Chilean fundraising

On Sunday, 11 July 2021, 03:47:26 GMT+9, michele thompson <thompson.michele@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Dear Members of VSG,

I received the following query from a grad student.

In very broad terms, my research is on revolutionary Chilean solidarity with the people of Vietnam between 1964 and 1973.

There was a global campaign to build the "Nguyen Van Troi Children's Hospital" in Hanoi in the 1970s and I have the Chilean sources that allude to the fund-raiser dating back to 1971, when it piggy-backed on the First Latino-North American Encounter in Solidarity with Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. What I cannot find is any indication that this hospital was ever built, or what it might be called today.

Do you have any information about this from your research and work?

I know absolutely nothing about this so I am hopeful that someone on this list might.

cheers

Michele

C. Michele Thompson

Professor of Southeast Asian History

thompsonc2@southernct.edu

From: Vsg <vsg-bounces@mailman11.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Balazs Szalontai

Sent: Saturday, July 10, 2021 12:41 PM

To: michele thompson <thompson.michele@sbcglobal.net>; Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Subject: Re: [Vsg] Query from a grad student

Dear Michele,

I found a few references to the fund-raising campaign in East Germany's party daily, Neues Deutschland. An article dated 2 September 1972 interviews Alejandro Yanez, the Chilian vice-president of the International Union of Students (IUS), who described, among others, the Chilean fund-raising activities for the hospital. An article dated 16 January 1973 mentions that the "progressive youth" of the United States donated $50.000 through the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) for the "reconstruction" of the hospital, which implies that it had been built earlier but damaged during the U.S. air raids. An article dated 22 December 1973 mentions a disc record with the songs of twelve groups and solo singers from ten countries (including the Chilean song "El pueblo unido" by the group Inti Illimani) who had all donated their honorariums for the construction of the hospital. An article dated 27 August 1976 notes the contribution that the International Union of Students (IUS) made to the building of the hospital, but does not specify whether the construction had been completed.

Cheers,

Balazs Szalontai

Korea University, Sejong Campus