TABLE Top couple Bill and Heni Williams are taking a hands-on approach to tackling extreme poverty in Vietnam.

While Mr and Mrs Williams support several charities in that country, they also have plans to create a new kind of tourism that directly supports those in need.

Mr Williams was sent to Vietnam in 1997 by Swinburne University where he met his wife.

Since that first trip, Mr Williams has seen Vietnamese society change rapidly.

“When I first went to Hanoi in 1997 there were almost no cars and probably 50 bicycles to every motorbike,” he said.

“It quickly changed and the proportion of bikes to motorbikes reversed.

“Now all of Heni’s friends, who wouldn’t believe in 1997 that they’d be driving a car, all want to own a car.

“But it’s a bit like Sydney and Melbourne now where the big cities have developed faster than rural areas.

“There are still probably 60 million people in Vietnam who rely on rice and food from the land.”

Key issues — particularly in rural areas — are the availability of clean water and poor sanitation.

“The lack of hygienic toilets is one of the biggest contributors to contaminated water,” Mr Williams said.

“You don’t drink water anywhere out of a stream.

“Research shows that because of poor sanitation and unhealthy toilets, the average country kid of 14 is three centimetres shorter that they should be.

“That’s measurable against areas with sanitation.”

Mr Williams works as a project manager on a World Bank rural sanitation program, which encourages communities to install toilets that improve hygiene.

Mrs Williams said small amounts of money could change lives.

A group she is involved with started supporting two brothers orphaned after major floods about 15 years ago.

It sponsored a school to feed, house and educate the boys.

“For one term, it was about $100 for each child,” she said.

“These two orphaned kids, we took them from where they were and one has finished year 12 and gone on to study as a mechanic.

“We helped him to set up a garage back in town and he now has a wife and children, and his brother is still in high school.

“There is a future for them if they have help.

“Without that help, you can imagine that those two kids would be trafficked and go to China to sell their kidneys or something similar.”

Mrs Williams said with northern Vietnam bordering China, young people were at serious risk of traffickers who trade in internal organs and prostitution.

She said one of the problems with major charities was that support came “with handcuffs” and money was often spent on management costs.

The couple have coined a new word — giveller — a mix of “giving” and “traveller” and have registered a website they hope will soon go online.

Mr Williams said the idea was to allow people to give to hands-on charities while on holiday without taking work away from locals.

“We don’t really agree with ‘voluntourism’,” he said.

“It has a bit of a bad reputation where kids from wealthy Australian private schools go and build schools, but almost any work Westerners do is taking away from the locals.

“It’s better for kids to raise the money and give it directly to people in need.”

A group of Border residents will head to Vietnam in September to team up charities that work with orphaned and disadvantaged children, and donate funds and supplies.

The aim is to promote awareness of conditions in the country and ways in which people can help.

Several Rotary Club members will join the trip, which is open to the public.

Mrs Williams said it was amazing to see what could be achieved.

“We work directly with the receivers of the donations,” she said.

“We cut out all those in the middle and people can see where the money helps.

“What we have with that young man, seeing him go from a little boy to 15 years later where he’s the father of a family, that’s so rewarding for us.

“I think people like the Rotarians would love that experience, too.”

For more information on the tour phone Mr Williams on 0419 503 950 or Kelvin Quonoey on 0410 201 312.