The Post Adoptive Resources Centre are inviting adoptive parents (and potential) to join their staff, government people and adult adoptees for an evening of ‘talking about racism’ – how to help your child cope and celebrate their cultural diversity. Hope to see you there.

Meeting in Boston

The Vietnamese adoptees are invited to join in on casual meetings in Boston between 24 – 30 September. 
Email: adoptedvietnamese@hotmail.com

Meeting in Sydney

The Vietnamese adoptees and other intercountry adoptees are invited to join the ICASN group 21 September contact Lynelleb@au1.ibm.com

The Vietnamese adoptees are invited to join in on casual meetings in Boston. Dates: Sunday 13 April and Thursday 17 April. Email: adoptedvietnamese@hotmail.com

Vietnamese adoptees are invited to join in on casual meetings in Melbourne, Australia in conjunction with the Intercountry Adoptee Support Network (ICASN).

International Vietnamese adoptees met up in Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon Vietnam.

Monday December 9th 2002

7:30PM – Sydney

THE QUIET AMERICAN
+ Q&A WITH PHILLIP NOYCE

This program is presented in association with

INSIDE FILM

Popcorn Taxi in association with Inside Film present a very special advanced preview screening of PHILLIP NOYCE’s topical new film, THE QUIET AMERICAN, starring MICHAEL CAINE, BRENDAN FRASER and DO THI HAI YEN.

Pulled from its release schedule after September 11, THE QUIET AMERICAN could not have re-emerged to make it’s mark at a more important time. American Aid worker Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser) arrives in Saigon in the fall of 1952, at the height of the Vietnamese fight for independence from French colonial rule. He befriends a London Times correspondent (Sir Michael Caine), and falls for his beautiful Vietnamese mistress (Hai Yen). Nothing, and no one, are as they seem, in this adaptation of Graham Greene’s classic and prophetic story of love, betrayal, murder and the origin of the American war in Southeast Asia.

After the screening, director PHILLIP NOYCE joins INSIDE FILM’s Editor BEC SMITH, for an indepth on-stage discussion and Q&A session about the film. For more info on PHILLIP, see below.

POPCORN TAXI
Admission (M )

Time : 7:30 pm.
Date: Monday December 9th 2002
Where: Valhalla Cinema
Address: 166 Glebe Point Road, Glebe
Entry: $15 / $13 Concession.
Tickets on sale from 6:00pm (sorry no bookings, cash only).

The Catalyst Foundation, together with Humanitarian Services for the Children of Vietnam, invites you to join us for our “Take a Chance on Me” Annual Benefit Dinner on Friday – December 6. 2002, at 5:30 p.m., in the Great Hall, US Bank Trust Center Building, Lowertown – 180 East Fifth Street – St. Paul, Minnesota

The Honored Guest Speaker, Kien Nguyen, is the Author of “The Unwanted” and “The Tapestries.” Kien Nguyen grew up an outsider in his native land. His once wealthy family, thrust into poverty at the dawn of a new political regime, lived amongst neighbors who treated them as pariahs, unwelcome remnants the colonial past. Kien himself, a child of mixed race (his father was American), was among the most unwanted. Told with a stark, poetic brilliance, Kien’s account of his early years-from the fall of Saigon, when at age eight he watched the last U.S. Army helicopter leave without him and his family, to his eventual escape-is a work of profound emotional resonance, at once harrowing and inspiring. “The Unwanted” unforgettably records a universal human experience played out in extreme circumstances: the forging of an identity, a life. Kien Nguyen left Vietnam in 1985 through the United States’ Orderly Departure Program. After spending time at a refugee camp in the Philippines, Nguyen arrived in the United States. He now lives in New York City.

That evening, we’ll also be honoring the following people: Catalyst Foundation Community Award Recipient: John A. Gappa, Senior

Vice President and CFO, Universal Hospital Services, Bloomington, MN

Catalyst Foundation Service Award Recipient: Julie Hessler, Vietnam

Adoption Specialist, Children’s Home Society of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN

Cost for the evening is $55 per person and includes the meal; register online at www.catalystfoundation.org

VAN will help Clear Path International and the Adopt-A-Minefield campaign by hosting a dinner for the worldwide “Night of 1000 Dinners” annual fundraiser. To register contact info@van-online.org

We are one of many in our state and across the nation who will participate in this the global campaign to help rid the world of landmines and support landmine accident survivors. Clear Path International is one of 10 charter affiliates in this benefit spearheaded by the Adopt-A-Minefield campaign, which is drawing support from family hosts, restaurants, churches and community service clubs in Vermont, Washington, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, Idaho and California and all over the world.

Here’s your chance to get involved in this worthy effort. Hosting a dinner is easy. Last year VAN hosted a buffet-style meal in Seattle with 20 guests in attendance. We exceeded our fundraising goal and hope to raise even more this year. 85% of our proceeds went directly to Clear Path International’s efforts in Vietnam and the remaining 15% we earmarked for distribution to relief efforts in Afghanistan.

To get involved, please register online at:

www.1000dinners.com

Who: Also-Known-As

What: Adoption Forum for Adult Adoptees Topic will be Identity

When: Sunday, December 1, 2002, 1-4 PM

Where: 39-60 54 Street, Woodside

Info: Adoption is a lifelong journey that contains complex emotions and issues. Individually our paths lead to different places, though they meet in crossroads throughout the course of our lives. Adoption Forums are sessions were adult intercountry adoptees come together to share their own experiences and feelings with other adult intercountry adoptees. Forums are small informal discussion groups intended to provide a casual and comfortable space to meet, build friendships and share experiences.

Directions: Take the 7 train to 52 Street and walk to 54 Street. Make a left. The road breaks so you need to look to your right. Continue on 54 and I am on the left hand side.

By car:

From West: Queens Boulevard to 58 Street. Make a left onto 58 Street. At light make left onto Roosevelt Avenue. Bear right onto Skillman andmake first right onto 54 Street. I am on the left hand side.

From East: Queens Boulevard to 58 Street. Make a right onto 58 Street. At light make left onto Roosevelt Avenue. Bear right onto Skillman and first right onto 54 Street. I am on the left hand side.

Contact: Lee-Ann Hanham by phone at 718-205-8033 or email at lhanham@mail.alsoknownas.org. If you are going to email, please leave a phone number to contact you to confirm. Please RSVP by November 27.

BABYLIFT REMEMBRANCE DAYNEW JERSEY VIETMAM ERA EDUCATIONAL CENTER HOLMDEL, NEW JERSEY

…on the grounds of the Garden State Art Center at Exit
116 of the Garden State Parkway.
NOVEMBER 23, 2002 AT 1:00 PM
www.njvvmf.org
Fee-$5.00

The program will include a special presentation of the Babylift Documentary Film “Precious Cargo”, with the co-producers leading a discussion.

Speakers include:

Shirley Barnes, author of “The War Cradle”, Mike Boehm, Vietnam Veteran and Organizer of the My Lai and Hanoi Peace Parks, (tentative) Ross Meador, FCVN’s Babylift Coordinator…Ross has the final civilian passport stamped for departure April, 1975, I wish to cordially invite all Babylift adoptees to participate as well.

Other activities include:

Music, Vietnamese Dance Group Performance, Art Exhibit…to include the Babylift Quilt…created by Shirley Barnes from remnants of clothing worn by the Babylift adoptees in 1975…soon to be archived at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Section of the C-5A Airplane, Babylift Award Statue, Photo Exhibit, etc. The program will be followed by a Holiday Lighting Ceremony at 6:00 PM.

Please contact Lana Noone: noone@mailbug.com for further information.

RESEARCH PRIORITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR COMMUNITY CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

Free public lecture and discussion led by Bernice Gerrand, Manager, Community Cultural Development Board, Australia Council for the Arts. Does community cultural development present alternative and fresh perspectives and practices for those engaged in community strengthening, health promotion, environmental action, arts development and related fields of practice?

11.30am – 1pm, Wed 6 November 2002 University of Technology, Sydney 235 Jones St, Ultimo (Building 10, level 6, room 430)

For further information contact: Paul Johnston, Centre for Popular Education (UTS) tel: 02 9514 3861 fax: 02 9514 3030 email: paul.johnston@uts.edu.au

An adopted Vietnamese female returns to Vietnam to find and meet her birth mother in this Sundance Award winning documentary Screening:

The Quad Cinema 34 West 13th Street
New York, NY Opens Nov. 1, 2002
www.quadcinema.com

The Coolidge Corner Theatre 290 Harvard St.
Brookline, MA Opens Nov. 8, 2002
www.coolidge.org

The NuArt Theatre 11272 Santa Monica Blvd.
West Los Angeles, CA Opens Nov. 15, 2002
www.landmarktheaters.com

Opera Plaza Cinemas 601 VanNess Ave.
San Francisco, CA Opens Nov. 29, 2002

Shattuck Cinemas 2230 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley, CA Opens Nov. 29, 2002

The Ken Cinema 4061 Adams Avenue
San Diego, CA Opens Dec. 13, 2002
www.landmarktheaters.com

GENERATE: doing [multi] culture exhibition Tues 29 October – Mon 11 November 2002 UTS Gallery, Peter Johnson Building (Building 6, Level 4), 702 Harris St, Ultimo. doing [multi] culture is an installation that maps culturally diverse Western Sydney. It’s also one component of the major cultural event, GENERATE: The Art of Migration, which represents Stage Two of the partnership project between the MHC and the Centre for Cultural Research (UWS). For additional information on the exhibition and project please visit:

www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/projects/55.html#exhibition

Rally for the Truth about Refugees and War

This was originally planned to commemorate the drowning of 353 asylum seekers on the so-called SIEV-X vessel and the failure of the government and the navy – strangely, given they were warned – to do anything about this. It now has a broader aim to connect the questions of refugees and war to strengthen our movement. War creates refugees! People will meet at Town Hall at 12 noon. Speakers are being organised and posters and leaflets are already available. Email rallyfortruthoct26@yahoo.com.au to get leaflets or posters sent out. If you stick them up at work or at your bus stop or your school then we will have a really big rally.

“Families with Children from Vietnam” are holding a culture camp and are extending the event to adult adoptees – volunteers appreciated. For more information please contact Maryanne O’Conner at email: moconnor@arielgroup.com

Games area: Will be coordinated by Christine Poirier.

Arts & Crafts area: Will be coordinated by Chris Thomas and Eileen Heeney.

Cooking: Hai will coordinate two sessions where the kids (and parents) can make fresh rolls.

Dance: Thuy will teach a dance session.

Songs: Thuy and Diep will run a session

VAN: We have several members of VAN (Vietnamese Adoptee Network) who will be speaking with parents about their experiences.

Language: Linh will teach an introductory language session for parents.

Buddhism in Vietnam: Maryann will be doing this this with the help of Anton from Viet Cafe in Arlington.

Performance: To be announced

Lunch included in the fee.

Drinks: punch lemonade and water