Professor Bui Duc Phu, Director Leaders, Doctors and Staffs of Hue Central Hospital,
Fellow Colleagues and Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of Trantien Foundation, we sincerely thank the Ministry of Health, Hu? Central Hospital and the Centerfor Trauma, Orthopedic & Plastic Surgery on the proposed Medal of Health for the People.First, we are sincerely grateful to Prof. Bùi Ð?c Phú and Dr. Pham Dang Nhat. Without the support of these twodedicated professionals and their care of the underprivileged patients in Hue, we would not have been able toovercome numerous obstacles to reap the rewards we see today.

On behalf of Trantien Foundation, we sincerely thank the Ministry of Health, Hue Central Hospital and the Centerfor Trauma, Orthopedic & Plastic Surgery on the proposed Medal of Health for the People. First, we are sincerely grateful to Prof. Bui Duc Phu and Dr. Pham Dang Nhat. Without the support of these twodedicated professionals and their care of the underprivileged patients in Hue, we would not have been able toovercome numerous obstacles to reap the rewards we see today.

We would like to express gratitude to all the doctors and staff of the Center for Trauma, Orthopedics & Plasticsurgery as well as the Department of Anesthesia and Recovery who have offered great care to their patients withutmost compassion and professionalism.

We gratefully acknowledge the support and collaboration of Dr. Le Nghi Thanh Nhan, surgeons in the Departmentof Surgery-Trauma, staff of Hue University Hospital, and the administration of Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy in support of our medical and charitable activities in Hue.

We very much appreciate Most Venerable Dr. Thich Hai An and the Venerables at Tue Tinh Duong Hai Duc fortheir moral support and guidance of the charitable activities of Trantien Foundation over the past 10 years.We also want to thank Dr. Doan Van Quynh and the staff of Thien Sanh Clinic, a branch of Tue Tinh Duong Hai Duc, who have done their best to serve the poor people in support of our charity work over the past 10 years.

We express our sincere gratitude to all the doctors and professors from America, particularly Dr. Paul Luu, Dr. LeoKeegan and, especially, Professor Lester Silver, who overcome the long distance and have sacrificed their valuabletime to participate in this charity mission for nearly 10 years as self-supported volunteers, full of medicalcompassion and without any discrimination for the love of humanity.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have not forgotten the first encounter with Professor Bui Duc Phu and Dr. Pham Dang Nhat nearly 10 years agoduring our first visit to the hospital after many years apart. Our mutual fellowship and friendship despite theseparation by space, time and the invisible, were deeply felt in the beginning and they still last today.

Through this contact, we realized their generosity, honesty, openness and their commitment to overcomingobstacles. From their enthusiastic interest in the care of illness and disease and inquiries of advanced surgicaltechnologies from the United States in order to advance the care of people of Hue, we told ourselves that we have tomake contributions to our hometown. Leaving our homeland to reside in a new country made us realize how deepour love for our motherland is, as well as the chance to see our people and our society more clearly.

From this, Trantien Foundation was founded for the sole purpose of serving the poor in Hue at the free walk-inClinic Thien Sanh in collaboration with the Tue Tinh Duong Hai Duc. Through our charity, the needs of surgicalspecialists and the exchange of professional knowledge to local surgeons has been provided by the Plastic SurgeryDivision of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York. Project Hue was established to send experiencedteachers to Hue annually with the intention of continuing the Barsky program. Our continuing success is due in large part to Prof. Lester Silver for his continued support over the last eight years.

Although limited in travel lately due to his health, he has invited medical experts and organized many symposiumsto transfer new knowledge and advances to local colleagues in order to better serve the patients. Dr. Silver is a clearexample of a great doctor who shows his love for humanity, and has compassion and love for Hue.

Today in receiving this medal, we bring together our success with patients to change their disabled life to a selfsufficient one for themselves, their family and society. We went through many teaching rounds and consultationclinics with a warm welcome and respect toward the underprivileged. We also spent many days of hard work in theoperating room with colleagues for the intellectual exchange and gave many lectures which were long but may havebeen boring due to the language barrier.

Project Hue has promoted the principle of “do no harm,” excellence of service, responsibility and compassion fromdoctors for their patient’s welfare and safety. It also has promoted a high-level of specialization and development ofoutpatient cosmetic surgery in Hue. We hope that this is a symbol of progress for learning science and technolo

Finally, we would like to inform you that Trantien Foundation will have personnel changes in its Board of Directorsto include younger physicians who have graduated from American medical schools and residencies. These youngdoctors are energetic, enthusiastic and have a new spirit of serving the people of Hue in areas such as cardiovasculardiseases and family medicine and transfer of new technical expertise to local colleagues.

We hope that the Board of Directors and various specialty departments of Hue General Hospital will continue theirvaluable support to make our charity work better.

Once again, we thank the Organizing Committee and the honored guests for attending the ceremony today. Please accept our sincere gratitude.

Dr. Tran Tien Sum