Robyn Ramsay

Finding Duong, Finding Myself: a Journey of Socially Conscious Travel and Personal Healing Robyn Ramsay

When author Robyn Ramsay, a middle-class western woman, interacted with a family living on a dirt ledge in India, her life changed. The meager assistance she was able to provide them led to a deep yearning to contribute something more significant to individuals in developing countries. Her story is a wake-up call: Travelling can become an act of giving and sharing in a community, rather than simply stopping by to snap a few photographs before moving on. In 2009, Robyn and her partner, Gary, travelled to Vietnam, where they caught a glimpse of a disabled street boy as they were boarding a bus. Against all odds, they found him again. They learned that his name was Duong and that he had lost his legs in a childhood accident. They committed to fundraising for Doung, so that he could have a place to live, an education, and a future. But later that year, she received the devastating the news of his death. Over the course of that intimate journey with grief, she decided to honor the life of the new friend she had just lost. She seeks to inform and inspire other like-minded travellers, those who seek psychological and spiritual wisdom and who desire to make deeper, more heartfelt connections along the way. Finding Duong, Finding Myself provides an intimate, honest, and effective journey though one woman's desire to make a change in a way that is individual, unique, and self-empowering.