The Hope Center started its first year with a few donated sewing machines and nowhere to go with them! Minimal available budget prevented them from being able to afford premises so they successfully begged to use some vacant rooms at the local radio station. This solution was short-lived though as after a year’s use of a few rooms they were moved out due to the building needing to be renovated. Where to now? After much searching they managed to secure some rooms in a building that was being used by the Department of Home Affairs. They settled there from 2000 – 2002. But even the use of this space was to be short-lived. The Department of Home Affairs had settled in a building belonging to a Vietnamese who had left the country with the Americans at the end of the War and was now living in the USA. At the end of 2002 the Vietnam Government decreed that many of these properties should be handed back to their original owners. To read more download the PDF.