As soon as the city streetlights go on, a few young men get together, often despite rainy or stormy weather. They do admirable, humanitarian but simple work, travelling all over Danang to help accident victims.
Van Khoa (third from right) with SOS Danang
Nguyen Van Khoa, a DTU student, is one of the six members of SOS Danang, which already gaining much local respect. In the daytime he diligently studies but at night drives his motorbike around the city, ready to help.
SOS Danang wholeheartedly helps accident victims
SOS Danang has now grown from two to six members and a network of associates. Every night, they take turns to monitor the roads for accidents. At first, they only had a few simple repair tools, but have since been given some high-quality professional ones. SOS Danang is serving a very worthwhile cause and now needs more publicity.
Van Khoa’s decided to join the group because he had previously asked friends if he could tag along to see if he could assist. Then, after a night or two, the phone came flooding in and he got to love the work.
“Many nights it’s pouring with rain and we can barely see the headlights of oncoming motorbikes, but we’re not afraid. After receiving a call, we only worry about the victims and how to help them as fast as possible. As a result, I suddenly discovered that my life had become much more meaningful,” explained Van Khoa.
Not may know that Van Khoa first studied Electronics and Telecommunications at another university in Danang. “I’d made a bad choice and I ended up bored,” he laughed. “I was enrolled there for two years but only went to class for one semester. After that, I just took the exams but never liked the major and quit. I went out everywhere with friends, tried everything to get a taste of life, and met all kinds of people. I almost lost control of myself.”
Young people often lack maturity, meet undesirables and face great temptations. Only the strongest emerge unscathed. Khoa realized all that, began searching for a new path in his life and ended up at DTU.
“I like business,” Van Khoa explained. “I found that DTU has high-quality courses in Business Administration which suited me, so I enrolled. I enjoy studying here and made many new friends and new relationships already. Then I heard about SOS Danang.”
Long distance does not discourage the young
“I once had a traffic accident myself. Then I realized that, if someone has an accident at night and no-one is there to help, that’s difficult,” said Khoa. “Most of all, I remember an accident near Chessboard Peak in Son Tra, where a motorbike crashed and the front was almost torn off. The injured driver was quickly transported to hospital and fortunately survived but it was so difficult to bring the motorbike down the mountain. Another time, on Hai Van Pass, we pushed a damaged motorbike all the way back to Danang and were thoroughly exhausted. However, when the owner thanked us, we were surprised by his happiness, which he passed on to us. Now I understand that happiness can be a really simple emotion, but filled with meaning.”
Van Khoa, front left in upper photo and second from left in lower, with SOS Danang
At the beginning, SOS Danang could only cover six or seven cases a night, but can now handle fifteen. Most commonly, nails pierce tires, drivers run out of gas, or clutch cables get severed and the group happily mends them or pushes them home. On peak nights, they stay awake until four or five in the morning working on problems. As volunteers, they are always ready to help one another as well. Khoa is still a student, so when he’s tired or has an exam coming up, his colleagues remind him to go home early to rest or study, making him always feel at ease.
All the SOS Danang members are young, from 18 to 30 and all have jobs, in restaurants, pharmacies, IT companies, as drivers, realtors or students. Now they live to help others as if they were their own family. Danh, Son, Tien, Khanh, Vu, Khoa and Trieu have grown very close to each other and to the people of Danang. They give confidence and peace of mind to drivers going home late and help them whenever they can.
Accident victims have joined the rescue group
“Most interesting of all is that one of our members previously had an accident and got our help,” said Van Khoa. “Song Chien had a torn clutch cable at night on Ngu Hanh Son street, but everything nearby was closed and silent and everyone asleep. We helped Chien and he then volunteered to join us, to ‘pay us back’ and contribute to helping everyone. We are now headquartered down an alleyway at 816 Nguyen Luong Bang and hope many more of you can join us to help.”
The group clearly understands the meaning of helping others and are expanding their network of friends to find more members. Khoa himself has many student contacts in Danang who could also take part. Meanwhile, he has one piece of advice for young people. “Don’t lose your faith in life or yourself because of a little youthful frivolity. Life still has many other hidden wonders and marvels that manifest themselves if your heart is full of love, compassion and tolerance, if you share your difficulties with others.”
SOS Danang also organizes charitable activities for needy people. At first, they all put in some money and then asked for contributions of old clothes, utensils, rice, biscuits and milk to help poor children and mountain people. Some local patrons have also recognized the good deeds of SOS Danang, contributed more and created a charitable fund to raise money for the community.
(Media Center)