Over recent years, 60-year-old Suzanna Lubran from the UK has assisted medical staff at the Da Nang General Hospital and the city’s Maternity and Paediatrics Hospital with improving the care of newborn infants.

In 2009, a group of experts and students from Australia’s RMIT University came to Da Nang to advise on the construction of a neonatal intensive care department at the Maternity and Paediatrics Hospital.  As a volunteer for a charitable organisation, Mrs Lubran raised over 2 billion VND for the department’s construction.

Mrs Lubran with a newborn baby

The kind-hearted British woman has been actively involved in appealing for donations from domestic and foreign donors to give radiant warmer beds, electric injection pumps, hand-held ventilators and other medical equipment to the Maternity and Paediatrics Hospital.

Mrs Lubran is now a trustee of Newborns Vietnam, a UK registered charity dedicated to reducing neonatal mortality in the South East Asia region, with a specific focus on Viet Nam. 

Last year, Newborns Vietnam and the Vietnamese public health providers successfully organised the “Cycling for Newborns” event, which was a 3-day 450 kilometre cycle ride from Quang Nam Province’s Thanh My Town to Quang Tri Province’s Dong Ha City and back to Da Nang.  Over 70,000 USD was raised from the event, and it was spent on organising a special nurse education programme at the Maternity and Paediatrics Hospital.  The hospital’s nurses have been trained by experts from Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK.  They have developed the specialised skills which help to improve their care of newborn infants and their mothers, and to reduce neonatal mortality.

Mrs Lubran has a special love for Da Nang and she wants to spend the rest of her life living in this beautiful seaside city.  In particular, she enjoys the year-end parties with her best friends to welcome in the Tet festival.

With her love of humanity, Mrs Lubran is making a significant contribution to improving the life chances of local newborns which brings great happiness to their parents.