The Australian Veterans Vietnam Reconstruction Group (AVVRG), New South Wales sub-committee, is planning to visit Vietnam to raise funds for the Nui Dat kindergarten, located in Nui Dat commune, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, the former site of an Australian Task Force base in Vietnam.

Two fundraising, holiday tour parties to Vietnam will take place in October. One will be led by Dave Sabben, one of the commanders at the Battle of Long Tan, and the other by popular singer, Patricia Amphlett, OAM (Little Pattie), the news website Australia.TO reported.

Sabben and Little Pattie will catch-up at Nui Dat for the first time in 43 years. Little Pattie performed the first entertainment show for Aussie soldiers in Nui Dat in August 1966.

Sabben missed the show because he was part of the 6RAR Delta Company patrol that headed out of the base just as the show began and an hour later, was in direct fire at the seminal battle at Long Tan.

Monies raised from the tours will be used to build a new kindergarten at Nui Dat which will replace a community centre that was built and paid for by Aussie veterans in 2004.

AVVRG, a licensed NGO in Vietnam , has been undertaking humanitarian aid projects in the country’s southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau since the early 1990’s.

The AVVRG has funded a number of projects including rebuilding a primary school, the Ba Ria Orphanage, the Long Tan Dental Clinic, as well as teaching English classes, in addition to its current project./.