I met Roby Bauweraerts when he came to the orthopedic surgery hospital to inaugurate a project to help disabled children in the poor district of Lap Thach, northern Vinh Phuc province. Roby walked around all the wards to meet the children and their parents and assure them that the surgeries would be successful.

This was just one of the activities that the charity DONXA founded by Roby Bauweraets and his friends has carried out in Vietnam.

“I first came to Vietnam in 1995 as a tourist – “Tay balo”, as Vietnamese people say. I spent 30 days in Vietnam and traveled from north to south. After that I visited the country every year.

“During the visits, I have met with many people and I never forget amiable and hospitable faces. I had to use body language to communicate but they taught me Vietnamese and later I realized why they had laughed at me, as I could not pronounce the words correctly.

“I decided to do something for my Vietnamese friends. Rudy, the first person I met when I was in Vietnam in 1995, shared this idea with me. Together along with other Belgium friends, we established a charitable organization, DONXA.

“The charitable work brings me a lot of friends and I think I can use my experience to do significant things for Vietnam. I love the country.”

Roby and his friends called upon other people in Belgium to contribute to the fund. They first used the sum to build a school for children with disabilities in Co Loa on Hanoi’s outskirts. Later, many other individuals and organizations donated to the fund, which is used to give scholarships to poor children, help poor families to repair houses and provide safe water to pupils in disadvantaged areas.

One of the most effective projects implemented by DONXA focuses on breeding cow. DONXA offered each poor family one cow and technical assistance. When the cow had bred they would give the first calf to DONXA to present to another family.

When I knew that Roby had married a Vietnamese girl I asked him “You did every thing for Vietnam because you are a son-in-law of Vietnam, did not you?”

Roby answered, “ No, when I carried out DONXA’s projects, I met my wife.”

Roby told, “My love is very simple. We worked together breeding cows in northern Ha Tay province. We visited poor families and helped them to take care of their cow. And then we fell in love with each other.”

In 2001, DONXA implemented its first projects in Vietnam. It co-operated with other charitable organizations as it did not have any staff. They helped DONXA make plans and present equipment to schools in disadvantaged areas.

At that time, Roby was a training manager for the BP group in Vietnam. He asked his colleagues in Hanoi to look for volunteers for DONXA projects. The staff at BP Hanoi became DONXA’s first volunteers.

He gradually expanded the projects, which not only help schools but also poor families. Roby said, “I did not want to give them a cow but to show them how to raise a cow.”

Roby said, “I talked with my volunteers in BP to find the most effective way of doing things. We were very worried because we were not much experienced then. We were not farmers. We simply stayed and worked in an office.

“My wife at that time was one of the outstanding students at the Agriculture University. One of my volunteers read an article about her and suggested to me to invite her. We met, worked together, fell in love and got married. We have a three-year old child and now are planning for another one.”

DONXA has so far carried out the cow breeding project in thee poor areas of northern Ha Tay province. DONXA will provide safe water systems to four schools and two more schools in Dan Phuong district, Ha Tay province in near future. It plans to sell mineral water with DONXA as the brand name to the market and all the profits will go to help poor people in disadvantaged areas. In addition, DONXA will continue to present scholarships to poor students and support a project that will conduct surgeries for children with disabilities.

Initially, DONXA raised funds from individuals, small businesses and some companies in Belgium and then from other overseas sources that target charitable projects in Vietnam.

“We convinced our benefactors that the money used and is managed effectively and transparently. I hope that we can raise more funds from organizations in Vietnam in order to help more people.

“DONXA always welcomes volunteers who can speak English in order to introduce DONXA to other foreigners. Even young people who are interested in DONXA projects can contact DONXA by email: donxa@vnn.vn.