OT: Going to Tibet, need help

minh_han · #1 04/04/2007, 07:05 AM

From July 15-28, I am closing my office and taking all my staff and a few other lay people on a medical mission trip to Tibet to help the poor and oppressed mountain villagers in the region. We will also be working with a group of kids who are getting a debilitating arthritic condition from an unknown cause.

To raise the funds for everyone to go ($2700 per person) we are selling spring flower bulbs, Munson's chocolates, and anything else we can come up with. We've set up an online mall and will get a percentage of proceeds from any online vendor linked from the mall. We are also collecting tax-deductible donations as well as vitamins, advil/ tylenol, and other OTC products.

If anyone would like to help in any way, PM or email me. Thanks!

burke031 · #2 04/04/2007, 11:57 AM

Do you have the link to the online mall ?

ctopal · #3 04/04/2007, 05:49 PM

Are the flower bulbs & chocolates on the mall link? Can you give us more info?

eaglesrx · #4 04/04/2007, 06:52 PM

Hey fellow vietnamese ct reefer and hlth care professional (pharmacist at Yale)!!

I would certainly like to help. How about more info. ways to help?

Phu

minh_han · #5 04/07/2007, 10:45 PM

The online mall link is http://www.visitourmall.com/hansmissions

The munson's chocolates and flower bulbs we are selling locally and are not linked to the mall. That's a separate thing all together as just another way to bring in a bit of money. Although, if people spread the link around, a bit here and there can really add up. The flower bulbs are due at the latest by 4/19 and will be delivered to us by the second week of may for spring planting. The chocolates we will be selling throughout the next several months. I guess if someone lives near the Hartford/Manchester/Coventry area and would like to help us sell chocolates at their work or school, I would welcome the help. PM me if you want to do this.

Or, if I get enough interest, I can preorder a few cases and distribute them at the upcoming reef meeting in Storrs. The biggest seller is chocolate bars (dark, milk, almonds, and crisp), but we can sell quite a number of things: truffles, assorted, dark chocolate almond bark, caramels, milk chocolate coconut clusters, royals, almond toffee butter crunch, chocolate covered oreos, and quite a number of other things. You can order for yourself or pick some up to sell at work. I'll just have to trust that the money is sent after you sell the stuff.

Tax deductible donations can be made out to Innovative Mission Opportunities or Innovative Humanitarian Solutions. IMOI is the non-denominational Christian arm, sorta like Habitat for Humanity. IHS is the secular arm, and the organization we are travelling under for our passage into China, since Tibet is now a region of the People's Republic of China. The checks can be sent to my office at Minh Han, 935 Main St Ste B1, Manchester, CT 06040. "Minh Han, Tibet" can be put in the memo. Medicines can also be sent there, like OTC products and vitamins. Maybe I can go to a reef meeting and pick it all up there. I'm sure there'll be reef meetings between now and July.

If anyone knows anyone else or a church/club/organization who would like to support the trip in some way, please send them my way. I would love to talk to them.

Thanks again for everyone's interest!

minh_han · #6 04/07/2007, 11:32 PM

Should I link this thread to the Lounge?

Anemone · #7 04/08/2007, 10:11 PM

As much as I hate to do it, we cannot allow appeals of this type to take place.

We don't have the ability to investigate the nature of the "worthy causes" that would like to speak to our membership, and it would put us in the untenable position of deciding what is, and is not, "worthy."

Again, sorry.

Kevin