Where Are They Now?

HTC-PFAC Drum and Lyre Corps

The HTC-PFAC Drum and Lyre Corps was founded by Mr. Sammy Taylor in PFAC Palawan. Its purpose was to bring out the hidden talents of Vietnamese refugee youths and encourage them to showcase their musical skills and inspire other young people like them to do the same. 

Members of the band were from the different HTC-PFAC classes. They were volunteers who wanted to share their love for music and entertainment. The band played to the delight of PFAC Palawan from 1986 to 1992. They also participated in Puerto Princesa City anniversary parade and in other important festivities organized by WESCOM. 

With Sammy are UNHCR Head- Jan Top Christensen, Miss HTC School Ngoc Diem, and HTC-PFAC School Executive Director- Sister Bernadette Hizon.

WHAT HAS BECOME OF THIS BOAT?

This Vietnamese Refugees boat carried around twenty-seven refugees and sailed across the China Sea from South Vietnam. It landed on Palawan Island sometime during the late 1982 and early 1983. The boat may have been brought close to the camp by the French ship Le Goelo.  It may have been too big to pick up and place on the ship, but it reached the refugee camp anyway.

DWIGHT RUSSEL says,
"We moved it by rolling it on pipe into the camp and I think it was placed next to the IOM Office almost across from  the UNHCR building and not very far into the camp and on the left-hand side as you enter the camp from the VRC Main Gate."

"It was a lot of work to move it. We were glad though that Eleanor Stewart, Dr. Erick Abbot, and some energetic Vietnamese refugee volunteers were there to lend their helping hands." 

 

The boat stayed near IOM Office until 1985.The following year, it was moved somewhere. Or was it damaged? Was it used for the filming of the French television film "CHINA SEA?

Where is this boat now? What has become of it?  Could this be the boat that was brought to Washington DC in 1985 to commemorate the struggles and sufferings of the Vietnamese refugees?If you have any information about what actually happened to this boat or where it is now, please drop us a line.

(Thank you very much Mr. Dwight Russel for sharing these photos with us.?)
  

PFAC Volunteer Danny Mendiola

DANNY MENDIOLA

This is me in California at the Oakland Cathedral in 2012.

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The photos below were taken from my old camera in 1986 to 1987 at PFAC while I was Coordinator of the Special Enhancement Program for Long Stayer Refugees and also as Education Coordinator.

UNHCR Field Officer, Mr. Greg Wangerin

HTC-PFAC School Director Sis. Bernadette, O.P.

I was brought by CMHS to the VRC in April 1986 to coordinate the Special Enhancement Program for long stayers. I worked closely with Gary Autencio and PCCS, who implemented the program. 

Gary Autencio, PCCS/ARMDEV School Coordinator

After a year, I left VRC in March 1987 and was transferred to PRPC Morong, Bataan to take the post of Social Services Director.

In 2013, while I was based in Castro Valley, California as an immigrant, I wrote an article published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer titled: “Once upon a Vietnamese Refugee Camp”. Here is the link to the article:

https://opinion.inquirer.net/53835/once-upon-a-vietnamese-refugee-camp

OOO