Hi friends,
In December 2013, I had been living by myself at the St. Vincent Diem Orphanage for a couple of weeks, when I was told in the little Vietnamese and sign language I understood, that a storm was coming. It wasn’t until a couple of days before the storm that about 150 local villagers rocked up to stay at the orphanage until the storm had passed. It took about 2 days of preparation for the storm which involved barricading windows, sandbagging the roofs and relocating everything the orphanage owned to the central and most secure rooms.
The storm passed overnight without too much damage to the orphanage and thankfully nobody was hurt. It wasn’t until the next day that I learned the storm was actually the biggest and deadliest Typhoon that had ever hit the Philippines but luckily did not have the same impact on Vietnam.
Many of the villagers would have lost their homes in the storm and came to the orphanage because it was on high ground. If it wasn’t for the work of the Cardoner project and tireless work of Fr. Dave in not only funding but building the orphanage, many of those villagers would have lost their lives that night.
The work we do at the Two Wolves and abroad, has such a great impact on not only the small clusters of people we help feed, teach and provide shelter for, but also a massive effect on huge communities all over the world.
Thank you to everyone who volunteers here and I implore you to get on an immersion if you haven’t yet. The work you do has a much greater impact than you could ever realise and let’s keep building towards a better future for those who desperately need it.
Cameron Gray