Current Projects:

		• Road to Medical School, featuring Optometry, Dental and Pharmacy schools (2004 – present) Since Lend a Hand’s members are mostly students with strong interest in medicine and other health-related fields, we want to reach out and share our experiences and knowledge with the Houston community. In order to sit on the Road to Medical School seminar and share one’s experience, he or she must have already gain admission into graduate school, is a National Merit Scholar, or have gotten accepted into medical school from high school or first year in college through programs.
		• Fundraising gala and lion dance performances Lend A Hand fundraises through hosting cultural banquet and galas. Lend A Hand has jumped from 430 people attending the gala in 2004 to over 800 people in 2007. Lend A Hand is also the lion dance crew with the largest client list in Houston since people liked the idea of “Lion dancing to save children.”
		• Bone Marrow Drives: Project Michelle (November 2007 – present) Project Michelle has been a nationally known project throughout the Vietnamese community. In Houston alone, Lend A Hand has been the profound leader in organizing bone marrow drives in effort to save life of Michelle and many others just like her. We spread our members all over Houston area and organized countless drives in the last 8 weeks to register over 2,500 people.
		• Preceptorship in Texas Medical Center Lend a Hand, in collaboration with the Vietnamese American Medical Association-Greater Houston, offers a great opportunity for those interested in a career in Medicine. We are going to begin a preceptorship program in which you are under the mentorship of a Vietnamese-American physician and will have the opportunity to shadow the physician and learn about their specialty first hand. The purpose of this preceptorship program is to allow participants to observe and learn about medicine firsthand under the mentorship of a physician from the Vietnamese American Medical Association of Greater Houston (VAMA-GH). This preceptorship program is primarily geared towards those who wish to have a career in the medical profession and will allow its participants a rare look into the daily activities of a medical specialty.

Past programs/Projects:

		• Fundraise for Tsunami Victims ( December 2004) Lend a Hand collaborated with Phap Luan Lion dance team to perform lion dances to raise money for the victims for the Asian Tsunami. In one weekend, the group raised $4000 and donated the amount to American Red Cross.
		• Noi Dau Mien Trung (November 2006) Upon hearing the news that the Central region of Vietnam was destroyed by Typhoon Xangsane, Lend a Hand stood out to organize the first collaborative effort between many non-profit youth groups and student associations in Houston to fundraise for the victims. The showcase turned out to be a huge success with more than 800 guests and approximately $15,000 raised. Lend a Hand’s own founder Duc Dinh personally made the trip to the affected areas and distributed aid.
		• Christmas at Texas Children’s Hospital (December 2006) Members of Lend a Hand dress up as Santa’s helpers (wearing lion dance costumes), visit every room, and give toys and books to every child in the Texas Children’s Hospital who have to stay in the hospital during Christmas.
		• Building a playground for KIPP (December 2006) This is a one day collaboration effort with ZOOM to build a playground for an elementary school in Houston.
		• Mid-Autumn Festival at Little Saigon Radio (September 2007) Lend a Hand and Little Saigon Radio 1520 AM station came together and co-organized one of the biggest Trung Thu festivals with more than 800 kids and parents attended. Lend a Hand’s members also performed on stage with other talented children. There were also games and prizes for the little ones.
		• Journey from the Fall Movie Event (October 2007) As part of the effort to spread awareness of the Vietnamese culture and history, Lend a Hand organized a movie-night to show the movie “Journey from the Fall.” To make the event more special, we invited the movie’s director, Ham Tran, to come and open a forum for discussion after the end of the movie.

Upcoming Events