Water Buffalo Donation Hoi An, Vietnam

David Chamberlain offering congratulations to Vietnamese man.

BEAST OF BURDEN AND BOUNTY
Philanthropic Traveler's gift of a water buffalo will help raise Vietnamese family from poverty.

By MARIE VASARI
Herald Staff Writer

People buy all kinds of things when they travel abroad.

Cut crystal or fine lacework. Liquor, clothing, handicrafts to bring home -- or to give as gifts.

Dan Presser's philanthropic travel group purchased a water buffalo -- then they gave it away.

The travel agent was touring Cambodia and Vietnam with a group of travel industry professionals, who were moved by the poverty they saw and decided to help a local family. Members of the group made inquiries and were introduced to one of the poorest families in Hoi An, Vietnam, subsistence farmers surviving on a small patch of land next to their homes.

So the group of 15 or so travelers each pitched in for the $640 purchase, bought from another local.

While the monetary investment was only about $40 a person, Presser said its payoff was a big emotional experience.

What's considered change to most people will have life-changing results for that family.

"It means a whole new life for the guy," said Presser.

The family, who lives in a one-room, thatched tin-roof house with only a divider to mark off a sleeping area, will benefit on several levels with the beast of burden.

"It means he can now hire himself out and till fields and make more money," likely about $7 a day, said Presser. According to the group's tour guide, the most they'd be likely to earn otherwise would be about $2 a day.

In addition, the young female animal will eventually reproduce, with those offspring providing another source of revenue for the family.

Presser doesn't know many details about the family who got the water buffalo -- they were introduced to the travel group only as "Mr. Gung and Ms. Tuet."

"The only thing we know about them is that they were desperately poor," said Presser. "For them, it's a life-changing experience."

The two-week tour, from May 11 to May 25, was organized for U.S. travel agents by a major Southeast Asian travel provider, but one member, Don Breen, was there for a different reason.

The former military pilot flew missions in Vietnam during the war and found it particularly emotional to return there for the first time in 35 years. The Birmingham, Ala., resident and Presser's former roommate at Tulane University lost his wife to suicide while he was away at war, and on the final day of last month's trip, he contracted Bell's Palsy, which has temporarily paralyzed some of his facial muscles.

Nonetheless, Breen says the water buffalo -- and the difference it'll make for the family -- made the experience worthwhile.

"It was an overwhelming experience and the highlight of my trip," he said. "It was a drop in the bucket, but the right kind of drop."

Vietnam Links:
Philanthropic Travel Vietnam
Halong Bay World Heritage Site
Old Quarter Hanoi
Investing in Vietnam

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