BOOKS FOR VIETNAM

1989 - 1996

The First 1,500 books >>>

The First 1,500 Books

The First 1,500 Books

The First 1,500 Books

After my first trip back  to VN in 1988, realizing an urgent need for books, I launched a project...

... to send books to VN.  100 letters were sent out in Jan 1989, asking for book donation.

1,500 books were received and sent to the 2 Economic Institutes in Hanoi & Saigon.

Meeting Simon & Schuster >>>

First Container of Books >>>

Meeting Simon & Schuster

Meeting Simon & Schuster

Buying the First Container of Books

To find more books, I called on a few book publishers in Singapore, and visited Simon & Schuster (S&S)

Here I met Mr Steven Smith, Managing Director of S&S (Singapore)

S&S is the regional distributor for Asia and always has lots of surplus brand-new books...

The First Container...

The First Container ...

The First Container ...

These surplus books would normally be pulped, ie. destroyed...

S&S did not want a single copy of these surplus books to remain in Singapore as they will spoil...

It took me a year to convince S&S to sell these books to me and their condition was that...

Buying more books in Singapore

Buying more books in Singapore

Buying more books in Singapore

... the books must be packed into sealed containers... and not a single copy is left in Singapore!

Due to the embargo, I was asked to list all the titles sent to VN... but this was impossible!

I then declared the content as ..."waste paper", and the first container went through!

First Book Donation >>>

Book Exhibition >>>

First Book Donation

First Book Donation

Book Exhibition...

A ceremony was then held at the Institute...

... other organizations...

The Institute organized a book exhibition

Book Exhibition

Book Exhibition

Book Exhibition

... among them was Mr Phan Van Khai...

The lady in right was Mrs Ho Anh Nga at the Institute...

Mrs Nga was the one I have entrusted the entire shipment.  A great person who has helped so much!

More Book Donation ... >>>

More Book Donation

More Book Donation

More Book Donation

Mr Khai was so impressed with the books, and wrote me a nice letter

... Representatives of many VN universities were invited...

.. to come anh select whatever books they need for their libraries.

More Book Donation

More Book Donation

More Book Donation

The first one was Dalat University...

Recording all the books to bring back was such a hard task...

... since there too many to choose.

More Book Donation

More Book Donation

More Book Donation

Finally, the books were packed in boxes to bring back to their libraries!

... some construction books to Dr Le Van Nam...

Dr Nam was the Chief Architect of HCM City

More Book Donation

More Book Donation

More Book Donation

.. a friend

... a book recipient

Dr Tan Ha Nam Scitech - I later sent 1 container (25,000 books) for distribution via Scitech...

A container of Medical Books >>>

Buying more books in Singapore>>>

A container of Medical Books

A container of Medical Books

Buying more books in Singapore

Beside S&S, I also bought books from other publishers, such as medical books from PG Publishing...

In 1993, PG ceased operation and donated 7 tons of medical books, which I sent to the Econ Institute

For the next few years, I continued to buy more books from Simon & Schuster ...

Buying more books in Singapore

Buying more books in Singapore

Buying more books in Singapore

.... whenever there were surplus books, S&S called me to come and view the books...

my book selection criterion is very simple: NO fiction books!

I made many trips to the warehouse ...

Buying more books in Singapore

Buying more books in Singapore

Buying more books in Singapore

... and the books which I bought were different each time!

for subsequent shipments, there was no time to pack nicely...

... so I just bought them as is ...

Buying more books in Singapore

Buying more books in Singapore

Buying more books in Singapore

... and paid for the books by the tons...

... books ... glorious books!

... I loved them so much

Buying more books in Singapore

Buying more books in Singapore

Buying more books in Singapore

... and bought them all !!!

... some were stacked quite neatly!

... but most of the time, they came just like these!

Buying more books in Singapore

Buying more books in Singapore

Buying more books in Singapore

... I didn't know exactly how much I have bought...

... but the arrangement with S&S was that ...

... whenever they have stocked enough for up to 5 contaniners...

Buying more books in Singapore

Buying more books in Singapore

Buying more books in Singapore

... then they just called me ...

... I would come to the warehouse ...

... looked at the ..mountain of books already packed...

Buying more books in Singapore

Buying more books in Singapore

Buying more books in Singapore

... took some photos for souvenirs

... shook hand .. and the books were mine - the bills would come later!

... the next step was to contact the shipper...

Packing Books Into Containers ... >>>

Packing books into containers

Packing books into containers

Packing books into containers

... Books were moved by truck lifts to the container loading bay

ready to load...

... up to 5 containers were required each time ...

Packing books into containers

Packing books into containers

Packing books into containers

... ready to load

boxed of books still had to be carried by hand into the container

... the containers were then sealed and ready for shipping!

Books in FAHASA warehouse ... >>>

Books in FAHASA warehouse

Books in FAHASA warehouse

Books in FAHASA warehouse

These old buildings of FAHASA at Pasteur St were used to store the books

Inside these warehouses, books were sorted out and stored ...

... according to shipments No 1,2,3,4 etc...

Books in FAHASA warehouse

Books in FAHASA warehouse

Books in FAHASA warehouse

... and kept separately, in various warehouses A, B, C, D...

My uncle, Hoang Cong Loi was the one who helped me to look after these books in VN...

He was my representative to liaise with FAHASA ...

Books in FAHASA warehouse

Books in FAHASA warehouse

Books in FAHASA warehouse

He also took these photos for my records...

Uncle Loi has played a major role in this book project!

I really owed him a debt of gratitude!

Books in FAHASA warehouse

Books in FAHASA warehouse

Books in FAHASA warehouse

Here are some more of his photos taken over several years...

I forgot to mention that ....

... we needed to pay for a team of inspectors...

Books in FAHASA warehouse

Books in FAHASA warehouse

Books in FAHASA warehouse

... from the Ministry of Culture & Information ...

... who came to inspect every single book

... for about 2 weeks, whenever each shipment arrived.

Books in FAHASA warehouse

Books in FAHASA warehouse

Books in FAHASA warehouse

Some books were kept aside by the inspectors....

... but since I bought only non-fiction books...

... virtually all my books were OK for distribution...

Donation to VI NGAY MAI PHAT TRIEN ... >>>

Donation to VI NGAY MAI PHAT TRIEN

Donation to VI NGAY MAI PHAT TRIEN

Donation to VI NGAY MAI PHAT TRIEN

Books were sent to TUOI TRE magazine for donation ....

Meeting with TUOI TRE.  My uncle Loi was the man on the right...

A photo for the album...

Donation to VI NGAY MAI PHAT TRIEN

Donation to VI NGAY MAI PHAT TRIEN

Donation to VI NGAY MAI PHAT TRIEN

The team behind VI NGAY MAI PHAT TRIEN - book donation project

A book donation ceremony...

... organized at TUOI TRE Head Office

Donation to VI NGAY MAI PHAT TRIEN

Donation to VI NGAY MAI PHAT TRIEN

Donation to VI NGAY MAI PHAT TRIEN

Donating medical books ...

Some happy young medical students ...

Donating computer books to students ...

Donation to others >>>

The last shipments>>>

Donation to others

Donation to others

The last shipments

Over 2,000 medical books for University of Tay Nguyen (Buon Ma Thuot)

Books were also sent to Hue, University of Economics in Siagon, FPT Co. in Hanoi ...

By 1996, I felt that enough have been sent to VN

 

BYE ... FOR NOW >>

The last shipments

BYE for now!

BYE for now!

and we needed time to .... digest all these books...

From 1989 till 1996, I probably have sent over 500,000 books to VN...

17 years have passed... In 2006 I got 18,000 books from World Scientific and sent to DHBK Ha Noi.