Reunion bears fruit of commitment
A chance reunion between a former Perth schoolgirl and her primary-school teacher is now giving hope to thousands of underprivileged and disabled children in Vietnam.
Tied to her elder brother for safety as her family headed out into the South China Sea from Vietnam's Mekong Delta on a rickety fishing boat, life was uncertain for then two-year-old Cassandra Le. The daughter of City of Wanneroo councillor Anh Truong has since become a success story with packaging giant Tetrapak back in her Vietnamese homeland. But joining forces with her former teacher, Sister Trish Franklin, has given her life a satisfying new edge.
Now an advisory board member for Vietnam's version of the Sr Franklin-run Loreto school she attended in Perth, Ms Le is helping to make a difference in a program which has nurtured more than 25,000 children since it began in 1997. When I caught up with the pair recently in Ho Chi Minh City, it was clear their connection to each other and commitment to their cause were both natural and compelling.
"I'd known Trish for the last seven years but never had the opportunity to have a real one-on-one with her," Ms Le said.
"For many years I'd spoken about having a Sr Patricia as my teacher in Nedlands. Then two years ago I got the opportunity to corner Trish and told her I used to go to Loreto in Perth. I told her I had a bloody awesome teacher named Sr Patricia in Year 2 and she just dropped her cigarette and beer at the same time and said 'That was me'.
"I thank Trish a lot. To me, she was gone forever and I spent so many years trying to look for her. She's left me with an impression since 1982 and I feel very lucky and grateful to have found her again."
The Loreto program, which provides infrastructure such as schools and toilet blocks, reaches out to some of Vietnam's most remote places. Sr Franklin said the input of her one-time student was having a significant impact.
"Cass is a dynamic woman and I am over the moon for her that she has become a grounded, successful winner in her life after such a tough beginning," she said.
"Her initial acquaintance with Loreto has made her love all that is Loreto and that includes what the program is doing here in Vietnam. To have her on the advisory board is personally strengthening for me as well and all the competent, effective objectivity that she can advise us with is super-beneficial for the vision and mission of all that we are doing.
"As I remember being with her in the 80s, one can never underestimate the tiny seeds one plants within another and how that bears good fruit in later life. Cass is beautiful - such a feminine woman, strong, with beautiful ethics and has won a good battle because of her single-minded and unwavering attitude to being successful for others."
Ms Le said she was acutely aware of how her life may have been had her parents not had the raw courage to seek better opportunities. The passionate West Coast Eagles supporter said it was heartbreaking to watch the plight of those the Loreto program was striving to help, particularly when she thought back to her family's sea trip to a Malaysian refugee camp before relocating to WA.
"It was treacherous out on the ocean," she recalled. "We were on a small fishing boat and Mum and Dad actually tied my brother and I together in the cabin. We were being swung from one side to the other and when one of the petrol tanks fell into the sea, my dad had to tie a rope around his body, jump into the sea and get it.
"There was rain and wind and the sea was roaring. My mum had even spent months learning to sew fishing nets so the trip looked real and so she could tell the story of how her day was as a fisherwoman and make it sound authentic. The Vietnamese boat people were incredibly brave, given their circumstances."
Ms Le praised the support of her mother, who has recently been raising money for wheelchairs to be sent from WA to Vietnam for handicapped war veterans and children, and considered herself "extremely fortunate" to have been schooled at Loreto in Perth.
