VASA president, Charity Trang Thach shared with the audience, “Black April is important because it was not only the end of the Vietnam War but also the starting point of the mass exodus of Vietnamese refugees.  Millions escaped by boat, surviving all odds, including death to find their hopes and dreams in a new home, in America.  It is the beginning of the Vietnamese American community.” The program also included of two community members who spoke to the student audience of the struggles and the journey from Vietnam after the fall of Sai Gon, a very important day in history for many, especially the Vietnamese people. A part of the commemoration was also an introduction of VietACT by Van Le.  VietACT’s slideshow followed, which created more interest from UCF students. Van Le also gave the closing speech, reminding students of their Vietnamese past, to remember and learn from it and to use pain and loss into action to modern day atrocities such as human trafficking.

 At UCF, April marks the first Asian American Heritage month. For this special occasion, VASA, along with other UCF Asian American student groups have decided that their philanthropy group for this year is VietACT, to help eradicate human trafficking. “Students are becoming more aware of the situation of human trafficking and how it is hurting the lives of millions  of our brothers and sisters and that there and something has to be done,” says Ricky Ly. The goal of this philanthropy project is to raise awareness within the student population as well as money to help the cause. A donation box will be set up at all of the Asian Heritage Month events, along with a poster board and pamphlet providing information regarding Human Trafficking as well as VietACT.