Dear friends and family,
It’s that time of year again. The rainy season flooding in Quang Nam Province has swept away the bamboo bridges Cam Dong village farmers depend on for food and income. Once again, official promises of a permanent solution have not been kept. And once again, I am doing what I can to help. Whereas last year, I collected enough donations to fund materials for one bridge, this year, I’m aiming higher. Many people (until recently, a group including myself) don’t realize Cầu Tre Cẩm Đồng is actually composed of two long bamboo bridges a little over a kilometer from each other, each one a vital piece of infrastructure for the farmers who use little more than bicycles, hoes, and modified wheelbarrows to farm over 1,000 acres of crops. Based on the outpouring of generosity I witnessed in the first few days last year, I’m sure we could have rebuilt both. But as a rookie fundraiser, I was simply not aware of the need and didn’t think to ask, so as soon as I reached the goal of $800--less than three days after putting out the call for help, I stopped taking donations. This time, we will rebuild both. When I say we, I mean the villagers, myself, and all of you generous enough to contribute even a little. We need to raise $2,000. As soon as we do, we will provide the materials, and Cam Dong villagers will provide the labor. This is the main reason we can take on projects like this. There are some talented, hard-working bamboo craftsmen in the village, and when they work, it’s something to see. Updates will be posted until we--hopefully--reach our goal. Here is where to send your donations. Don't worry: it will magically reappear again. Just click that button and enter a number. Any number.
But first, before you begin sending those funds, I want to revisit last year’s call for help and remind folks why this is so important to me.
I first laid eyes on Cầu Tre Cẩm Đồng on a sweltering afternoon in the summer of 2022. I was barely twenty kilometers outside of Da Nang, but it felt like I'd been transported 50 years back in time. Then, just finding my legs as a photographer, all I saw was the nostalgic beauty of a classic bamboo bridge in a classic Vietnamese countryside where farmers in classic conical hats pushed and pulled bikes and wheelbarrows filled with crops and tools up and over the narrow rows of planks. All afternoon, they moved these loads from fields on the far side of a river, disappeared into the village, reappeared, and crossed back over into nearly shadeless rows of peanuts, corn, soybeans, and greens. Back and forth. Again and again. And despite the oppressive heat, nearly every time a farmer--man or woman, young or old--saw me taking photos, they smiled.
I returned to photograph the bridge and the people from the village many times that summer and fall. The farmers often stopped at a sugarcane juice stand outside the home of a woman near the bridge for a few minutes in the shade. When they did, we’d chat. I got to know the villagers. Sometimes my wife would come with me and help translate--only (I tell myself after a beer or two) because people from Quang Nam don’t speak the same as folks from Da Nang. On one trip a group of children asked me to take their pictures. I promised to bring prints with me the next time I came. I did, and the woman selling cane juice displayed one on her cart. It was the very first time one of my photos had been displayed publicly. As you might imagine, I was proud.
One day in November of 2022, Jessica and I drove out to Cầu Tre Cẩm Đồng excited to take photos and drink cane juice, but there was no bridge. It had been swept away in the yearly flooding. For me, it was a simple disappointment, but for the villagers, it was a serious problem. An important piece of infrastructure was gone. Farmers were now forced to navigate swift water in sampans to get from one side of the river to the other. It was unsafe and inefficient. When I asked how much it would cost to build a new bridge, the village leader told me 20 million Vietnamese Dong: the equivalent of $800. I was shocked at how such a small sum of money could make such a big difference to the health of the entire Cam Dong Village. I promised to try and help. I relayed my experience to a close friend Matthew CF Keenan, an American veteran of the war in Vietnam and a board member of the local chapter of a nonprofit organization called Veterans For Peace. He asked the board to supply the funds to rebuild, and it did. The villagers were able to design and build a new bridge just before the Tet Holiday (the Chinese New Year). I was there to see it happen.
When the bridge had been destroyed in 2022, provincial authorities committed to a more permanent solution, made of steel and concrete instead of bamboo. But barely a month before the spring and summer crops will be planted, we learned that promise would not be kept. The villagers were desperate. So in 2023, I asked my family and friends--you all--to help raise $800 together in the next two weeks so the villagers would be able to rebuild Cầu Tre Cẩm Đồng before the Tet Holiday (the Vietnamese celebration of the Chinese New Year) began the first week in February.
This year, I ask again: If you have anything to contribute--no matter how small you think it is--I ask you to help. This is a part of the country ravaged by war in the 60s and 70s, and like most Vietnamese farming villages, it doesn’t have much room for error--even in the best of years. The last couple of years have not been good. The people of Cam Dong Village need us.
If you are in Da Nang or have a way to get money to Da Nang, I will meet you wherever is the most convenient. If you are outside of Vietnam, you can click on the link below to take you to my secure PayPal site. Donate as much or as little as you like. Just type “the bridge” on the note line. Once the funds are collected and delivered, the building will start right away. I’ll post updates and photos. In the meantime, I’d like to begin by sharing some of my favorite memories of Cầu Tre Cẩm Đồng and the people who depend on it for sustenance. I know we can do this! Please share and repost, repost, repost. ❤️
Thank you for your friendship and generosity!
PS: I will publish a list of all donors. If you would like to remain anonymous or to donate in the name of a loved one or a foundation, let me know. I will make sure it is taken care of.
PPS: this will also be published to my webpage, graphicprose.com and my Instagram feed. Some of you may also receive a personal message, as I know you do not check social media often.
Love,
Ben
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