With the fall of Saigon in 1975 Catholic Charities USA, Lutheran Social Services, and several other private, mostly religious, agencies were called upon to resettle refugees from Vietnam and Laos.

Toledo Catholic Charities resettled some 1,000 refugees, mostly from Vietnam, some from Laos. Parishes throughout our diocese, from Lima to Bethlehem, from Defiance to Norwalk, formed committees and responded well to the need.

In November of 1999 eight of us from northwest Ohio, mostly Rotarians, went to Vietnam as relations between our two countries had improved. The refugees who settled here had long been sending financial help back to family and friends, and our intent was to see what the needs were and how we might be able to help.

Within three months after we returned, along with several Vietnam veterans, the D.O.V.E Fund was formed. D.O.V.E. stands for Development of Vietnam Endeavors. The Fund has raised more than $2 million for a great variety of projects: nursery schools, primary and middle schools, water projects, scholarships, clinics and small loans for women to start their own businesses.

The group also sponsors annual trips so people can see first-hand both the need and the progress made by their many efforts. One unexpected benefit of these trips has been the healing of veterans still troubled by what they saw and did during the war.

In 2005 Sgt. Stocker and his wife, Linda, from Ariel, Wash., went to Vietnam with a group providing hand-knit bandages for lepers. For years Vietnamese Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres (a missionary order started in France) have been serving the lepers and other poor with boarding schools, orphanages, food and medical services. Scattered in 68 small villages are some 700 lepers. Their children have practically no opportunity for education and are mostly from ethnic groups that do not speak Vietnamese. Unless they get education there is little chance they will ever break out of poverty. The Sisters of Charity needed a lot of help to help others.

Linda returned home and started crocheting the reusable bandages that breathe and are best for treating leprosy. She got others involved, too. By 2008 the project grew so much she was having difficulty shipping the bandages. She contacted the D.O.V.E. Fund and partnered with them. In 2010 the Stockers returned to assess more fully the tragic plight of the lepers who were reportedly starving. They also found that for a mere $15 a leper family could be fed for a month.

Would you like to help? Contact Linda at stgstocker@gmail.com or send a contribution marked Bandage Brigade to The D.O.V.E. Fund, P.O. Box 357041, Toledo, OH 43635. You may also visit the Bandage Brigade website at leprosybandages.blogspot.com for more information.

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Father Robert Haas is a senior status priest of the Diocese of Toledo and regularly organizes mission trips to Belize and Tanzania. He may be reached at rlhaas@columbus.rr.com.