WINTHROP -- Dr. Jennifer McConnell and two members of her medical staff will travel to Vietnam in March as part of a U.S. volunteer aid group that is helping young girls escape the sex trade and providing basic support for families in the Mekong Delta region.

McConnell, who has traveled to Vietnam three times as part of her efforts to adopt two girls now ages 6 and 9, joined with the Catalyst Foundation in 2006 to address problems she saw in her daughters' native land.

"When I was in college, I spent some time in Uganda as part of a community health team," she said. "After I adopted my children from Vietnam, I understood the need there. I discovered the Catalyst Foundation. I had the opportunity to give back to my children's birth country."

The 40-year-old family practitioner is returning this year as part of a larger medical team that includes her, another doctor, a pediatric nurse practitioner, and two members of her staff, Nurse Liz Reztlaff and Medical Technician Barbara Holmes. More than 1,000 people from the area have signed up for care during the group's two-week visit.

About 80 Americans are traveling together as part of the effort, she said. They will work in three teams -- a school team, a home-building team and a health-care team.

"The focus is on this particular area where families are living in this dump" in Kien Giang, McConnell said.

The volunteers traveling to Vietnam are collecting funds before they leave to provide small loans to help families start their own businesses and to buy food, medical and building supplies.

They also hope to buy as many as 200 bicycles, which can be critical to families' efforts to support themselves and for their children to travel safely to schools, said Dr. Bev. Kimpel, who is helping with logistics and fundraising for her colleagues' trip.

"In Vietnam, there isn't much public transportation and getting the kids to school means traveling very long distances," Kimpel said. "These bikes cost $40, they're locally made and they're heavy duty and built to stand up to the conditions for a long time."

Volunteers pay their own expenses, Kimpel said.

Kimpel said improving families' economic conditions prevents them from selling their daughters into the sex trade and allows parents to keep the girls in school.

A benefit is being planned at Sully's restaurant in Winthrop on Feb. 24 from noon to 4 p.m. with live performers and a cash raffle. Kimpel said individual donations also can be sent directly to Kennebec Savings Bank, care of the Catalyst Foundation. Donations are tax-deductible, she said.

The group also is selling note cards made from art work created by orphaned or abandoned girls in the foundation's scholarship program.

Each year, foundation volunteers hold an art contest for the girls and award cash prizes.

Last year's winner donated her $100 prize to help other girls like her, McConnell said.

"One of the reasons they get in the sex trades is because their families can't support them," McConnell explained.

McConnell and five others from the program are also planning a 100-mile bicycle ride through the Mekong Delta to Ho Chi Minh City, to further raise awareness of sex trades that victimize Vietnamese girls.

Gary Remal -- 621-5642

gremal@centralmaine.com