LIKE other foreign teachers who choose Vietnam, Neale Pilling has fallen in love with the country.

He has lived there for nearly two and a half years, teaching English in various schools in Ho Chi Minh City.

It’s the plight of poor and disabled children which has moved him to ask Examiner readers for help.

Neale explains: “It was on a school trip from my present school that we visited the school run by Buddhist monks for disabled children.

“They run this school purely on charity. It was while there that I talked to the leading monk and he told me how desperate they were for clothes, money to buy food and other things for the children.

“With this in mind I wondered whether the people or charities of Huddersfield would be able to help.”

Neale, 66 on December 29, lived originally in Marsden and then in Slaithwaite.

He used to be a member of the Colne Valley Riding Club and his son and daughter still live in Linthwaite and Slaithwaite.

He used to work for Kirklees Council as assistant to town halls manager Julia Robinson, but took early retirement because of ill health.

When he retired he took a holiday in Vietnam and fell in love with a Vietnamese woman in 2006.

Returning to England, Neale decided to return to Vietnam to be with her as they could not get a visa for her to enter England.

“Vietnam is a country of stark contrasts,” he says.

“You can see poor people living in corrugated shacks that are situated next to opulent houses owned by the upper-class people.

“With the government not having any programme similar to our own social security, the poor are only able to exist by begging.”

Neale says there appear to be very few charitable organisations operating in the country apart from Buddhist monks and he knows of only one Swiss charity worker who works in District 1 of Ho Chi Minh City.

He says: “Although I have been aware of the problem of poverty within Vietnam since I have lived here, it was only when I visited the Buddhist school for poor children that it really struck home.

“Talking to the monks and some of my friends they informed me of the desperate plight of the poor in Vietnam.

“The thing that they are most desperate for are clothing and money to buy food. Although these things are cheap in Vietnam to a western point of view, to the poor people it means that every day is a day fighting for survival.

“This also means that the children’s parents cannot afford to pay for their education – education in Vietnam is not free. The monks try and help all they can – but they too are dependent on charity.

“If there is any way that you think the people of Kirklees could help I know it would be greatly appreciated by them.”

Contact Neale by email at neale_pilling@yahoo.co.uk