Delivering Urgent Relief after Typhoon Yagi

In the isolated, rural community of Trung Minh Vietnam, Oanh, a resilient grandmother, is raising her three young grandchildren. Life has never been easy for her, but after Typhoon Yagi swept through their village, it became dire. Her modest chicken farm, their primary source of income, was wiped out by a landslide. Even worse, her home was left buried under knee-deep mud, making it impossible to return.

“We had to be evacuated from our house. The four of us ran and couldn’t carry anything with us,” Oanh recalls. “When we came back, everything we had was buried under the mud. We lost all our belongings.”

Oanh and her grandchildren have been living in a makeshift shed next to the local church. It’s a tough place to call home—scorching hot during the day and bone-chilling at night. They rely on relief supplies to get by, often without basic comforts. Without electricity or running water, Oanh was forced to scoop muddy water from puddles to wash and cook, letting the dirt settle before using it.

But in the midst of this hardship, there has been a glimmer of hope with emergency relief supplies arriving from Australia last weekend. Thanks to Samaritan’s Purse Australia and New Zealand supporters, Oanh received emergency solar lights and water filters, offering her a lifeline. “This water filter can give us clean water to drink,” she says with gratitude. “I won’t have to worry about getting sick.”

The solar lights have been another blessing, bringing light to the long, dark nights. Oanh reflects on how much these gifts have lifted her spirits: “Thank you for this gift.”

Though her journey is far from over, Oanh’s courage and love for her grandchildren shine as brightly as the solar light that now illuminates their nights. Even in the face of so much loss, she holds onto hope, trusting that better days will come.