there was very little early intervention

born, there was very little early intervention. They were left on the side; very little opportunity was given them," she said. During her visits, Arese makes a point of introducing the 40 or so young artisans and shop workers to patients who have benefited from the cardiac surgery their handiwork has paid for. They come away realizing that their work has turned them into donors too, she said.

Dr. Nguyen Viet Nhan, director of the Office of Genetic Counseling and Disabled Children at the Hue College of Medicine and Pharmacy, describes Arese as the clinic's "special sponsor from Los Angeles."

Arese said she grew up during Vietnam War protests and remembers a 1974 explosion at an Italian plant that produced Agent Orange. In 1997 she visited Vietnam as a tourist and encountered disabled young people who collected aluminum cans and fabricated picture frames out of them to sell for school money. Arese told the youngsters to send her 50 of the frames and she would try to sell them in Pacific Palisades. They ended up shipping 300, causing her to scramble to find buyers for them all. But she did, and she sent the $7,100 she raised to the disabled youths. They kept $1,775 of that for their own education and sent the rest to a remote village in northern Vietnam to pay for schooling for 10 Hmong orphans. Their generosity stunned Arese, prompting her to create the nonprofit Spiral Foundation sparking her continuing focus on Vietnam.



Arese's husband, sound editor James Simcik, and their two sons, Nicholas and Martino, are supportive of her work. Nicholas, 27, a doctoral candidate focusing on migration and human rights, will travel with her to Vietnam this time. Martino, 22, is an undergraduate studying sociology and conflict resolution through sports. "Any kind of war always creates damages that go far beyond where the war happened," Marichia Arese said. "We should not count only on large institutions making a change. Change is possible if you commit to a good idea."





Trial Over Falun Gong

By The Associated Press, 6 April 2011



Two Falun Gong practitioners face trial in Vietnam for transmitting programs about the spiritual group into China, their lawyer said Wednesday. Tran Dinh Trien, the lawyer, said that Falun Gong was not banned in Vietnam and that his clients should not be charged. The trial starts Friday for Vu Duc Trung, 30, and his brother-in-law, Le Van Thanh, 35. If convicted, they face up to five years in jail. State media reported that the men broadcast 18 hours a day for more than a year. They already started last year, in 2010. They were emitting from their home and on shortwave and the signal was travelling 800 kilometres north to China. They were diffusing some programs that are free to get. It's very easy to get. They come from the Radio Sound of Hope radio network. This is a Falungong media and they were broadcasting the signals to China to make the Chinese learn about mainland politics, economics, but in particular about what was happening for the Falungong in China.China bans Falun Gong and has jailed practitioners of the group it denounces as
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