AUGUST
1999
FSU'S STAFF HUMANITARIAN: TAKING MEDICAL SUPPLIES TO VIETNAMESE
By Jeffery Seay
FSU Communications Group
"Vietnam is a country, not a war."
So goes the mantra of Max Moody as he gently reminds Americans
that most Vietnamese people are destitute and, from education
to health care, are in need of aid.
As a senior telecommunications specialist with FSU, Moody is
an expert at wiring buildings and installing equipment to keep
the campus' telephones ringing. But his true calling lies elsewhere.
A selfless humanitarian and Vietnam veteran, he has made a second
profession out of bringing aid to the impoverished people of
Vietnam.
For his international volunteer efforts, Moody was named the 1999 President's Humanitarian of the Year. FSU President Sandy D'Alemberte awarded Moody a $1,000 stipend and a reserved campus parking place for one year.
Moody's commitment to providing medical supplies to Vietnamese clinics through the '90s was key in his being chosen for the award.
In 1988, Moody toured Vietnam after serving in the Army during the Vietnam War from January 1968 to January 1969. On that return trip, he became aware of the vast opportunities to aid Vietnam's poorest people.
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MOODY IN VIETNAM
"I believe I survived the Vietnam War so that I could
return all these years later to help the people there,"
Moody said.
His need to help others started before his efforts with the Vietnamese,
however. For eight years, he taught inmates at the Tallahassee
Federal Correctional Institution through a Christian outreach
program.
Now, Moody concentrates his humanitarianism solely on the
Vietnamese.
Since 1989, he has delivered medical supplies that he purchased
or that were donated through the Jeff Blevins Memorial Children's
Fund of Orlando, a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization dedicated
to medical relief for children in Southeast Asia.
From vitamins to corneas, and thousands of dollars worth of
other high quality medical supplies and pharmaceuticals, Moody
is making a small dent in the dismal health care system of Vietnam.
Over the years, he has delivered such supplies to clinics in
Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and the more rural Dien Bien Phu, which
is about 250 miles from Hanoi. Along the way, he also made friendships
with many people, from medical professionals to children.
One such friendship is with a Hmong tribal girl named Tu. In 1995, while visiting Sa Pa, a preserve inhabited by many tribal groups, Moody met Tu when she was only 10 years old, selling replicas of clothes and jewelry worn by the country's tribal people. He bought a hand-embroidered skirt from her and took pictures of her. He also asked her why she wasn't in school. Tu said she had to sell trinkets to tourists on the street to help supplement her mother's paltry income.
On his next trip, a year later, he tracked down Tu and gave her the pictures he had taken the year before, an act that started their friendship. Later on, when Moody broke three ribs in a spill he took from his motorcycle, Tu and her friends got an adult to give him an herbal remedy to help the healing. The remedy worked and, for Moody, that kindness forever cemented his friendship with Tu and her people.
Moody has kept up with Tu and has continually encouraged her
to go to school. Now, three years later, Moody says she is in
school and wants to be a doctor.
Moody also has forged links in Vietnamese academia. On his trip
in 1992, he introduced the language faculty of the University
of Can Tho to FSU's English-as-a-Second-Language program, making
future educational exchanges possible.
During his most recent trip last year, Moody delivered a piano that he helped buy for the Affection Art Centre of Hanoi, for the children of veterans and poor artists. He also gave the health center in Dien Bien Phu its first computer and established a relationship with the health clinic in Sa Pa by arriving unannounced to deliver medical supplies.
But Moody's international goodwill isn't a one-way street. He has become an ardent cheerleader of Vietnam to Americans. He has been able to give FSU ROTC students unique insights by discussing the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, of which he is a self-described "walking encyclopedia," and to give FSU textiles students information about the culture and textiles of Vietnam.
To afford his errands of mercy, Moody does without luxuries most Americans take for granted, including television. He has even taken leave without pay when his trips exceeded his accumulated leave time.
Moody's humanitarian efforts seem even more heroic considering the scrutiny by Communist officials he has endured. Moody also did his share of "roughing it" by having to hike into the country's rural interior and deal with unsanitary conditions there.
"It wasn't all bad though," Moody said. "The country is really beautiful. I have taken time to photograph the countryside extensively."
As Moody began his trips 11 years ago, he began to think that,
ideally, he could use the first-hand experience of Vietnam he
was gaining to one day act as a bridge between Americans and
their Vietnamese counterparts to bring aid directly to where
it was needed.
He could then move on to other, more remote, parts of the country
to lay whatever groundwork was needed for delivering aid there.
"I want to be a lightning rod to raise awareness and to get Americans interested in the effort to help out these people," Moody said. "I've got tons of contacts in medicine, in education, in the government. What I want to do is to introduce American doctors to Vietnamese doctors, for instance, because once they've met and begin to work one-on-one, they won't need me. They'll just do their thing and I'll be free to scout for some other place in need. I can be the middleman who puts the spotlight on a specific area of need."
Despite hardships, Moody sees his yearly overseas jaunts as
only the beginning.
Not satisfied with being a "part-time" volunteer, he
plans to eventually move to Vietnam and asks anyone interested
in his cause to reach him at the FSU Office of Telecommunications,
(805) 644-2565, or by e-mail at mmoody@otc.fsu.edu.