An Australian Vietnam veteran started a charity to help Vietnamese people recover from poverty. The charity helped to build clinics, schools and other infrastructure to help reconstruct the area where Australians had served during the war.
The Australian Vietnam Veterans Reconstruction Group (AVVRG) was established in 1994 by Vietnam veteran Paul Murphy.
During a visit to Ba Ria–Vung Tau, as Phuoc Tuy is now known, Murphy was moved by the poverty and the terrible state of the country's infrastructure almost 20 years after the end of the war.
With a continuing embargo by the United States and other Western countries, Vietnam remained mired in poverty. It was unable to recover from a war whose aftermath had involved further fighting in Cambodia and a brief conflict with China in 1979.
After contacting the local People's Committee and identifying areas of need, Murphy launched an Australia-wide fundraising program to support projects in southern Vietnam.
Members of the AVVRG included Vietnam veterans and their family members and others with no direct involvement in the war. Its projects in the areas in which Australians served and beyond included:
- installing septic toilets at Long Tan
- establishing medical and dental facilities
- constructing schools and orphanages
- carrying out agricultural and aquaculture projects.
Members of the group also sponsor individual Vietnamese children, health care teams conducted regular visits to Vietnam, and a busy program of activities showed the AVVRG's commitment to helping a country in which Australians once fought.
