Search icon

News

22nd May 2015

Tourist’s failed fundraising effort leaves Vietnamese family homeless

JOE

Sometimes good intentions end up being more trouble than they’re worth.

When New Zealander Wayan Rosie set out to raise $15,000 to build a new home for a Vietnamese family he met on his travels, he thought he was helping people in need.

However, his kind gesture didn’t exactly go to plan.

According to Stuff.co.nz, unexpected expenses mean Rosie may have to return to Wellington with the job incomplete, leaving the family without a place to live.

Vietnam

After tearing down the family’s tiny shack, rebuilding work started earlier this month, but Rosie admitted on his fundraising page that it will cost more than initially anticipated.

Hundreds of dollars have been donated in the last few hours, bringing the total up to nearly $10,000, however there remains a serious risk that the family will be left homeless in the picturesque but poverty-stricken town.

Rosie was alerted to the family’s plight when visiting the town of Sapa, where five of them were living in a shack measuring just 20 square metres, and set out to “make their home safer and more functional”.

He has donated some $2,000 of his own money in addition to donations from far and wide, yet what began as a noble cause may still end in the worst way imaginable.