Materials for the houses, which cost US$1,000 each, were paid by their parents.

Beneficiaries of the programme are Huynh Thi Thuan, a mentally ill mother of one son who was abandoned by her husband; Nguyen Thi Bong, a woman with disabilities who has a four-year old daughter; and a jobless 50-year-old man named Vo Lo, who has four children.

The volunteers are staying at a guesthouse in Son My Village, Tinh Khe Commune, some four km from Tinh Ha Commune.

Chi Nguyen, a 22-year-old American of Vietnamese descent, said they usually wake up at 6am and ride bicycles to the construction site where they volunteer to help bricklayers until noon.

Amanda Huyen, a 30-year-old teacher who is head of the group, said in the first week, most of them felt tired due to hard work and unfamiliar local food.

When they arrived in mid-June, none of them were aware that more than 500 Son My civilians were massacred during a US raid 38 years ago. The volunteer students were very moved by a visit to the Son My War Remnants Museum, said Ms Huyen. "They were told that the Son My Massacre occurred during the American War in Vietnam and many of them burst into tears when seeing the exhibits in the museum," Amanda Huyen added.

The American volunteers will leave Quang Ngai for the US on July 28.

VOVNews/VNS