Renton native and photographer Ava Van is hoping her experiences at a Vietnam orphanage this spring will make for some great pictures and experiences, but that’s if she gets time away from the work she’ll be doing.

Van, 22, will spend 57 days in Ho Chi Minh City, volunteering at the orphanage, feeding, bathing and caring for the kids, as well as teaching them a little English.

“I’m going to be very busy,” she said recently. “There’s 600 kids there.”

Van, a Lindbergh High School graduate, hopes to use her photography and reporting skills to draw attention to the plight of the kids, many of whom are still suffering the effects of Agent Orange, a toxic herbicide used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War.

“There are a ton of people that are still sick over there,” she said.

For Van, the trip to Vietnam is also something of a personal one.

While she said she always wanted to do a volunteer trip of some sort, she choose Vietnam because it is her heritage as well.

“I wanted to explore my culture and learn a little more about my background,” she said.

Van also said she was adopted and raised by her grandparents, which gives her another tie to the kids she hopes to bring a little hope.

“Even though we were poor and my biological parents weren’t present in my life, I was upbeat and optimistic about the future,” she said.

Now, she is hoping to pay that forward and be a mentor to kids like her.

Van said she found the International Volunteer HQ program on the web and selected the Vietnam trip because she felt the group was both trustworthy and affordable.

But it wasn’t always easy. As soon as she found out she had been accepted for the program, she got sick and had to go to the hospital, forcing her to postpone the adventure just slightly.

But this spring, Van focused on fundraising more than $3,500 for her trip and said she was excited, but “super scared” before heading over.

“I’m ready to go!” she said, adding, “I’m full of emotions right now.”

Though she visited Vietnam once as a child, this is her first trip abroad alone, she said.

“I feel like it’s me against the world,” she said.

While in Vietnam, Van is staying in a dorm-like room with five other girls from around the world, all of whom are volunteering their time at the orphanage.

Van plans on documenting the trip with her camera and is uploading her pictures and experiences on a blog she created called 57daysinHoChiMinh.tumblr.com. She wants to show what day-to-day life is like in both the orphanage and in Vietnam, as well as profiles of some of the orphans.

Van said she was not entirely sure what she hoped to get out of the trip, except that she hopes her stories and photos persuade others to get involved and make a difference as well.

“I don’t really know. I’ve never done anything like this before,” she said. “Giving back is often overlooked.”