Local residents travel to Vietnam to serve others

By Elyssa Parnell

eparnell@civitasmedia.com

Dr. Darly Bernardo was the medical director for the second Vets With A Mission trip taken this year.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Dr.-Darly-Bernardo.jpgDr. Darly Bernardo was the medical director for the second Vets With A Mission trip taken this year. Courtesy photos

Vietnam veterans on the Vets with a Mission team were honored at the farewell team dinner at the end of the trip.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Vietnam-vets-on-our-team-who-were-honored-at-the-farewell-team-dinner.jpgVietnam veterans on the Vets with a Mission team were honored at the farewell team dinner at the end of the trip. Courtesy photos

NEWBERRY — Making an impact. That was what five local residents said took them on a mission trip to Vietnam with others earlier this year.

Vets With A Mission was founded in 1989 with the vision of Bill Kimball, a Vietnam veteran who had served with the first Cavalry during the 1968 Tet Offensive as a mortar man. Kimball expressed the desire to see Vietnam veterans return to Vietnam to continue serving the Vietnamese people.

A small group was formed under Kimball’s guidance into the non-profit society that would begin its humanitarian work in Vietnam. Years later, Charles Ward, current executive director, has picked up the legacy Kimball began to run the daily operations of VWAM.

VWAM works to establish clinics and rehabilitation centers in Vietnam.

Together, Ward and his wife, Joette, and members of the Bernardo family — Nathan, Darly and Mike — traveled in April and May of this year to work in several medical clinics.

Chuck and Joette, along with Nathan and Mike, traveled to Hon Ha and An Hoa from April 21 through May 8. Darly, Chuck and Joette traveled on a second trip May 13 through May 29 to Hoa Bac in the Da Nang Province. Other volunteers and Vietnam veterans also served at the clinics.

“Right now we’re in the period of celebrating the 50th commemoration of the Vietnam war,” Chuck Ward said. “These trips were the anniversary trips and we had large contingents of Vietnam vets on both teams.”

To travel on these trips, each medical team must raise funds themselves. What Ward said he found remarkable was that both teams this year raised over $18,000 each to provide free medicine, heart surgeries, equipment (wheelchairs, walkers, etc.), cataract surgery, chemotherapy and more.

Joette Ward said the funds are referred to as the medicine fund as the team members reach out to family, friends and even give individually.

Only his second trip to Vietnam, Nathan Bernardo said he hopes to continue serving on more trips.

Working with triage, Bernardo worked with three other nurses, between them all, seeing all the patients that came into the clinics to see the doctors who were there.

“We took their vital signs and wrote down their major complaints,” Bernardo said. “Depending on their complaints, we could refer them to different specialists.”

With this trip, Bernardo gained experience at two different clinics, one being in a more rural area than the other, he said.

“I saw a lot of skin diseases and rashes,” Bernardo said.

Throughout his time, Bernardo was able to shadow several Physician Assistants. Because that is ultimately what he wants to do, he found it beneficial. Bernardo’s time in Vietnam counted toward his required clinical hours.

“The whole experience is pretty rewarding,” Bernardo said. “You have the medical aspect, the cultural experiences, meeting people on your team and getting to explore with interpreters. It’s the whole package really. The fact that I got to be one-on-one with people there was pretty self-gratifying.”

How does it work?

As associate director of Vets with a Mission, Joette Ward oversees the pharmacy to ensure they have the medicines they need.

“I also make sure we have all medical supplies that we need for any surgeries or anything a doctor would use during an exam,” Ward said.

Ward does not give out the medication, but rather pharmacists that go with them do that when needed.

Medicines are bought in-country in Vietnam, Ward said with everything they need being able to be found there.

“We place an initial order from the states before we go over to get us through the first day,” Ward said. “After that, anything that comes up that we need to order special for a patient or a particular physician, we order it.”

The Wards said they have a formula to start out based on what they have seen in the area in the past.

Mike and Darly Bernardo serve as medical directors on the mission trips. Darly has served in 2004, 2014 and 2015, with her husband serving in 2014-2015.

Having known the Wards for a long time, Mike Bernardo said that is how they first got involved with Vets with a Mission.

Bernardo of Bernardo Geriatrics in Newberry said this group is unique because it involved Vietnam veterans.

“You have guys over in this country and have those that come back with physical and psychological battle wounds that want to come back,” Bernardo said. “That’s something you don’t get with any other mission team I’ve ever been on.”

Bernardo said they had a good mix of younger and older volunteers this year and that everyone got along well and enjoyed the trip.

“I think with any trip like this, you get to help people who don’t have what we have,” Bernardo said. “You do it as Christian without really any overt Christianity because the country is closed to Christianity, but they know who we are and they know why we’re there.”

Darly Bernardo said she saw a lot of concerned mothers, wanting reassurance that their children were OK.

“It’s sort of a universal concern for parents that your children are healthy and doing OK,” Bernardo said.

In Hong Ha and An Hoa, approximately 1,756 patients were seen, Chuck Ward said, with 1,102 patients seen in the clinics in Hoa Bac.

Reach Elyssa Parnell at 803-276-0625, ext. 1868, or on Twitter @TheNBOnews.