Where Are They Now: Charlie Honchell
Charlie Honchell has dedicated his entire 43-year career to the public works profession, and early on in that career he became part of the Minnesota Chapter of APWA (APWA-MN).
Over the years, Charlie would go on to serve as president of APWA-MN and then as the Minnesota delegate to the APWA Board of Delegates. In 1988, Charlie was selected by APWA as one of the Top Ten Works leaders in all of North America.
Charlie began his career in Pontiac, Mich., as the city's assistant engineer. Shortly after starting, Charlie's interest in being a good leader led him to convince his public works director to let him join APWA. It was at this time, that he started to realize the benefits of being a part of the association.
"There are many benefits to [APWA-MN] membership, but one of the most important is the educational opportunity to keep you up to date on various aspects of public works trends, ideas, and regulations," mentioned Charlie. "This relates not only to formal presentation, but also to discussions and sharing successes and failures with other [APWA-MN] members."
After 10 years in Michigan, Charlie moved to Roseville, Minn., where he held the position of public works director for 15 years. He finished his career as public works director for the City of Bloomington, a position he held for 18 years.
Charlie has seen major changes in the field of public works since he first started.
"When I began," Charlie said, "calculations were done by a sliderule and designs were with pen and ink on special linen sheets. Now computers, lasers, and [GPS] make everything faster, easier, and more accurate."
He mentioned that workforce diversity is another way in which the landscape has changed.
"I am happy that at Bloomington we attracted a number of capable female employees and assisted their development into supervisory and leadership positions."
Across all genders, Charlie said he has been blessed with getting to work with positive, teamwork-oriented employees; something he says is essential in the workplace.
"Only hire people who possess positive outlooks and have teamwork aptitudes. You can teach them technical skills, but it is very hard to change their perspective of life," mentioned Charlie.
Since retiring nine years ago, Charlie enjoys doing many of the activities that he didn't have time for while working. This includes golfing each week, playing tennis, and bowling. He also spends a lot more time with his grandkids, and has been able to take adventures with his wife to places like Alaska, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, and the Caribbean.


Patrons & trustees
All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group
Human embryo in science & medicine
Ask your MP candidates to sign the Both Lives Pledge
Ask your MP candidates if they oppose assisted suicide
View voting and pledge records for MP candidates
Sign up for our free action alerts
Hustings guide: How to run a general election hustings event
Vote for Both Lives - General Election 2019
Save Lives - Bring Back Stormont
Vote for Life - EU Election 2019
Stop Forced Abortion
Digital news service
Media training programme
Education For Life programme
The Westminster Award
Donate via bank transfer or cheque
Vietnamese man saves over 100 babies from abortion
One man in Vietnam, Tống Phước Phúc, has saved over one hundred babies from abortion by opening an orphanage looking after unwanted children.
Almost twenty years ago, as his wife lay recuperating after a difficult birth, Tống noticed many pregnant women going into the delivery room but always leaving alone.
"I was wondering, where are the babies? Then I realized they had abortions," he told documentary Tough Love: Challenging Vietnam's abortion rate, one baby at a time.
Heartbroken at the reality taking place before his very eyes, Tống asked for the bodies of all the aborted babies so he could give them a proper burial.
He used his savings, as a former construction worker, to buy land atop a mountain in Hon Thom, located in Nha Trang of central Vietnam. Tống chose this peaceful location to lay these babies to rest.
Tống, who is now over 60, and a team of volunteers have buried over 16,000 aborted babies since 2001.
The sight of over 15,000 tiny plots dotting the shady hillside, many marked with bright red, pink and yellow artificial roses has already persuaded some pregnant women not to undergo an abortion.
Nhung Nguyen is one such woman. Sitting beside her daughter she revealed to the Tough Love documentary: "If I hadn't come here, I would have had an abortion, too."
She added: "Uncle Phuc (Tống) came to see me, persuaded me not to have an abortion, and promised to help."
Tống then decided that as well as being a gravedigger, he could also be a lifesaver for unborn babies.
He realised one way he could help people like Nguyen was to set up an orphanage where he could take care of unwanted babies or babies whose mothers feel unable to look after them.
Nguyen, who cannot support her daughter herself, often visits her at the orphanage.
Volunteers teach children of kindergarten age while older ones are all sent to school.
"I'm getting more and more help," says Tống. "Some people help me with actions, others bring things, rice and salt, for example. Others give money for educating and sheltering the children, to allow me to continue my work."
He adds, "I put my heart and soul into this" before revealing the orphanage has cared for over 100 children with more than 50 of those being reunited with their birth mothers.
Tống recalls in another documentary, "In 2004, there were about 30 babies taken to this cemetery to be buried each day. Now, there are days that no babies are taken to this place. I am very happy about that."
40 percent of all pregnancies in Vietnam end in abortion according to a study by doctors at Hanoi's Central Obstetrics Hospital revealed, giving it one of the highest abortion rates in the world.
Although sex-selective abortion is illegal in Vietnam male-to-female birth ratios are as high as 150 to 100 in some provinces and 120 to 100 in the capital city of Hanoi. A ratio of roughly 105 male births for every 100 female ones is generally seen as natural and normal.
A recent study conducted into repeat abortions in the country found the odds of a repeat abortion were greater among women with at least two daughters rather than among those with only one (odds ratio, 2.9). In 2015, Vietnamese television aired an interview with a woman who selectively aborted 18 girl babies trying to give birth to a son.
Abortion Choose Life ChooseLife Vietnam
(Image credit: Tống Phước Phúc Orphanage)
Melanie McDonagh: I fear that Labour's abortion law plans could lead us to a very dark place
Amid all the eye-catching largesse of Labour's manifesto — free broadband for all, the council house-building programme, and renationalisations — its radical proposals on abortion seem to have slipped through unnoticed.
However, it is vital we examine the party's declaration that 'we will uphold women's reproductive rights and decriminalise abortions'. Decriminalising abortion would mean you could have one for any reason; you wouldn't even be asked why you wanted it.
Right To Life campaigners say the plan has the potential to allow unlimited abortions right up to birth, well beyond the present 24-week limit, which is already around twice the average time limit on abortions in Europe.
Copyright © 2019 Right To Life
Charitable Trust.
info@righttolife.org.uk
Right To Life UK
Affirming and defending human dignity, and the right to life of every human being, from conception to natural death.
© 2019 Right to Life UK. All rights reserved.
This website uses cookies to provide you with the best browsing experience. Find out more or adjust your settings. Cookie settingsACCEPT
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. For more information please see our Privacy Policy.


COVID-19: New livelihood helps family cope and feed community
Savings groups and skills training from Plan International are helping this family in Vietnam cope with the changing situation - as well as providing food to their community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ha has become a 'shipper' of food in her community. Pictured here with daughter Yen Nhi, 5.
Whenever she hears the sound of motorcycle, 7-year-old Yen Nhi excitedly runs into the yard and waits for her mother to come home. "My mother is a shipper," Yen Nhi proudly tells us, "my father says that shippers help deliver food to those who need it."
Delivery drivers on motorbikes, known locally as 'shippers,' are becoming more common in Vietnam. Each day they collect and deliver goods to their customers, something that has become more important since strict movement and social distancing restrictions have been in place to curb COVID-19 infections.
Learning to live with school closures and quarantine
Yen Nhi will turn 8 this year. Her younger brother, Nhat Duy is 5 and is a sponsored child with Plan International. Since the start of the year, neither of them have been to school. After the Lunar New Year break, schools were closed down and social distancing measures enforced banning gatherings of more than two people and quarantining hundreds of thousands of people to stop the spread of the virus.
Before the pandemic, Nhi's parents worked across the border in Laos, mainly growing rice and bananas. But with the borders closed, her parents could no longer work, and they lost their only source of income. Do, Nhi's father, was assigned by the community to guard the border from dusk till dawn, preventing illegal migration during the pandemic.
Savings are a lifeline in times of crisis
So Phuc, Nhi's mother, had to take on the responsibility of providing for the family, including her mother who is often unwell. Realising that the situation may last for some time, Do and Phuc decided to find a new way to earn an income.
During this difficult time, we have realised how important these savings can be for our family
"We discussed and decided to withdraw money from the saving account have with Plan International's Savings and Loans Group for almost four years. During this difficult time, we have realised how important these savings can be for our family," Phuc explains.
Noticing that in the neighbouring villages, farmers were growing more crops than the amount they needed and were unable to sell them during the lockdown, Phuc and her husband decided to start a collection and delivery service so the products could be sold to customers in other villages. Their new business helps both families living in lockdown, as well as the farmers and provides them with a much-needed income.
Savings groups and skills training are paying off
Yen Nhi with one of the vegetables her mother delivers as a 'shipper'.
Phuc and her husband had previously taken part in training sessions on household economic management organised by Plan International, so now they had the opportunity to put the skills they learnt into practice. "There's a huge difference between studying and practicing, but having some knowledge helps us be more confident," Phuc says.
One of the challenges that Phuc faced when setting up her new business was getting used to the online ordering process. She starts by taking photos of the products for sale, then posts them onto her Facebook site, and if there are any orders, she uses her motorbike to deliver them, never forgetting to follow the preventative measures to keep herself and her customers safe.
"I'm not good at writing online content and the photos I take are not that beautiful, but I guess our customers trust us, since they know Van Kieu people like us don't use chemical fertiliser to grow their products. Moreover, being guided by Plan International, I believe I can learn to write better in the future," she shares.
Juggling family-time and work
Phuc tries to arrange all her deliveries to be done in the first half of the day, so she can spend the other half with her family. But some days, when she receives many orders, she has to work all day.
"During the pandemic, earning 200,000 – 500,000 VND (around $8 - $22) is good enough. I'm just afraid that if this situation lasts longer, my children will stay at home too long. I don't have time to study with them so they will forget their lessons. I just truly hope that everything will soon fall back into place."
For Yen Nhi, she is happy that her parents are happy. "I love it when my mother goes to work and delivers goods, because when she comes back home, she brings me cake," she says excitedly.
Thinking about the day when life returns to normal, Phuc intends to continue her delivery service. "When my children go back to school, I will buy a new phone, take nicer photos, film nicer shots and learn how to sell more agricultural products online to help ourselves and other villagers."
Supporting families through COVID-19
Plan International is committed to raising €100 million to keep children safe.
To support the most vulnerable children affected by the COVID-19 crisis and to protect girls and young women, visit our appeal:
COVID-19 appeal
COVID-19 is unravelling decades of progress for girls' equality. Please help stop the setback for girls in crisis.
Periods in a Pandemic
How the current implications of COVID-19 is exacerbating challenges for people who menstruate around the world, plus recommendations on how to include menstrual hygiene management within COVID-19 responses.
'Shadow pandemic' unfolding as girls' health, rights and freedoms erode
Millions at risk as sexual abuse, unintended pregnancies, child marriages spike under lockdown.


New York Herald, "The Election in North Carolina," August 4, 1860
Record Data
"The Election in North Carolina," New York Herald, August 4, 1860, p. 4: 3.
Newspaper: Publication
Newspaper: Headline
The Election in North Carolina
Newspaper: Page(s)
Newspaper: Column
Date Certainty
Transcription not yet available. Please see a copy of the original source under the Images tab.
"The Election in North Carolina," New York Herald, August 4, 1860
Election of 1860
Breckinridge, John Cabell
Keitt, Lawrence Massillon
Yancey, William Lowndes
How to Cite This Page: "New York Herald, "The Election in North Carolina," August 4, 1860," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/33569.