet Nam.  I hope Mr. Chuck’s health improves. May God bless him.”

Through EMWF and AP, Da Nang University has built two Learning Resource Centers (LRCs), the modern equivalent of a library that specializes in Internet connections with other worldwide educational facilities.   The LRCs’ textbook supply must be available for thousands of students in a semester and currently serve 10,000 in the Da Nang system.   The Da Nang University facilities massive success has led to the construction of LRC s at Universities in Hue, Can Tho and Thai Nguyen.

The Conroys and  the Feeneys, Hanoi, VN

 In 1999, EMWF began building two Da Nang University of Education dormitories financed by Mr. Feeney.  In large, these dormitories are used by poor students and minorities from the distant, rural mountain regions.  These students would otherwise be homeless while pursuing their education.  Post graduation, they will return home to teach and help with the advancement their people.

Modern dining halls and The Da Nang University Sports center, another joint AP and EMWF project, was completed in 2004. Today, 800 students use this facility daily throughout the school year. Students can train in basketball, volleyball, tennis, table tennis, variations of football and aerobic exercise. 

Mr. ‘Teddy’ Thiet, the Da Nang Sports Center director, traveled with Mr. Feeney to Australia to research building design for the facility’s construction.  Mr. Thiet remembered Mr. Chuck Feeney, “as a man with a great heart, deserving of much respect; one who understands the position of the poor, a man who wouldn’t waste money on a tie for himself.  I am very sad to hear that he is in ill health and hope it improves enough so that he can come back here for a visit sometime.  I thank him from the bottom of my heart and extend those thanks also to the staff of EMWF.”

The University Games and biannual National Sports Championships are hosted by the Da Nang University Sports center with over 1,000 student participants.  The Da Nang Sports Center’s reputation as a premier venue for athletic competition has inspired the development of more sporting event facilities in Vietnam. 

Thai Nguyen is a rapidly developing city northwest of the Hanoi No Bai Airport with historical claims of Ho Chi Minh residing there during the French Indo-China War.  On the city’s outskirts lies the largest Samsung plant in the world, encompassing at least 400 acres.  EMWF projects at Thai Nguyen University (TNU), funded by Chuck Feeney and AP, include several dormitories, an LRC, site development and landscaping. After five years of work, these projects were completed (2007) and in 2013, the dormitory project won the most prestigious architecture award in Vietnam.

Ten years later, an on-site visit and meeting with Mark Conroy, TNU director, Dr. Nguyen Van Tao, and his board was set up to assess the present use and maintenance of projects completed there. Behind the board of directors, three flags were lined up beginning with the Vietnamese, followed by the US, and finally the French. 

In addition to 11 dormitory buildings and required site work, landscaping for the sports facility was prepared for basketball, football, tennis, etc.  The dorms, originally built for the medical school, had expanded their occupancy to the entire university population and now housed predominately poorer students from the countryside and ethnic minorities (50 %).  57 Laotian foreign exchange students lived in the dormitories and couldn’t attend TNU without them. At $6.00 USD per month, student rent is much cheaper than private housing and has enabled TNU to upgrade its standards elsewhere.

University enrollment has increased 20% since the completion of the dormitory project and TNU now offers 17 majors, including medicine, pharmacy, education, information technology, communication, foreign languages and most scientific disciplines. There are students enrolled here from Korea, Germany, The Philippines and China. TNU officials express deep gratitude to Chuck Feeney for his generosity toward their university.

In the central Vietnamese city of Hue, the EMFW Heart Program and Hue Hospital director Dr.Bui Duc Phu also peaked Mr. Feeney’s interests. Dr. Phu happens to be one of the best heart surgeons in the country.  He and his team perform over 1,500 open-heart surgeries and 2,000 interventions or heart cauterizations a year.  

Financed by Mr. Feeney, the EMFW Heart Program was able to provide the medical facilities with equipment to establish a pediatric open-heart surgery unit at Hue Hospital in 2006. These facilities have enabled postgraduate doctors to stay in Vietnam and work in their field by meeting the standards of their education.   Upon Dr. Phu’s recent return from San Francisco, where he attended a brief meeting with Mr. Feeney, he also expressed heartfelt gratitude towards Chuck’s generosity to the Hue health care system.

Children from the country who were helped by Chuck Feeney

Mr. Feeney’s affiliation with Hue Hospital introduced him to Hue University and led to the construction of university dormitories, a food center and LRC, as well as pediatric and cardiovascular hospitals.

In total, the EMWF projects funded by AP and Chuck Feeney amount to $100 Million Dollars. Mr. Feeney and AP funding enabled EMWF to build 10 hospitals and 11 university building projects of varying magnitude, to repair damages from Typhoon Xang, and various other community infrastructure projects.

The present director of Atlantic Philanthropies, Mr. Chris Oechsli, along with Mr. Matousek and Mr. Feeney have made numerous trips to Vietnam to consult with Mark Conroy and EMWF personnel during the course of these projects.  Chuck Feeney’s last visit to Vietnam was for the AP meeting held at the Hanoi Metropole Hotel in 2008.

'Three Cups of Tea' - Viet Nam Style

DANANG, VIETNAM: Dr. Greg Mortensen is justly famous for building more than 131 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past 15 years. He is known worldwide through the great popularity of his best selling book “Three Cups of Tea”. His work through the Central Asia Foundation has shown in the minds of many, the superiority of humanitarian development work over military muscle, the favored approach of the US Government.

Mark Conroy with teachers and students at EMWF built school in VN.

For the last 15 years retired Beekmantown dairy farmer Mark Conroy has been directing humanitarian development work in Vietnam for the East Meets West Foundation (EMWF). He only last year stepped down as Country Director and is now the foundation’s senior consultant who heads up the Da Nang, Viet Nam office. During those 15 years he has built over 303 schools affecting 45,751 students. Most are located in the countryside of Central Viet Nam.

The first schools built by East Meets West program were kindergartens the reason being that the government is not able to fund schools at that level and like Mr. Mortensen found in Afghanistan, that if classes were being held at all, it was in mere shacks.

Conroy started school program in 1995 and it was in Dai Loc west of Da Nang.”78% of the buildings in this area were completely destroyed by US bombing, napalming or by troops on the ground with Zippo lighters”.

“Actually we had a very difficult time in those days to locate the home hamlet of Le Thu, the Vietnamese –American who was financing the project, because they had all been renamed since the war ended. Added to that was the fact that roads too were nearly non existent; for next to nothing in Viet Nam at that time had been rebuilt since the war ended in 1975”.

“In fact that first school let to our arrest by the Peoples Committee of Dai Loc since at that time a permit was required to travel in most places in the country. Also, a partner is required for any development projects and that partner many times is the local peoples committee.”

EMWF than began on a somewhat regular basis building or remodeling elementary schools when ever enough funding showed up to complete a project.

“Then”, said Conroy, “Chuck Feeney showed up and EMW began a rapid rise and the school building program grew at that same pace.”

Mr. Feeney is the reclusive billionaire who founded Atlantic Philanthropies with funding from Duty Free Shoppes which had sold for over $3 billion USD. All of these monies went into his foundation, The Atlantic Philanthropies. The initial grant from Atlantic Philanthropies to EMWF was for a One Hundred Thousand Dollars. The Vietnam based foundation was told to do what ever they wanted with it. A good portion went towards building a number of schools.

“One of the most interesting projects,” continued Conroy, “was sponsored by my mother, Mary W. Conroy. She had taught for many years in the Beekmantown District #1 one room brick school house on the corner of Route 9 and Point au Rouche Road, and upon hearing of the school shortage where I was working in Viet Nam offered to sponsor the school in Tra My. It’s the ‘Little Red School House’ for the minorities in Tra My.

For a period of time AP would match any funds that were donated for schools and at that time would not let it be known that they provided the funds. The donor plaque on the building listed “Golden Heart”. This lasted till Chuck Feeney‘s public statement that he was the source of funds for AP.

“It eventually got to the point where I had to hire a man full time to run the school building program and they’ve been built steady to this day,” said Conroy. Actually the building we now operate out of in Da Nang was built for the University of Danang with AP funding is the English Language Institute. It’s twelve stories high and was for a time the tallest building in this city.”

“We’ve built two schools for Boeing, the airplane manufacturer, in which they take great pride” said Mr. Conroy. “The first one is in Binh Tri a short drive from Danang. The two room kindergarten funded by Boeing in Binh Tri is named for Nguyen Tan Troi, a national hero who nearly blew the bridge in Saigon that Robert McNamara was crossing on his way to the US Embassy in 1968. The story goes that he was captured minuets before the Secretary of Defense crossed the bridge and was immediately taken out and shot. He refused to wear a blindfold and went down in a hail of bullets shouting “long live Ho Chi Minh”.

L to R - School principal, Mark Conroy, Minh Chau Nguyen, EMWF Country Director, Kevin Heise, Boeing Sales Rep. Viet Nam, Peoples Committee Chairman, US Ambassador to Viet Nam, Michael W. Michalak - Boeing funded elementary school in Thanh Tien, Viet Nam.

The latest Boeing school is located in the Mekong Delta town of Thanh Tien. The dedication ceremony was attended by the U S Ambassador to Viet Nam, Mr. Michael W. Michalak as well as representatives from Boeing and EMWF.

Mark Conroy as thus far overseen in the countryside of central Viet Nam, the construction of 303 schools which affected 45,751 students, installed 137 clean water systems affecting 1,108,634 people and 456 compassion homes which provided housing for 2,705 residents.

*A version of this article was published by the Press Republican on October 17, 2010.

Twenty years of East Meets West

HO CHI MINH CITY:  It was suitably, a hot, sultry evening this past 16^th of October as the ‘Glitteri’ of Saigon Society paraded towards the ballroom of the Park Hyatt Saigon Hotel here in Ho Chi Minh City.  The nights’ event was the 20^th Anniversary Gala of the East Meets West Foundation (EMWF). 

Mark Conroy, the former dairy farmer from Beekmantown, NY is the Country Director of EMWF, the largest NGO (non governmental organization) operating in Viet Nam. He is in his 15^th year on the job ‘in country’.

The real purpose of the evening festivities was to raise funds from the very large resident international business community, along with the growing numbers of higher income, native Vietnamese who may not have formerly been familiar with EMWF.

 

EMWF Country Director Mark Conroy with  US Consul General
Kenneth Fairfax at the EMWF Saigon Gala.

 EMWF Country Director Mark Conroy with US Consul General Kenneth Fairfax at the EMWF event referenced above.

The main event this evening is a concert by the Vietnamese diva Y Lan, who left the country by boat in 1980 and now lives in Orange County, California.  Her CDs have circulated among Vietnamese communities worldwide for many years. 

“Y Lan is the most famous singer on the planet for the older generation of Vietnamese,” said Rad Kivitt, Director of Development for EMWF and the man in charge of the evenings’ festivities.  “We sold out the event when it was announced that she would be performing”, he said.

Mark Conroy and his wife Tam Hoang, along with Dr. Peter Singer, EMWF Board Chairman and John Anner, the EMWF national director were guests at the event, and mingled with the crowd introducing many attendees to the foundations work in Viet Nam.

Le Ly Hayslip, the founder of EMWF was not in attendance; however US Consul General to Viet Nam Kenneth Fairfax was; and he made this comment regarding Ms. Hayslip during his speech.

“From humble beginnings and a life full of hardships and tragedy, Le Ly Hayslip launched a movement that has improved the lives of countless Vietnamese people and has had a profound impact on the development of U.S.-Vietnam understanding and relations.”

After the dinner and speeches, Y Lan preformed into the early morning hours, absolutely captivating those in the packed ballroom.

 The Park Hyatt Saigon Hotel is located at 2 Lam Son Square in the heart of the old city, just north of the Continental Hotel that Graham Greene used as the setting of his great novel, “The Quiet American”.

*A version of this article appeared in the Press Republican on November 3, 2008.